This morning we were off to see Terezin which is a Nazi concentration camp about an hour north west of Prague. The Nazi’s took over Terezin which is a town made up of two fortresses. In the bigger one they housed Jews and made them work, gave them little food and separated families. They put the children in a children’s barracks, and the adults in men’s and women’s barracks . There were not gas chambers here. Many got transported to other camps to be exterminated. While they were in this camp, a lot of artwork, drama and poetry went on. It was so moving to go through a museum that displayed the artwork and the poetry. The opera Bundebar was written and performed by the children in the camp 53 times.
The smaller fortress was a prison before the Nazi invasion. We got to tour this prison. Some Jews from the concentration camp were sent here if the Nazi didn’t like something they did like finding the paintings of their life at Terezin which was deemed “horrifying propaganda”. In fact, the Nazis themselves glorified the camp to use for a Red Cross inspection in 1944, showing the official how wonderful everyone was treated!
This just was not what I was expecting. It was a whole town. Today people do live and work here. We toured three museums. This tour was unforgettable.
This evening we took a river dinner cruise. It was a beautiful summer evening with incredible scenes of Prague from the Vltava River. The cruise ended with fireworks in front of the castle. What can I say? This was indeed was a very memorable way to celebrate my birthday!
