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MANY WAYS TO DIE

Norbert Troller, Sickbed, Terezin, 1943. LBI, 82.315.
Norbert Troller, Sickbed, Terezín, 1943. LBI, 82.315.
MANY WAYS TO DIEMANY WAYS TO DIEMANY WAYS TO DIEMANY WAYS TO DIEMANY WAYS TO DIEMANY WAYS TO DIEMANY WAYS TO DIEMANY WAYS TO DIEMANY WAYS TO DIEMANY WAYS TO DIEMANY WAYS TO DIE
R. R. Waller. LBI, F 5339.
Less is known about the elderly who died in the ghetto, at least in part because they occupied the lowest rung in the hierarchy of camp society. Regina Rebecca Waller died in Theresienstadt in May 1944. She was 82. Born in Ukraine, she lived in Vienna and was deported from there to the ghetto in 1942. LBI, F 5339.
Joseph Spier, Colored illustration of a deportation train leaving ghetto, 1944. LBI, 84.499-1
Joseph Spier, Colored illustration of a deportation train leaving the ghetto, 1944. LBI, 84.499. Joseph Spier was a popular Dutch illustrator who was deported to Theresienstadt with his family in 1943. They survived and moved to the United States in 1951. The first transport, consisting of over 1,000 Czech Jews, was sent to Riga, Latvia, as early as January 1942. Overall, at least 88,000 prisoners were transported from Theresienstadt to the death camps, mainly Auschwitz.
Selma Israelowitz. LBI, F14467
84 percent of all prisoners over sixty years old died in Theresienstadt. One of them was Selma Israelowitz. She died in the camp in 1943 at 76. Not knowing about her death, her children tried to secure a visa for Selma to bring her to America in 1944. LBI, F 14467.

Hunger and hard physical labor were dangerous companions to daily life in the camp. Elderly people — the majority of the 57,000 deportees from Germany and Austria — were at the bottom of the food hierarchy. While all detainees above 60 were exempt from physical labor, they also received the smallest food rations as the least productive group, causing them to suffer from malnutrition. They also lived in the worst conditions. All this could easily lead to disease and death.

The psychological torment could be equally powerful. Newly arrived prisoners were often assigned to bury the ashes of those who had died and been cremated before them, sometimes even other family members. Like Jewish leaders in other ghettos, the first of the Jewish elders in Theresienstadt, Jakob Edelstein, believed that by proving useful and productive to the German economy, the prisoners could avoid deportation.

Heinrich Stahl. Prewar image. LBI, F 22937.
Heinrich Stahl was president of the Jewish Community of Berlin under the Nazi regime since 1933. In 1942, at age 74, he was deported with his wife to Theresienstadt and died there shortly after. Prewar image. LBI, F 22937.