In 1944, after world leaders and German citizens started asking questions about the location and well-being of the Jewish citizens, Kurt Gerron, a famous Jewish actor and director in Poland, was coerced to produce and direct a Nazi propaganda film with the promise that his life would be spared.  He was told to create a documentary about the "great Jewish city" and the "luxurious life" these Jewish citizens were supposedly living at Theresienstadt.  This, of course, was a lie.  The Nazis only gave Gerron a week to film.  During this week, the Nazis forced hundreds of Jews into an abandoned city where they were given high quality clothes and enjoyed first class dining.  They ordered Jewish musicians to play concerts and ordered children to play in the play ground and have fun.  The Nazis had to be sure that their elaborate illusion remained a secret and after Gerron finished filming, almost every Jewish citizen that was in the documentary immediately went to Auschwitz to be put to death in the gas chambers.  Gerron was also taken to  Auschwitz  and was sent to his death only a day before the gas chambers were shut down for good. The complete film was destroyed in 1945 and only fragments remain to attest to its making. 

The story of Kurt Gerron

Music and the Holocaust