[a] Of the 7,001 people who were deported to Auschwitz from Theresienstadt in January and February 1943, 5,600 were immediately gassed and only 96 survived the war, despite the fact that the transports targeted able-bodied individuals who were intended as a labor detachment.

Previously and apparently for different reasons, the SS had established a "Gypsy camp" at the BIIe section inside Auschwitz II-Birkenau where Romani and Sinti families were kept together and non-productive individuals were temporarily allowed to remain alive.

It is probable that the family camp prisoners were kept alive so that their letters could reassure relatives in Theresienstadt and elsewhere that "deportation to the East" did not mean death.

[11][12] Israeli historian Yehuda Bauer suggests that possibly the prisoners of the family camp were being used as hostages pending a successful outcome of Nazi–Jewish negotiations, similar to a transport of 1,200 children from the Białystok Ghetto, who were held at Theresienstadt for six weeks before being murdered on 7 October 1943 at Auschwitz, but the only evidence of this is circumstantial.

[13][b] Some researchers have suggested that the SS planned an ICRC visit to the family camp at Birkenau to deceive the outside world about the true purpose of Auschwitz.

When Himmler granted permission for ICRC representatives to visit Theresienstadt, he also granted permission for a visit to a "Jewish labor camp", believed by Czech historian Miroslav Kárný and Israeli historians Otto Dov Kulka and Nili Keren to refer to the family camp at Birkenau.

[12] Prisoners who had previously held exemptions from deportation, such as the Aufbaukommando, the work detail that arrived at Theresienstadt first, as well as 150 members of the disbanded Ghetto Guard were included on the transport.

The inhabitants of the family camp were required to write to their relatives at Theresienstadt and to those not yet deported in order to mislead the outside world about the Final Solution; strict censorship prevented them from passing on accurate information.

Children were awoken early for breakfast and calisthenics, and received six hours of instruction daily in small groups, segregated by age,[43][44] led by teachers recruited from youth workers at Theresienstadt.

[46] A chorus rehearsed regularly; a children's opera was performed; and supplies were scrounged in order to decorate the walls of the barracks, which were painted with Disney characters by Dina Gottliebová.

[49][51] Children played concentration camp-related games, such as "Lagerältester and Blockältester", "Appell" (roll call), and even "gas chamber".

[46] SS men who directly participated in the extermination process, especially Josef Mengele, visited frequently and helped organize better food for the children.

[49][56] He also convinced the Germans to hold roll call inside the barracks, so the children were spared the hours-long ordeal of standing outside in all weather.

[49][59] By imposing strict discipline on the children, Hirsch made sure that there were no acts of violence or theft, otherwise common in concentration camps.

[54] Hirsch, who died in the first liquidation of 8–9 March, had appointed Josef Lichtenstein as his successor; the educators attempted to restore a sense of normality to the remaining children despite their knowledge of what would happen to them.

The prisoners were ordered to fill in postcards dated 25 March for their relatives in Theresienstadt; the postdating was a routine practice allowing for the time required for censorship.

[74] Vrba visited Hirsch on the morning of 8 March to inform him about the preparations for the liquidation of the family camp and to urge him to lead an uprising.

[10] At 8 pm on 8 March, a strict curfew was imposed and the quarantine block was surrounded by half a company of SS men and their dogs.

[82] One notable event during this period was the escape of Siegfried Lederer, a Czech Jew and block elder in the family camp, with Viktor Pestek, a Romanian Volksdeutscher SS guard, on 7 April.

Lederer attempted to alert the outside world to the plight of prisoners in the family camp and to organize armed resistance at Theresienstadt, but both efforts failed.

"[85] On 9 June, the official newspaper of the Polish government-in-exile reported prominently that 7,000 Czech Jews had been murdered in the gas chambers at Auschwitz, and that they had been forced to write postdated postcards to their families.

[88] The Czechoslovak government-in-exile pressed the BBC and American radio to publicize news of the family camp in the hope of preventing the murder of the remaining inmates.

[89]Michael Fleming writes that there was probably a broadcast before 16 June too, because the BBC's news directive that day said: "Report again our warning the Germans about the massacres of Czech Jews.

[92] In preparation for the visit, the SS ran a "beautification" program that included deporting an additional 7,503 people to Auschwitz in May 1944 to ease overcrowding.

Their visit was carefully choreographed by the SS, and Rossel reported erroneously that Theresienstadt was the final destination of deported Jews.

SS men forced girls and women to undress and jump up and down to prove their fitness; many claimed to possess useful skills such as gardening or sewing.

[9] In September and October 1944, the block was used to house Polish prisoners who had been transported from a transit camp in Pruszków, mostly civilians captured during the Warsaw uprising.

[107] Some survivors claimed that the liquidation had actually occurred on 7 March, on the birthday of Czech statesman Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk, or even that the SS had chosen the date for that reason.

[108][109][h] Reflecting on the final selection at the family camp, Israeli psychologist Deborah Kuchinsky and other survivors commented that instead of teaching children decency and generosity, the educators should have taught their charges to lie, cheat, and steal in order to survive.

[101] The family camp has been the focus of several literary memoirs by child survivors, including Ruth Klüger's Still Alive, Gerhard Durlacher [de; fy; it; nl]'s Stripes in the Sky, and Otto Dov Kulka's Landscapes of the Metropolis of Death.