Between October 1941 and March 1945, 46,067 Prague Jews were torn away from their homes.  (Muller)

THE ATTIC floor of the barracks was large, gloomy, filthy and airless, as there was not even the tiniest opening in the roof. The only thing that was an indication that people might be lodged here was the number of mattresses on the ground. (Müller 2277) based on Jackel

On 18 September 1942, the overcrowded camp had contained 58,491 prisoners. 10  (Müller 2119) based on Josef Polak.

The SS camp commandant Rahm himself took over the job of organizing the two final transports, planned for 23 and 28 October 1944. Benjamin Murmelstein, the new Jewish elder, was allowed only to assist him. 37 When the names of the last remaining members of the Free Time Organization came up— Alice Herz-Sommer, Edith Kraus, Marion Podelier, Hedda Grab-Kernmeyer, Ada Schwarz-Klein, Hilde Aronson-Lindt, Anni Frey and Gisa Wurzel— Rahm apparently said: “You know, let’s leave it. They should carry on playing and singing.” 38 Even so he ordered that the women should immediately start work in the mica-splitting workshop. (Müller)

“After the transports in the fall of 1944, almost no men were left in the Ghetto. Then, men from mixed marriages began to arrive and they began to construct a ‘duck pond’. Rumor had it that these were gas chambers for the prisoners who had remained at Theresienstadt; there were many jokes about this: No one could
imagine gas chambers in which we, human beings, would be killed” (Maud Beer 124).

“About three days after the last transport had left, I got an order to put together a concert program. So in the evening we had to show up in the cold unheated hall of the Sokol Hall and hastily arrange a program… and sing again. And in this way four months passed until March 7, 1945, when Herr Rahm removed us from the mica shop and ordered us to quickly rehearse the Czech children’s opera Broucci and Tales of Hoffmann, because another commission was being expected. Day and night we wrote notes, put together the orchestral material, rehearsed the musicians which had meanwhile arrived in T and who were related to Aryans (among them Dutch musicians with the conductor, Pappenheim). We played again in costume in Sokol Hall on its very well appointed stage. The commission did come, all went well,

Sources:

Beer, Maude. What Fire Can’t Burn. Online.

Müller, Melissa; Piechocki, Reinhard (2012-03-13). Alice’s Piano: The Life of Alice Herz-Sommer (Kindle Locations 2119-2120). St. Martin’s Press. Kindle Edition.

2) Müller, Melissa; Piechocki, Reinhard (2012-03-13). Alice’s Piano: The Life of Alice Herz-Sommer (Kindle Locations 1954-1955). St. Martin’s Press. Kindle Edition. Based on 2. Jäckel, Longerich, Schoeps, ed., Enzyklopädie des Holocaust, Munich and Zurich 1998, Vol. II, 1159– 60.