Terezin

One of our favorite activities when we travel is to take in historic sites from all around the world.  In the Czech Republic we visited one of the most haunting sites we have ever come across, and one whose importance should be better known around the world.  Terezin was built as a fortress for the Holy Roman Empire between 1780-1790 as a defense against the possible invasion by the Prussian Empire, but its most meaningful contribution to history was as one of the major Nazi run concentration camps during World War II.  Between 1941-1945, Terezin was one of the original Jewish ghettos the Nazis promoted when they still claimed to be relocating prisoners out of the ever growing German Empire.  While not an extermination camp like Auschwitz, more than 30,000 Jewish and political prisoners died during the war.

Getting to Terezin is an adventure, but it's nothing to be scared of doing on your own.  While there are guided trips out of Prague, the easiest way to get to Terezin is to take the public bus line that runs there on the hour from the Praha-Holesovice bus and train station.  The bus, which departs from platform #7, cost 90 CZK (as of 2017), which is about $3.5.  There is no buying a ticket ahead of time, just buy your ticket when you get on the bus.  The bus is a massive touring bus with wide comfortable seats, and what I can only assume was some new heater this bus was testing out for the International Space Station, because I wanted to strip out of everything I had on within ten minutes of getting on the bus.  The ride takes about an hour, which gives you time to look at some Czech countryside.  When you get to Terezin you will see the small fortress on the side of the road, you can't miss it.  If by chance you do, don't worry, there is another stop about half a mile down the road that is located in the city center of Terezin.  

The first stop is the so called Small Fortress.  The Small Fortress, while never really used for battle during the Hapsburg era, is an impressive site when you come up on it.  Out front are a Jewish and Christian cemetery for the victims during World War II.  When you buy your ticket it comes with an English tour included which takes about an hour, but is well worth it.  When the Nazis took control of the facility after their invasion in 1938, they began working on the town of Terezin as a Jewish ghetto where they could live on there own, or at least that is what they claimed.  The fortress was used for those who opposed the brutalities being placed upon them in Terezin, and other political opponents throughout the Czech Empire.  When the Jewish prisoners arrived they were forced to live in several group cells, often without water, heat, and electricity.  Prisoners were often fed only once a day, and were given little, if any, medical attention, which led to a high mortality rate.  The prisoners held at the Small Fortress were both men and women.  Of the 90,000 prisoners who came to the prison, most were shipped to extermination camps where they died, but thousands also died while at the Small Fortress from brutality and neglect.  Three other, non-World War II, points of interest are the more than 1500 foot long secret passage that leads from one side of the fort to the other to move soldiers during the 18th Century.  The second are the collections of stone crosses on the ground near the back wall of the fortress.  What looks like a memorial to Christians lost in the camp is actually something completely different.  This cross shaped boxes were actually used in the late 18th Century for training.  Soldiers would lie in these, then spring up out of them to practice firing quickly.  The other is Cell #1 in the isolation wing of the prison.  This unique cell was home for four years to Gavrilo Princip, the Serb nationalist whose assassination of Austro-Hungarian Archduke Franz Ferdinand was the spark that led to World War I in 1914.  Tiny, cold, and without natural light, you can imagine it was probably a fate worse than death for Princip, who died in the cell after four years in prison.
 

Walking from the Small Fortress into the town of Terezin you will pass through the walls of the city, an imposing set of defenses that make you feel like you are walking back in time to the Napoleonic Era.  Inside the walls of the small city you can wander the streets for hours.  The city was evacuated by the Nazis when they took over Czechoslovakia, and it looks like little has changed since that time.  The buildings in the city are all from the late 19th Century, and you feel like you are in a movie set for a World War I film.  After wandering the streets, go to the Ghetto Museum, which is included in your ticket to the Small Fortress.  Inside you will experience what life was like for those imprisoned in the city.  Writings from children who had never known a life outside of the walls of the city, and the desperation of those who had is on display.  After you stroll through the museum wander down the road to the Magdeburg Barracks.  Once a set of barracks for the Czech military in the 19th and early 20th Centuries, today it is another museum to the victims of the Holocaust.  Inside are some excellent examples of all types of artwork the Jewish prisoners produced, including screenplays, poetry, paintings, and many other types.  This museum is completely worth the time, and the ability to produce meaningful work in a time of such desperation is a testament to the strength of the Jewish people imprisoned there.

Another fascinating, and free, exhibit on the edges of the town is the Columbarium, the underground storage for the ashes of thousands of people who died in this prison camp.  For some unknown reason the Nazis decided to keep these ashes stored in small paper boxes to keep track of those who died. Across the street is the underground cellar where they stored bodies.  Inside this underground tomb is one of the hursts the prisoners used to pull the bodies of the dead by hand.  Beside that hurst is a collection of soil from every concentration camp from across Europe.

When you are done take a few minutes to realize how lucky we are to live free of that danger.  That is not to say there are not brutal dictators in the world, there are of course still countries and people living under the yolk of oppression.  I hope we all can learn from visiting a town like Terezin the dangers of this type of brutality, and will use it as a lesson to never take the freedom we have now for granted. On a side note, you may also see something you've never seen in your life.  While contemplating all of these thoughts as we walked down the street, Wendy and I passed two young men who clearly needed to get somewhere with a couch, but carrying it was not an option.  Maybe everyone uses wheel barrows in the Czech Republic to move their couch, or else these two guys are visionaries.

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