The Ústí Region would like to establish a European Holocaust Museum in Terezín

ÚSTÍ NAD LABEM - The Ústí Region wants a European Holocaust Museum to be established in Terezín, in the Litoměřice area. According to Governor Jiří Šulc, this is one of the possible ways to revitalize this historic town. Officials from the Ústí regional office have already started mapping similar memorials around the world. Last week, they visited the USA, where the largest Holocaust Museum in the world is located in Washington, Šulc told ČTK. Other similar institutions, according to him, can be found in Israel, Paris, and Berlin.
Terezín is still dealing with the consequences of the army's departure at the end of the 1990s and the floods in 2002. Many former military sites are abandoned. The town lacks young people and job opportunities for them. Therefore, the Terezín city hall has commissioned an Europroject, according to which the town should transform into a center of education, culture, and sports by 2008. With eight billion crowns from the EU and the state budget, Terezín would become a university town with appropriate facilities. Funding has yet to be resolved despite numerous promises from both European and Czech politicians.
However, Šulc believes that the chances of establishing a university town in Terezín are slim. According to him, a more realistic path to revitalize the historic city is to build a Holocaust museum. He recalled that the Washington museum was originally built for approximately 700,000 visitors a year. Now, however, up to 1.5 million people visit it each year, the governor stated.
According to Šulc, the establishment of a Holocaust museum would attract visitors from all over the world to Terezín. "The city is significantly marked by history, and it is therefore perfectly suited to be a meeting place for people who are willing and able to learn from this history," Šulc stated. Visits for a deeper understanding of history should not be hours long, but several days. This would then correspond to the concept of the entire museum, including modern facilities for visitors.
The governor has previously emphasized that the project cannot be carried out by the region. "We can contribute with ideas, projects, negotiations for funding from European funds or the United States. However, the state must have the main say, as a European Holocaust museum would hardly be able to be owned by the region," Šulc stated. He has already discussed the memorial with the ambassadors of Israel and the USA, for example.
Between 1940 and 1945, the Nazis deported over 200,000 prisoners to the Terezín Small Fortress, the Terezín ghetto, and the concentration camp in Litoměřice. Of these, 155,000 were Jews. About 35,000 died in the Terezín ghetto due to stress, hunger, and inhumane living conditions. Most of the others then met their death in extermination camps.
Many opposition regional councilors also agree with the idea of establishing a European Holocaust Museum in Terezín. However, most of those surveyed were uncomfortable with the fact that the Ústí Region is represented abroad for the preparation of this project by former head of the governor's office, Marie Tomčová, who was convicted of embezzlement in the 1990s in 2004. Because, as a convicted person, she cannot hold the status of a civil servant, she is now classified as an employee of the office.
Tomčová was part of a two-member delegation from the regional office that last week gathered information in the USA for the possible European Holocaust Museum in Terezín. The specific results of the trip, which cost approximately 100,000 crowns excluding VAT, have not yet been disclosed by the region.