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Terezín Memorial

Pamatnik Terezin
411 55 Terezín
Czech Republic

Tel:420-416-782-131
Fax: 420-416-782-245

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Dialogues for Democracy Program

Terezín Memorial, along with all Coalition member sites, has designed a program called Dialogues for Democracy. The Dialogues for Democracy help visitors draw connections between the past and the present by using the histories of the sites to inspire new conversations and action on pressing contemporary issues.

Other Programs

Overcoming Official Resistance
The Terezín Memorial was founded in 1947, and the Museum of Oppression opened in 1949 in the Small Fortress. Yet, for nearly fifty years, the Communist-controlled government of Czechoslovakia resisted the establishment of a Ghetto Museum and any mention of the suffering of the Jews at Terezín. Instead, with barely concealed anti-Semitism, the role of this site in the Holocaust was distorted for propaganda purposes.

Despite government disapproval, the staff of the Memorial proceeded to research and collect documentary material about the ghetto, including from people officially considered “inconvenient.” Their courageous groundwork enabled the Ghetto Museum to be created in a single year after the fall of the Communists in 1989. On the 50th anniversary of the Terezín Ghetto, the Museum opened as part of an international reunion of former inmates.

International Conferences
The Terezín Memorial is the only institution of its kind in the Czech Republic. It has evolved into a meeting place for people of all nationalities, convictions and political points of view by providing opportunities for dialogue on a range of social and political issues.

Educational Outreach
Nearly 300,000 people visit Terezín every year; many take part in educational programs organized for young people all over the world. Terezín archives and art collections provide research material for historians and teachers.

What’s New
New programs include the preparation of a Czech national exhibit for Auschwitz, a new permanent exhibit for the Ghetto Museum, and reconstruction of a new house to provide additional accommodations and meeting rooms for seminars.