Episode 15: The Model Ghetto

In 1943, 13-year-old Zuzana Justman and her family are sent to Theresienstadt, a transit camp and ghetto in occupied Czechoslovakia. While the Nazis claim Theresienstadt was a model ghetto with a thriving cultural life, Zuzana and her family face starvation, illness, and fear of the mysterious transports that take her loved ones away, never to return. 

Learn more at www.lbi.org/justman.

Exile is a production of the Leo Baeck Institute, New York and Antica Productions.

It’s narrated by Mandy Patinkin. This episode was produced by Rami Tzabar.

Our executive Producers are Laura Regehr, Rami Tzabar, Stuart Coxe, and Bernie Blum. Our associate producer is Emily Morantz. Research and translation by Isabella Kempf. Sound design and audio mix by Philip Wilson. Theme music by Oliver Wickham.

Special thanks to the German Federal Archives, the Guardian, Will Coley, The International Festival of Slavic Music for the use of their 2018 performance of Hans Krasa’s Brundibar, as well as Zuzana Justman for the use of her film, Voices of the Children.

This episode of Exile is made possible in part by a grant from the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany, which is supported by the German Federal Ministry of Finance and the Foundation Remembrance, Responsibility and Future.