Escape route at the Small Fortress
Ledge was chipped away
after prisoners used it to escape
After visiting the shower room and shaving
room at the west end of the First Courtyard, our tour of the
Small Fortress at Theresienstadt continued through a doorway
to the outside of the fortress where we saw the site of a successful
escape by three prisoners on December 6, 1944. They escaped through
an opening in the ramparts (the fortification walls) which separates
the Hospital Block from the rest of the fortifications.
The photograph above shows the outside
wall near the First Courtyard where a portion of the ledge was
chipped away to prevent any more escapes. Milos Esner, Josef
Mattas and Frantisek Marsik escaped at this spot by climbing
out the window and walking along this ledge, which goes around
the corner of the building to the opening between the walls,
shown in the photograph below.
Opening in the fortifications
is between the Hospital Block and the First Courtyard
The wall on the right side of the opening
is part of the fortifications which houses the Hospital Block,
located between the double walls of the the fortifications, just
like the prison cells. It was here that hundreds of prisoners
in the Small Fortress died during the typhus epidemic at the
end of the war. Women prisoners were housed temporarily in the
Hospital Block in 1944.The ledge around the Hospital Block, which
is number 16 on the tour, was also chipped away to break up a
possible escape route in the future.
Ledge around Hospital
Block was removed to prevent escapes
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