Terezin Concentration Camp Tour

Admission to all Terezin Memorial monuments is included in the price.

The tour is part by air-conditioned bus, part on foot.

After meeting you in the city centre, near Wenceslas Square, we board the bus for the journey to Terezín, which takes around 45 minutes.

History of Terezín: Terezin was originally a garrison town, built at the end of the 18th century by Emperor Joseph II as an ingenious system of military fortresses.

During World War II, the Nazis converted this huge area into a concentration camp and Jewish ghetto.

Terezin primarily held Jews from Czechoslovakia, although tens of thousands of people were also deported to here from Germany and Austria, and several hundred from the Netherlands and Denmark. This included 15,000 children.

Many of these unfortunate people were subsequently transported by rail to Treblinka and Auschwitz.

The Terezin Memorial site is so called because much of it has been eerily preserved in its 1940s state.

On our tour of the Terezin Memorial, the guide outlines the complicated history of events that unfolded here, and explains how Terezin was different psychologically and physically from any of the 632 other camps established by the Nazis.

Terezin is divided into two distinct parts:

The Small Fortress (also known as the Prague Gestapo Prison) was the concentration camp. Around 90,000, mostly political prisoners passed through here, and we walk through the complex to see where they were housed.

The Big Fortress, comprising 80% of the Terezin Memorial, was the Jewish ghetto. Here we visit the Ghetto Museum (Terezin Museum), Columbarium, Prayer Room (Hidden Synagogue), Magdeburg Barracks exhibition, and the Jewish Cemetery Crematorium (the cemetery is closed on Saturdays). Around 32,000, mostly ordinary prisoners passed through here.

We walk through the prison dormitory, and see the belongings of the people who resided here - their actual clothing, poetry, musical instruments and music sheets, the children's drawings, and the other precious artefacts that survive.

Audio visual displays and documentary films feature archive material from the era.

Through this, we gain an understanding of what life was like for the inmates, of their hopes, and ultimately of their despair.

This sorry episode in the history of Terezin, and of humanity in general, will no doubt leave unanswered questions in your mind as to how or why such atrocities can occur.

For refreshments, the onsite kiosk stocks a limited range of snacks and drinks. But it is not always open, so we recommend bringing your own refreshments.

Prague Experience sightseeing tours are in English and another language. They are led by licensed tourist guides and use modern, air-conditioned buses.

If you require a tour in German, Italian or Spanish, state it in Special Requests on the booking form.

The trip finishes back in Prague, near Wenceslas Square.

Note: Many inhabitants of Terezin were deported from the Jewish Quarter in Prague. To trace the origins of the Terezin story, you may also wish to book the Jewish Quarter Tour, which is led by a certified guide of the Jewish Museum in Prague.