Power of Facade as an Agent of Camouflage Essay

Power of Facade as an Agent of Camouflage - Essay Example The Theresienstadt concentration Camp The settlement was situated in Czech Prague as a model Jews settlement. It existed between the years of 1941 to 1945. It is main purpose was to be used by elderly, privileged and famous Jews living in Germany, Czech and Austria (Patrick, 2003). But in essence it was used as transition camp to extermination camp of Jews by Nazis. Many of the Jews who occupied the camp were later deported to killing centers for extermination and forced labor camps in German occupied lands in the east. It was also used to hold the Jews for long time before been killed. It was expected that the ill condition of camp could force some of the deportees to die before SS and police could deport the survivors to the killing centers (Patrick, 2003 p.95). The center was a facade to camouflage the harsh treatment of Jews which was particular based on age, disability as a result of past military services. The deported Jews were to be taken to productive labor in the other area s although they were mainly used for forced labor. To achieve the objective of camouflage as humane settlement the Nazis authority build schools that can hold about 15,000 children although less than 1,100 children from 15,000 survived. Truly the center was rich in culture thereby attracting large settlement of Jews (Wright, 2000 p.189). Most of the children learned art, literature and poetry. But later large numbers of deaths were reported from the camp which attracted the attention of international observers. This could be evident from the number of children that survived from the settlement and the Danish Jews saga. This meant there was mass killing in the camp. According to Frank, Klima and Baeck (2011 p.145), the international Red Cross planned to visit the camp in the year 1944 to ascertain the living condition of the camp especially for the Danish Jews. To camouflage the sorry state of the settlement the Nazis authority deported a number of Jews to other camp so as to deconge st up to one person per room. This will make the settlement win the approval of the international Red Cross as humane place for human being and portray the Nazis authority political as better and allay and fear the rumors that the authority is mistreating the Jews through congestation, malnutrition, diseases and forced labor According to (Frank, Klima& Baeck, 2011 p.146). They created nice coffee shop with good attendants. They also created fake food stores to conceal food shortages in the settlement but most of the stores in essence didn’t contain the food for constant supply to deportees (Bolger, 2003 p.201). They created bank to show how economically active the place f\was but in truth no transaction was taking place for the benefit of the Jews. They also build other social amenities like schools and kindergarten for the purpose showing the Red Cross that the camp was taking care for children in the camp. To improve the overall appearance of the settlement they planted flo wer gardens all over the camp and also renovate the camps. During the visit they also produced film showing how life is in the camp. According to Frank, Klima& Baeck (2011 p.103), points out that the Red Cross was able to affirm all was right in the camp. After the International Red Cross left the camp all who took part in the film were later killed