Terezin & Meeting Friends (Prague Day 3)
Our second full day in Prague (the last day of the Uniworld part of our vacation) was jam-packed. We packed our bags and stored them at the hotel before enjoying another delicious breakfast, then checked out and embarked on a DIY adventure to Terezin. This excursion was offered through Uniworld for 49 Euro (I think), but it was only a few hours, and based on the reading I'd done before our trip I knew that I wanted to spend more time there, and could do it more cheaply by utilizing public transportation.
Our plan sounded simple - take the metro a few stops to the bus station, then hop a bus to Terezin and walk around the city for the day, then return using the same modes of transportation. The first hiccup was after we'd purchased our metro passes and rushed to catch a train that was on the platform already ... Dad didn't make it on the train before he closed the doors. Since I was the only one who knew where we were going, this was a little stressful. Looking at him through the closed doors, I mouthed "GO THREE STOPS" and held up three fingers, hoping that he got the point.
Trains are very frequent in Prague, so when Aaron, Mom and I got off the train three stops later, we only had to wait a few minutes until the next one arrived. Thankfully, Dad was in the first car and we were reunited. Then, we needed to find the bus. After a brief moment of confusion (there are two bus stops; one for local buses and one for non-local buses), we found our bus stop and waited about 20 minutes for it to arrive. The fair was extremely reasonable (about $7 per person round trip), and we settled in for an hour-long ride with free wifi.
Arriving in Terezin, I saw the small fortress and expected us to have a bus stop shortly thereafter ... and we drove right by it. So, change of plans—we'd start at the Ghetto Museum (where the bus eventually stopped) and walk to the fortress afterwards. From a learning standpoint, I'm glad we did this. Our visit to the Ghetto Museum ($10 per person entry to all Terezin sites) started with a 20-minute film that put everything into context. After the film, we walked through an excellent exhibit about life in Terezin.
I wasn't familiar with Terezin before visiting Prague. Basically, it was used as a massive Jewish Ghetto for many of the Czech Jews. The residents of Terezin were evacuated to make room for the Jews. When transports began from Prague in 1940, Jews were sent to Terezin to be isolated from the general population. Eventually over 50,000 people were living in a town that originally had only 15,000 occupants. Terezin was not a concentration camp, but it referred to as a transit camp, because many of the residents were eventually transported to concentration/extermination camps. People still died in Terezin, though, because of the terrible living conditions and rampant disease. The truly terrifying aspect of Terezin is that over 15,000 children were sent there, and less than 200 survived. I could say much more about this village, but I encourage you to do some more research on your own.
I must say, 70 years after the war ended, Terezin is still a very depressing place. Photo credit for all of these pictures goes to Aaron.
Our plan sounded simple - take the metro a few stops to the bus station, then hop a bus to Terezin and walk around the city for the day, then return using the same modes of transportation. The first hiccup was after we'd purchased our metro passes and rushed to catch a train that was on the platform already ... Dad didn't make it on the train before he closed the doors. Since I was the only one who knew where we were going, this was a little stressful. Looking at him through the closed doors, I mouthed "GO THREE STOPS" and held up three fingers, hoping that he got the point.
Trains are very frequent in Prague, so when Aaron, Mom and I got off the train three stops later, we only had to wait a few minutes until the next one arrived. Thankfully, Dad was in the first car and we were reunited. Then, we needed to find the bus. After a brief moment of confusion (there are two bus stops; one for local buses and one for non-local buses), we found our bus stop and waited about 20 minutes for it to arrive. The fair was extremely reasonable (about $7 per person round trip), and we settled in for an hour-long ride with free wifi.
Arriving in Terezin, I saw the small fortress and expected us to have a bus stop shortly thereafter ... and we drove right by it. So, change of plans—we'd start at the Ghetto Museum (where the bus eventually stopped) and walk to the fortress afterwards. From a learning standpoint, I'm glad we did this. Our visit to the Ghetto Museum ($10 per person entry to all Terezin sites) started with a 20-minute film that put everything into context. After the film, we walked through an excellent exhibit about life in Terezin.
I wasn't familiar with Terezin before visiting Prague. Basically, it was used as a massive Jewish Ghetto for many of the Czech Jews. The residents of Terezin were evacuated to make room for the Jews. When transports began from Prague in 1940, Jews were sent to Terezin to be isolated from the general population. Eventually over 50,000 people were living in a town that originally had only 15,000 occupants. Terezin was not a concentration camp, but it referred to as a transit camp, because many of the residents were eventually transported to concentration/extermination camps. People still died in Terezin, though, because of the terrible living conditions and rampant disease. The truly terrifying aspect of Terezin is that over 15,000 children were sent there, and less than 200 survived. I could say much more about this village, but I encourage you to do some more research on your own.
I must say, 70 years after the war ended, Terezin is still a very depressing place. Photo credit for all of these pictures goes to Aaron.
The deserted town square.
A side street on the way to the barracks. I found one restaurant, and very few people.
After viewing the museum exhibit and visiting the barracks memorial, we set off for the small fortress. The walk from the museum to the fortress was perhaps a mile. Because there was essentially no place to eat in Terezin for non-Czech speakers, we ate at some of the food stands set up for tourists where the buses park. It was cheap ($10 for Aaron & I to have sausages, fries, and drinks).
Aaron bought his first authentic Budvar here.
From that lot it was a short walk to the small fortress, but first we passed by the cemetery that commemorates approximately 10,000 who died at the small fortress, in Terezin, or in a nearby concentration camp during WWII. Many of the graves do not have names. Like the Old Jewish Cemetery in Prague, people place stones on the graves to remember the dead.
Next we toured the small fortress. We arrived about 20 minutes before the next English-speaking tour, so Mom and Dad rested on a bench while we took the opportunity to explore the fortress by ourselves, joining the tour later to get more context and see some still unexplored sites.
Small Fortress was originally constructed by the Habsburgs in the 1700's as a defensive fortress against a possible Prussian invasion, but it was never used for that purpose. In WWII, it was used as a prison for political prisoners and Jews who broke rules in Terezin and other camps. Immediately after WWII, it was used to hold some of the former Nazis who had committed war crimes.
Entrance to the male area of the prison.
The cruel "work makes you free" message that adorned the gate to many concentration camps; added to this prison in WWII.
The yard between the administration area and the cell blocks.
A standard room for prisoners, which would originally hold 30 people. By the end of the war, up to 100 people would be kept in this room.
Shower room (yes, these are showers—this was not an extermination camp)
A solitary confinement cell. This was one of the "nicer" ones. Some didn't have windows.
My sole attempt at photography.
To my knowledge, this tunnel wasn't used in WWII. It was built to defend the fortress, and extends for 500m through the length of the outer wall. We walked through it at the end of the tour.
Part of the wall we walked through.
This is where the soldiers would take target practice ... and where they executed prisoners.
They lined the prisoners up against this wall. You can still see the bullet holes.
Executed prisoners that weren't shot ended up here.
Memorial to all those lost at small fortress, and in nearby Terezin.
After touring the small fortress, we walked back to the Ghetto Museum to catch our bus (exactly where our driver had told us to return). Dad was not excited about making the walk, but he did it like a champ. Of course, on our way back, the bus stopped at the bus stop by the small fortress. Oops.
Dad was tired.
Visiting Terezin was definitely not an uplifting part of our vacation, but I think it was really important. It helped us understand yet another aspect of the terrible effects of the Nazi regime. So much of what we've learned in classrooms and on the History Channel focuses on Germany, but the Czech people were greatly affected, and visiting Terezin and the Small Fortress helped us understand a bit more of that.
Once we got back to the hotel, we got our bags (and thankfully, our passports, which I had left in the safe in the room) and took a tram two stops to the Vitkov neighborhood, where we'd rented an apartment through Airbnb for four nights. Vitkov is quite hilly, and although we only had to walk two blocks to the apartment, it was straight up hill. Dad was not impressed.
After settling in, Mom and Dad went out for a burger, and Aaron and I went to meet some friends who had arrived in Prague the night before. Kate is a good friend from college, and Aaron has become good friends with her boyfriend, Jimmy, because of their shared love for the Tottenham Hotspurs. We walked about a mile to meet them at a pub that had excellent Czech food, and seemingly unending beer.
I had rabbit. Delicious rabbit.
Aaron had some kind of pork.
After many full-sized beers, they delivered tiny steins of some sort of sweet liquor. Cheers!
It's so tiny!
It was a pretty late night, and we walked home around midnight. We felt extremely safe, even walking through a large (well-lit) park.
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