Theresienstadt (1944 film)

Theresienstadt
Directed by	Kurt Gerron Karel Pečený, under supervision of Hans Günther and Karl Rahm
Written by	Kurt Gerron using a draft by Jindřich Weil
Produced by	Karel Pečený (Aktualita Prag)
Starring	Theresienstadt prisoners
Cinematography	Ivan Frič Čeněk Zahradníček
Edited by	Ivan Frič
Music by	Various pieces by Jewish composers selected by Peter Deutsch
Distributed by	Schutzstaffel
Release date	1945 (1945) (unreleased)
Running time	c. 90 minutes (surviving footage: 20 minutes)
Country	Nazi Germany
Language	German
Budget	35,000 Reichsmarks

Theresienstadt. Ein Dokumentarfilm aus dem jüdischen Siedlungsgebiet ("Theresienstadt: A Documentary Film from the Jewish Settlement Area"), unofficially Der Führer schenkt den Juden eine Stadt ("The Führer Gives a City to the Jews"), was a black-and-white projected Nazi propaganda film. It was directed by the German Jewish prisoner Kurt Gerron and the Czech filmmaker Karel Pečený under close SS supervision in the Theresienstadt concentration camp, and edited by Pečený's company, Aktualita. Filmed mostly in the autumn of 1944, it was completed on 28 March 1945 and screened privately four times. After the war, the film was lost but about twenty minutes of footage was later rediscovered in various archives.

Unlike other Nazi propaganda films, which were under the control of Joseph Goebbels' Ministry of Propaganda, Theresienstadt was conceived and paid for by the Jewish Affairs department of the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, at the initiative of Hans Günther. The film, which displayed supposedly happy and healthy Jews, was part of a larger Nazi program to use Theresienstadt as a tool to discredit reports of the genocide of Jews reaching the Western Allies and neutral countries. However, it was not widely distributed and did not have the opportunity to influence public opinion.