Families and helpers in Terezín and Mauthausen
summer 1942–1943
Nazi persecution struck relatives and entire supporting households. Imprisonment and mass murder continued months after the attack and the church battle.
In Terezín’s Small Fortress, the Gestapo held parachutists’ relatives and helpers, including whole families. The prison label ‘parachutists’ did not mean everyone belonged to a parachute team. The Small Fortress police prison had a different history from the ghetto in the Main Fortress.
The transport departed on 22 October and reached Mauthausen during the night. On 24 October 1942 the SS murdered a large group of relatives and helpers, including members of the Moravec, Novák and Fafek households and others. Families and collaborators of other parachute teams were also killed.
Others in this network were murdered in January 1943. Sources differ in their totals and in which groups they count, so these cannot be combined into one apparently precise sum. Behind the differing statistics are individual lives, explored further through the profiles and places.
Places
- Terezín Small Fortress — fortification, Gestapo prison and memorial
Police prison and departure point of the transport.
- Mauthausen — concentration camp and murder of the support network
Mass murder of families and the support network.
This journey has shown different forms of Nazi violence and victims’ different relationships to the resistance. Return to the operation’s main story, or meet the helpers through the work they did before persecution.