The monument is set on a two-tiered concrete plinth and consists of a black marble stele in the shape of a pistol cartridge. The state emblem is placed in the upper part of the stele, and below it is the dedication. Thanks in part to its location in one of Terezín's parks, the monument appears rather modestly, but its design is clearly in keeping with the politics of the time.

TEREZÍNSKÝM MUČEDNÍKŮM
1942-1945
věnují vojáci záložníci 1950

Although nothing specific could be found in archival sources about the circumstances of the monument's creation, its design is a characteristic example of the contemporary vision for the area of the former Terezín ghetto. When the Memorial to National Suffering (later the Terezín Memorial) was established in 1947, the Terezín Main Fortress remained part of the garrison town, where the history of the Jewish ghetto was virtually not at all commemorated. The monument was created at a time when all attention was focused on the Small Fortress, which served as a prison for the Prague Gestapo during the occupation. The commemoration of the Jewish victims of Nazi repression was relegated to the peripheral locations of the complex, especially the Jewish Cemetery in the Bohušovice Hollow. The appearance of the monument in Jiráskovy Orchards (formerly Orchard of the Pioneers), is reminiscent of a Gothic arch, but is even more likely designed to resemble the shape of a pistol cartridge and evoke the idea of an active struggle. There appears to be a deliberate confusion of the functions of the Gestapo prison and the Main Fortress, because it is referring primarily to the political prisoners at the Small Fortress. Even the change of approach in the 1960s and the criticism of the concealment of Jewish victims did not fundamentally change the situation and this particular monument remained for many years the most visible reminder of the war years in the area of the former ghetto.