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Terezín (Theresienstadt in German), just north of Prague, Czechoslovakia, was displayed in 1944 as a model camp to a group from the International Red Cross who were impressed by prisoners apparently leading a well-organized life, going about their daily business, buying and selling with a special camp currency and enjoying cabaret performances and classical concerts.
There was even a band playing on a bandstand in an attractive central square. But it was all a sham to persuade the world that the rumors of a Holocaust were unfounded. Although it was not a death camp on a par with Auschwitz, the conditions at "the paradise ghetto" of Terezin were horrible with overcrowding, poor food, sanitation and medical care. Of the 140,000 people who were interned at Terezín, 33,000 died and 87,000 were transported to Nazi death camps elsewhere. The irony of Terezin was that cultural freedom of the large proportion of artists was tolerated and Jewish "degenerate music" was performed on handmade and smuggled instruments. Much of the work was hidden in the attics and cellars of Terezin and recovered after the Germans left Czechoslovakia and made available after the opening up of the former Eastern bloc.