In his decree establishing the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, Hitler promised the occupied Czech lands autonomy and self-administration. What the promised autonomy meant in practice became evident very quickly. The German occupiers suppressed any signs of opposition and began the persecution of the Jews. The Gestapo prisons filled up, representatives of cultural life, students, and (alleged) regime opponents were deported to concentration camps. On the territory of the Protectorate, in Theresienstadt, the largest collection point for Jews on their way to extermination was established. The Czech authorities were soon placed completely under German control at all levels. Autonomy and self-administration were a facade behind which a system of oppression emerged that bore characteristics of colonialism.