Kampf um Raum: The Raumwirtschaft and Spatial Hierarchies in the Theresienstadt Ghetto

The Nazi propaganda film, Theresienstadt: Ein Dokumentarfilm aus dem jüdischen Siedlungsgebiet, presents a distorted and carefully orchestrated rendition of life in the Theresienstadt Ghetto. The film scenes that depict ghetto housing, often dismissed as a product of the superficial “beautification” measures carried out in Theresienstadt, nonetheless invoke the spatial hierarchies that existed in the ghetto. As the densest ghetto, Theresienstadt’s “spatial problem” was perpetually acute, and the Raumwirtschaft (Space Management Office) was established to closely monitor the use of available space and to manage the living accommodations of ghetto inmates. Drawing upon a wide set of archival records and ego documents, this article examines how Jewish inmates navigated everyday life amidst an acute shortage of space and argues that space was an important ghetto commodity that radically reshaped communal relations in Theresienstadt.