Two particularly moving testimonies to the appalling crimes perpetrated against the Jews during World War II are held inside this synagogue. One tribute astounds by sheer numbers: the walls are covered with nearly 80,000 names of Bohemian and Moravian Jews murdered by the Nazis. Among them are the names of the paternal grandparents of former U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright. An exhibition of drawings made by children at the Nazi concentration camp Terezín is the second chilling testimony. The Nazis used the camp for propaganda purposes to demonstrate their "humanity" toward the Jews, and prisoners were given relative freedom to lead "normal" lives. However, transports to death camps in Poland began in earnest in 1944, and many thousands of Terezín prisoners, including most of these children, eventually perished. The entrance to the old Jewish cemetery is through this synagogue.
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