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Friday March 29, 2002

Czechs squelch plans to shoot porn film at Terezin

MAGNUS BENNETT
Jewish Telegraphic Agency

Officials banned the use of video cameras at Terezin after reports that a porn movie would be shot there.

"I did the only thing I could do," said Jan Munk, director of a monument to Terezin victims.

Munk's move came after the Czech tabloid Super reported Saturday that the film, starring top Czech porn star Robert Rosenberg, is set at the end of World War II and will tell the story of how women at the camp were raped by Nazis.

The paper, which printed the story with a collage of a semi-naked woman posing in front of a picture of Terezin, said the film's working title is "How it Was."

Rosenberg, 27, had been quoted in Super as saying the main plot will revolve around Terezin, but there will be no erotic scenes shot inside the former camp, which was also known as Theresienstadt.

"Terezin will not have anything to do with erotica; we don't want to treat the victims of the war with disrespect," he told the newspaper.

Tomas Jelinek, chairman of Prague's Jewish community, also joined in the condemnation.

"This is unbelievable, given the significance that Terezin has for the Jewish people." It gives the former camp a "completely different connotation to what it should have," he said.

Newsstands in the town of Terezin were said to be busy as people lined up to read the story. The overwhelming reaction was one of disgust.

"When I read that they were making a porn film using Terezin, I felt sick in the pit of my stomach," said Prague schoolteacher Jana Stolova.

This is the second scandal surrounding Terezin in 12 months to hit the headlines.

In February 2001, a German entrepreneur angered Jewish circles by offering families cheap trips to a shooting range next to Terezin. Czech-born hotel owner Rudolf Potucek used the Internet to advertise trips from his hotel in the town of Litomerice to a range on the outskirts of the former ghetto.

The Web site was removed after widespread protests.

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