The Embassy of the Czech Republic in Rome and the Consulate of the Czech Republic in Malta will be setting up an exhibition of children’s paintings from the former Terezin Concentration Camp in the Czech Republic. This event will form part of the programme of activities for 2008 that will be marking the 40th Anniversary of Diplomatic relations between the two countries.

Education, Youth and Employment Minister Louis Galea, will inaugurate the exhibition today, following which the exhibition will be open to the public daily, from Tuesday 29 January till Sunday 24 February.

Terezin is located northwest of Prague and was built in 1270 by Joseph II who named it after his mother, Maria Teresa. It took 10 years to construct the small fortress town. In 1782, Terezin was declared a free, royal town. The population grew slowly, but by the early 1830’s the population size was over one thousand. The main purpose of the city was to protect Prague from invasion.

The most tragic part of Terezin’s history came after the Czech lands were occupied by Nazi Germany. Terezin’s small fortress was converted into a police prison for the Prague Gestapo in June 1940. In November 1941, a ghetto and a concentration camp were established in the large fortress town of Terezin.

Of the 140,000 people who were interned at Terezin, 33,000 died and 87,000 were transported to other death camps elsewhere. Of these, 15,000 were children. Only 132 children survived.

Terezin was used by the Nazis to dupe the International Red Cross into believing that it was a model camp and a spa town and therefore the Terezin children were schooled and trained by highly educated teachers and social workers. This deception worked and the Red Cross allowed Terezin to continue to exist in its setup

The Terezin children eventually began to harbour hopes for a bright future, despite many being terminated. During this period the children created 6,000 drawings and many were hidden away and later successfully retrieved to tell the stories about Terezin.