Transport z raje (1963)

The film takes place in the autumn of 1944 in the Theresienstadt ghetto. The Nazis are preparing for an inspection by SS General Knecht and the filming of a propaganda movie, “The Führer Gives the Jews a City,” intended to show the world how well the Jews supposedly live in Theresienstadt. In this context, the Nazis transform the ghetto into a Potemkin village, where an orchestra plays, children play in the streets, and buildings are decorated with fake shops and cafés. Part of the spectacle is the arrival of a train carrying new prisoners, who are meant to create the illusion of a contented life. But everything changes when an anti-fascist poster is discovered in the ghetto. General Knecht immediately orders the deportation of four thousand men and women to the extermination camp at Birkenau. The Nazis task Obersturmführer Herz with tracking down the poster’s authors and ensuring the transport goes ahead. David Löwenbach, head of the Jewish self-administration, refuses to sign the list of deportees because he knows the transport is not going to forced labor but to the gas chambers. He is therefore arrested and imprisoned. His deputy, Marmulstaub, is forced to sign, but does so with a sense of guilt. Meanwhile, the search for the poster’s authors is underway, and Herz and his aide Binde search the ghetto blocks, shooting one of the prisoners and arresting several others. A dramatic moment follows when the poster-printing workshop is discovered and several of the prisoners involved try to hide. The young prisoner Líza says goodbye to several of her friends on the evening before the transport in an emotional scene in which they all realize that their deaths are imminent. The following morning, all the prisoners are summoned to the courtyard, where the Nazis conduct a roll call. Herz eventually discovers Fiala, one of the poster’s authors, hiding as well, and takes him away. Meanwhile, Löwenbach is released from the bunker and must join the other prisoners selected for transport. A train full of Jewish prisoners eventually departs Theresienstadt for Birkenau. The film thus begins, in stark contrast, with the arrival of the SS general and a train carrying new prisoners, and ends with the transport departing for the extermination camp. The Nazis celebrate their success, while Theresienstadt, now almost empty, remains a silent witness to the tragedy.