Terezín was not far from the Czech capital of Prague. But it was still isolated enough to be ideal for Nazi use. It had a town square and former prison, surrounded by high walls with only a few entrances. The first transport to Terezín arrived on November 24, 1941. The group was promised weekend trips home, a false freedom. Later prisoners would harbor their own delusions. Before transport survivor Edith Baneth recalled, “We thought we would get apartments there and would live, all Jewish people from the whole country, all concentrated in this one town and would live just a normal life, but in a ghetto. Ghettos had existed before Hitler, so we imagined it as a ghetto.” By September 18, 1942, two days before the internment of Landau's parents, Terezín had reached its peak population—with 58,491 prisoners.

Many imprisoned in Terezín were respected Jewish leaders or the elderly. There were also many musicians and artists, including the composers Viktor Ullmann, Pavel Haas, Gideon Klein, and Hans Krása. The Nazi regime sanctioned their artistic work in a highly organized Freizeitgestaltung (Administration of Free-Time Activities). Musicians were then allowed to rehearse and perform concerts in the camp. Krása's children's opera Brundibár, composed in 1938, was performed fifty-five times in internment. Another important work associated with Terezín had its origins in confinement. Viktor Ullmann composed Der Kaiser von Atlantis oder der Tod dankt ab (The Emperor of Atlantis, or Death Abdicates) to a libretto by the poet and fellow inmate Peter Kien between November 1943 and January 24, 1944. The story brought to life the evil emperor Überall, a stand-in for Hitler, and his manipulation of Death. Ullmann made the tie between music and reality explicit with the inclusion of various musical quotations, including one of the German anthem “Deutschland, Deutschland über alles.” To conclude the work, Death ultimately ends the rule of Überall himself— a triumph for all in art, if not in life. The work never received official permission for performance in Terezín. But many classics from the past did.