Theresienstadt was the official German name for the Jewish ghetto and transit camp established by the Nazis at Terezín in occupied Czechoslovakia.
The Nazis created the ghetto in the fortress town in November 1941. It held many Czech Jews, as well as prominent or elderly Jews deported from Germany, Austria, and other parts of Europe. Conditions included overcrowding, hunger, disease, forced labor, and a high death rate.
Theresienstadt also served as Nazi propaganda. In 1944, after international scrutiny, the Nazis staged a film and inspection designed to portray the ghetto as a humane settlement. In reality, tens of thousands of prisoners died there, while many others were deported to extermination camps, especially Auschwitz-Birkenau.
The town is called Terezín in Czech. Theresienstadt was therefore both a place name used by the Nazi authorities and a site within the wider system of imprisonment, deportation, and murder.