Economic independence of the Terezín Ghetto in 1941-1945

The subject of this bachelor thesis is the analysis of the economic independence of the Terezín Ghetto in 1941–1945, i.e. whether the Ghetto was an economically independent unit and what its linkages to the surroundings were. The first part describes the general circumstances leading to the persecution of Jews (Nuremberg Laws and their application in the Protectorate, the process of arization), the origin and content of Jewish self-government and their individual organs (Central Office for Jewish Emigration) and subsequently the creation and functioning of the Terezín Ghetto. With the help of archival sources (the National Archives, the Jewish Museum in Prague and the Terezín Memorial), the thesis describes and examines the individual production activities carried out by prisoners, their sales and prices, and farming. A special chapter is devoted to the background of railway transports. The thesis also analyses the Bank of Jewish Self-Government, which recorded all of Ghetto's income and expenses, ascribed to the prisoners their wages for special savings books and issued their own banknotes, the so-called ghetto-money. The thesis also includes the method of accounting for the work of prisoners by the SS. The result of this work is the confirmation of the hypothesis about the economic independence of the Terezín Ghetto. Terezín was part of the overall Nazi plans to liquidate the Jewish population, including theft of all property.