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Photo: Kateřina Guryčová Láníčková
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Initiative of students of Czech studies in Odense: Danish Jews in Terezin

Embassy of the Czech Republic was present at the University of Odense, when the website danishjewsintheresienstadt.org was officially published. This website describes the little we know about Danish Jews deported to Terezin during the German occupation of Denmark between 1940 and 1945, after Aug. 29, 1943, when Denmark stopped its existing cooperation with the German occupation authorities.
 

Written and oral testimonies of almost five hundred deported survivors were put together by four university students under the leadership of a professor of contemporary history, Therkel Stræde, in the form of so-called topographic digital interactive maps. These maps visualize important formulas in the "topography of memory" of survivors and point on the map of Terezin examples of where they lived, where they were eating or what they were afraid of.

Each visitor of the website can find a map including individuals, sorted by names, as well as a map of the ghetto including icons symbolizing a certain reality or feelings. The complementary photos are combined with a location reference, information about the survivors and current pictures Terezín. Website can be used by scholar groups and visitors of Terezin in a form of a digital guide introducing the former ghetto and specificities regarding Danish prisoners.

The website so far exists only in Danish, but soon will be available in Czech (translation comprises of about 100 pages of text). The project was consulted with the director of the Terezín Memorial, Jan Roubínek, who confirmed its usefulness and future use.

Ambassador Radek Pech contributed with a speech on the history of Czechoslovak and Czech Jews (including Czech Jewish children who had found shelters in Denmark in 1939-43), history of Terezin and the necessity to commemorate the past, including the current need to respect human dignity and the meaning of solidarity.

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