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Founded in 1780 by Emperor Josephe II (and named after his mother, Empress Maria Theresa) as a fortress against the Prussians. In the 19th century the town within the Main Fortress was made a garrison, while the so-called Lesser Fortress served as a jail and a World War I prisoner of war camp. In 1940 the Gestapo established a labour camp in the Lesser Fortress. At the end of 1941 they evicted the townspeople from the Main Fortress and turned that into a transit camp and ghetto, through which some 150 000 European Jews eventually passed en route to extermination camps.