Theresienstadt: A Geographical Picture of Transports, Demography, and Communicable Disease in a Jewish Camp-Ghetto, 1941–45

Smallman-Raynor, Matthew R.; Cliff, Andrew D.

Abstract

The Nazi ghetto system was one of the principal vehicles for the persecution of Jewish and other peoples in German-occupied Europe in World War II. Transport and confinement – twin pillars of the ghetto system – were intrinsically geographical matters that operated on scales from the international to the local and which shaped the demographic and epidemiological character of ghettos across Eastern Europe. This article uses geographical techniques of map-based visualisation and spatial analysis to portray the demographic and epidemic history of the Nazi ‘model’ camp-ghetto at Theresienstadt (Terezín) in the former German Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, 1941–45. Our study reconstructs the space-time pattern and demographic structure of transports of Jewish prisoners to the ghetto and their association with substantial outbreaks of communicable diseases in the ghetto. The study highlights the importance of a geographical approach to an understanding of the demographic and public health impacts of both the Holocaust and other genocidal events.

Citation

Smallman-Raynor, M. R., & Cliff, A. D. (2020). Theresienstadt: A Geographical Picture of Transports, Demography, and Communicable Disease in a Jewish Camp-Ghetto, 1941–45. Social Science History, 44(4), 615-639. https://doi.org/10.1017/ssh.2020.23

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Jun 28, 2019
• Online Publication Date: Jul 13, 2020
• Publication Date: 2020-12
• Deposit Date: Jul 2, 2019
• Publicly Available Date: Jul 2, 2019
• Journal: Social Science History
• Print ISSN: 0145-5532
• Electronic ISSN: 1527-8034
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 44
• Issue: 4
• Pages: 615-639
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/ssh.2020.23
• Keywords: Social Sciences (miscellaneous); History
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/2257671
• Publisher URL: https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/social-science-history/article/theresienstadt-a-geographical-picture-of-transports-demography-and-communicable-disease-in-a-jewish-campghetto-194145/C032A740604CF096EC95526A7B5145C8
• Additional Information: © Cambridge University Press 2020