Czech town with 'sad' past fights ghost town image

The old Czech fortress town of Terezin, burdened by its past as a Jewish ghetto and transit camp under the Nazis then an army garrison under the communists, is trying hard not to become a ghost town.

"It would be good to have a magic wand, but we don't have one. Instead, we have a very long way to go," town hall secretary Miroslav Kubicek told AFP.

The town took a blow when the Czech army vacated the garrison in 1997, a move that slashed the population from 7,000 to today's tiny 2,000.

Most of those who have stayed are jobless, with little money to spend.

And efforts by the city council to breathe new life into the locality have so far ended in failure.

Terezin, about 60 kilometres (37 miles) north of the capital Prague, was established at the end of the 18th century as a fortress by Austrian Emperor Joseph II, and initially named Theresienstadt in honour of his mother, Empress Maria Theresa.

The massive ramparts of its noble beginnings still surround the town, which is comprised of three parts -- the Main Fortress, the Small Fortress and an entrenchment area between them.

The Small Fortress, a star-shaped, thick-walled facility, long served as a prison, back during the Habsburg empire, during the Nazi occupation and even after the country's liberation, for war prisoners and German-speaking locals.

The Main Fortress is haunted by the wartime scourge when 140,000 Jews were corraled into the area in less than four years

About 35,000 of them died of starvation, disease and unsanitary conditions, while another estimated 87,000 who lived or transited through Terezin lost their lives in the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp in Poland.

One of the city council's recent proposals to revive the town involved creating a university campus worth 13 billion koruna (518 million euros, 665 million dollars) in Terezin, though it was never implemented.

"This project was absolutely unrealistic, mainly because of the enormous costs. Besides, no university was willing to move," notably the prestigious Charles University in Prague, said Kubicek.

Other plans have included establishing an artillery museum or relocating part of the archives from the Museum of Czech Literature in Prague.

Now Terezin, hoping to attract more tourists for longer stays, is pinning hopes on getting onto the UNESCO's (UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation) world heritage list.

Its candidacy will be presented in 2010, according to Kubicek who said it will tout the architectural value of the fortress as an "excellent example" of Vauban-type fortifications -- a reference to the 17th century French military architect who worked under Louis XIV, Sebastien Le Prestre de Vauban, a few dozen of whose fortresses in France have made it onto UNESCO's list.

Though Terezin does draw tourists, they come to visit the memorial built in honor of the wartime Jews the Nazis confined in what they called a model concentration camp.

But their numbers fall sharply once the tourist season ends.

"We want to show a Terezin that is different from the one burdened with its sad history," Kubicek said. "There is a great tourist potential that must be used."

In the meantime, the former barracks and other military buildings of the Main Fortress are now falling to pieces, with ceilings collapsing and facades crumbling.

With a local budget of 35 million koruna, maintenance of the large buildings swallows up a considerable portion -- about four million koruna, officials said.

"We are not giving up," insisted Mayor Ruzena Cechova, who is bent on making the town more pleasant for both residents and visitors.

On a recent sunny day, a small group of local people strolled through leaf-strewn streets towards the town's huge Czechoslovak Army Square. Not far away, a shabby restaurant, Parkhotel Terezin, is largely empty.

"You have to go to Litomerice," a nearby town, to spend an evening, a young waitress said sadly. "It's dead here."