We arrived at about 10:30 in Terezin and were a bit surprised (because we are so history-deprived) that the whole town was actually a Jewish "Ghetto" where the Nazis had kicked the native Czech people out and sent the Jews to live "happily with their own people". The Nazis even made a propaganda film about how much fun the Jews were having to show the rest of the world. In reality the living conditions were terrible (although not as bad as a concentration camp) and it was really a holding area for Jews before the were taken to other concentration or extermination camps (many went to Auschwitz). There were shower rooms in Terezin that were designed to get Jews accustomed to them to reduce the chances of anxiousness when they were taken to the gas chambers in the concentration camps. Because the whole town was used there was many different things to see around the place. We went to a barracks where there was an exhibition of some of the writing and drawing that the people did. The museum was very informative about how Terezin was used and the history of the place as it changed throughout the war. We went to the graveyard which consisted of many single and mass graves of both Jewish people and Russian soldiers as well as a crematorium:
But the highlight/worst place (again, how the hell do you describe the place) was the "small fortress". I should note here that the other really interesting thing about Terezin was that it was built in the 18th century as a fortification/prison. So the whole place would have been really interesting even if WWII atrocities hadn't been committed there. Photo of the defensive walls:
It was actually kind of a shame that the WWII history has eclipsed everything that went before. So back to the "small fortress", this was basically a mini concentration camp across a moat from the main part of the town. It reminded me a lot of Dachau with its extremely cramped living conditions. The whole towns population swelled and fell depending on the inflow of captured Jews and the outflow to the concentration and extermination camps. There was another massive graveyard just before the Small Fortress:
Entranceway to the Small Fortress:
One other thing that was a focus point of Terezin was the number of children that passed through it. There was lots of art work from children in the museum showing how they thought of home and how they thought of the Ghetto. Many of them thought that they were going to go home one day but barely any did. Awful stuff.
So yeah, another awful place, another experience to make me realise how lucky I am, another experience to make me appreciate all those people that died fighting such a horrendous dude/plan.
Unfortunately we had underestimated how much time it would take to get around the place. Because it was basically exploring a whole town it didn't feel as draining as spending 4 hours in a museum. We decided to take a risk and hop on a bus that was leaving 30min later. When we got to the stop we realised it was a different service and thought we might have to pay for a new ticket. Luckily the bus driver begrudgingly let us on with our original tickets, must happen all the time.
On the way home we checked the "best hot-dog stand" for the 3rd time (we kept going there and it was shut) to try to lift our spirits a little. We were in luck and had a pretty damn good hot-dog for 20 CZK! Then I went back to the apartment for a quick beer, some cheap ice cream before packing my bag and saying goodbye to Mike, Emma, Carly and Adam.
I am now on the plane to Paris and I can't really be bothered with it. I will probably get to the hostel at about midnight and have 1 day to have a look around (due to easyjet not being able to connect flights, idiots). I booked it when I was travelling by myself and thought "it won't be that bad" but after hanging with Mike and Emma for a few days I am really going to hate being by myself again. I'm just whinging though as it's only a day an then I get to visit Carla in Porto, can't wait!
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