The Council of Elders, members of the Free Time Administration, the Youth Care Department, the original Aufbaukommando prisoners and others who held essential positions within the Jewish administration of the ghetto were, it was true, in a somewhat privileged position, as were their closest relatives and friends, and it is also true that Klein took advantage of his own status for members of his own family. For some, it meant better accommodation, or extra food rations. But for others, it meant that they were spared the unknown fate which awaited those sent on transports to the east. It was the Council of Elders who had the abhorrent task of drawing up these transport lists on orders from the SS, and deciding who should go or stay, though the SS always had the final say. By 1943 the cultural, educational and religious life in Terezín had consolidated, and the Germans’ idea of a ‘model Jewish settlement’, as they described it, seemed to be working from their perspective. The arts flourished, but inmates faced constant fear of deportation. The deception with which such transports from Terezín to the east was carried out was as manipulative as it was depraved, a grim example being that which led to the establishment of the so-called Family Camp in Auschwitz-Birkenau.

On 6 September 1943, 5,000 prisoners, including 228 children, were sent from Terezín to Auschwitz-Birkenau. Among these prisoners were Frantiská Edelsteinová and the Youth Care leader, the hugely popular Fredy Hirsch. On arrival, Edelsteinová, Hirsch and their companions did not undergo the usual selection procedure, which allocated those for work and those for the gas chambers. They were placed in a separate part of the camp, where they retained their own clothes and their heads were not shaved. This innocuously named Family Camp, housed in an area of Birkenau known as B-IIa, was witness to one of the most sinister deceptions of the Holocaust. In December, a further 5,000 Terezín prisoners joined the Family Camp, and in May 1944 another 7,500 arrived. The September deportees waited, though disease and hard labour claimed a thousand lives within six months. The children were allowed to have lessons, with Fredy Hirsch at the heart of this undertaking. Prisoners were also allowed to receive packages via the Red Cross.