Weekly Book Discussion Anna Hajkova “The Last Ghetto”

This program is geared for educators, but open to all.(Act 48 credit hours or a letter of participation is available upon request.)

Past book discussions of “The Last Ghetto: An Everyday History of Theresienstadt” were held on:
March 29, 2022 | 4:00-5:00pm
April 5, 2022 | 4:00-5:00pm
April 12, 2022 | 4:00-5:00pm
Author Talk Monday April 25th. 2022: REGISTER HERE!
About The Book

Map 1: Theresienstadt ghetto, ca 1943. Copyright Albane Duvillier.

Terezín, as it was known in Czech, or Theresienstadt as it was known in German, was operated by the Nazis between November 1941 and May 1945 as a transit ghetto for Central and Western European Jews before their deportation for murder in the East. Terezín was the last ghetto to be liberated, one day after the end of World War II.

The Last Ghetto is the first in-depth analytical history of a prison society during the Holocaust. Rather than depict the prison society which existed within the ghetto as an exceptional one, unique in kind and not understandable by normal analytical methods, Anna Hájková argues that such prison societies that developed during the Holocaust are best understood as simply other instances of the societies human beings create under normal circumstances. Challenging conventional claims of Holocaust exceptionalism, Hájková insists instead that we ought to view the Holocaust with the same analytical tools as other historical events.

The prison society of Terezín produced its own social hierarchies under which seemingly small differences among prisoners (of age, ethnicity, or previous occupation) could determine whether one ultimately lived or died. During the three and a half years of the camp’s existence, prisoners created their own culture and habits, bonded, fell in love, and forged new families. Based on extensive archival research in nine languages and on empathetic reading of victim testimonies, The Last Ghetto is a transnational, cultural, social, gender, and organizational history of Terezín, revealing how human society works in extremis and highlighting the key issues of responsibility, agency and its boundaries, and belonging.

Dr. Josh Andy

Dr. Josh Andy is a full time teacher at Winchester Thurston School, and an educational programs leader and Holocaust scholar with Classrooms Without Borders. An accomplished and award winning educator, Dr. Andy holds a Ph.D. in Russian and East European Studies from Birmingham University and teaches in the Upper School. In addition to teaching Genocide and Holocaust Studies, he teaches a course on the modern Middle East, Multicultural America, and AP European history. Next year he will teach Russian history. He has traveled internationally to study global cultures and issues as part of his work to design engaging courses for his students. He earned WT’s Mary Houston Griffin Award for Excellence in Teaching in 2014, which funded his trip to Amman, Jordan, to develop his Middle East course.

About the Author: Dr Anna Hájková

Dr Anna Hájková is associate professor of modern European continental history at the University of Warwick, UK. She holds a Ph.D. from the University of Toronto. She has been working on history of Theresienstadt since 2000, and between 2006 and 2008 was the co-editor of Theresienstädter Studien und Dokumente. She has also co-edited the anthology Alltag im Holocaust: Jüdisches Leben im Großdeutschen Reich 1941-1945, and co-authored The Last Veit Simons from Berlin: Holocaust, Gender, and the End of the German-Jewish Bourgeoisie. She has published on Theresienstadt in numerous peer-reviewed journals in English, German, Czech, and French. She regularly contributes to mass media in English, German, and Czech in the publications Haaretz, Süddeutsche Zeitung, Tablet, and Tagespiegel.