Let me mention that travelling in Prague is challenging at the best of times. There is no "ring road" or way that you can get out of Prague quickly. Yet. There is a push to build such a road. We went on part of it that has been completed and opened last September. It was very interesting as it included a 2 kilometer tunnel! We flew along the road and I saw the outside of Prague from a different direction. It is interesting to see more modern structures here but still congested with small roads and buildings. Very few people own their own home as we would think of it. Nearly everyone lives in an apartment. The house may look like a house but really it's 3 levels and each level has a flat on it.
Our first stop was the memorial to the town of Lidice (Lid-ee-say). This town was a quiet farming community and during the war it was ruled by a Nazi officer who was murdered by paratroopers. In retaliation the Gestapo shot all the men of the village and gassed all the women and children. The village was razed. It was a chilling tale and very sad but brought home the fact that the regime at the time did this on a regular basis.
The bronze memorial pictured below is of the 85 children that lost their lives at this time.
We spent only a short time there as our main goal was Terezin. This was a few kilometers away through some beautiful orchard country, all of which was in bloom. As the weather here has been in the low 20's all week the flowers have been going nuts. It's beautiful to see a hillside in flower, sort of what the Meaford area might look like in Ontario!
Terezin has two parts to it. The small fort and the town itself, which is also fortified. This area has been used for mainly the encampment of Czech Jews and then after the war any Germans that were in the country.
I had studied Terezin in a course at University and it was of particular interest to actually see some of the rooms where prisoners were held. What was it really like for them and feel the darkness they must have felt.
First we went to the small fort of Terezin. Tomas, in his time in the army, was stationed in Terezin. He was able to show me and tell me a little more about the fort itself. His living conditions as an army officer here weren't much better than just plain aweful as he showed me where he stayed, but more on that later.
The small fort is being rebuilt after the devastating floods of 2002 when much of the Czech Republic was under water, it was nice to see so much work going on. Tomas noted it as a great sign as the government does not always think this is a good idea. NESCO has noted that Terezin is in need of being upheld as a national monument, this is helping in the ability to get funds to help keep it in good repair.
The stark reality of so many people living in cave like enclosures and having their every move noted and evaluated was stunning. There is a mountain not far that was mined for Mica, this was done by the people there. It was very difficult work and many died just from the work they were forced to do.
The picture below shows the bunks of Block A where over 100 people would have lived.
They were not without care as there was a hospital area (room) and a central washing area.
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| Hospital area of Block A |
The main disease of the fort was typoid and once the water system was effected thousands died. When there was a vacancy, there was always someone to come in and fill the space. Of course there was punishment as well for any infraction you can think of. If the guards and Kommandant did not like you that day you were thrown into jail. These cells were without light or heat. They were rock and concrete hole essentially. This area had been part of a jail system for many years and Gavrilo Princip, the assassin of Duke Ferdinand and his wife, was housed here in 1914 until his death from tuberculosis in 1918. The cell had NOTHING in it, and that is the way it was then too. Yikes!
There was also an execution area at the back of the small fort. You must have been very bad to go here, but in some ways it might have been a relief. There is a statue there the commemorates the life and death of Rabbi Eppstein. He was an outspoken Jew (bad) against the treatment (bad x2) and the regime there (very very bad), so he was executed.
The fort was really something to see up close and personal and the way it looked was so chilling. I hope the improvements that I saw happening will continue and the people of the world can see this place first hand. It is an education in itself.
It was time for lunch and we headed into town. The town used to be a bustling place with the Czech army having a post there. As previously mentioned all males were required to give army service before the Velvet Revolution in 1989. Tomas was stationed in Terezin for a year and half and he only got home to Prague 3 times in that stint. He lived in one of the ancient barracks that had once housed many Jewish women and children from all parts of Europe before their deportation to other camps. Most of these people would not survive. The Jewish ghetto created in Terezin saw over 150,000 Jews come in and only 17,000 survive. Many sent to other camps, many died there because the buildings were meant for 7,000 people. The town was evacuated of all non Jewish people before the Nazi's decided to make it a ghetto.
The barracks were actually the size of an apartment building! These buildings might have held 50,000 people! Tomas' unit was housed in one of these buildings; he and 20 other men, at least he got his own bed and didn't have a bunk bed. His service was around the fort of Terezin as a guard at the cemetary and also such tasks as cutting the lawn at the cemetary which he said was a very tiring and tedious job but it was what you had to do. You were told what your service would be and you did it. Interesting....
Again the town to Terezin, without the army there has fallen into disrepair and all the residents are quite old. The young either work in Prague 60 km away or have left entirely. There were very few people on the streets and very few cars. There was the odd bus around but that was for tourists to the fort or just through the town. It was a weird feeling but the cafe where we had lunch was very nice, the food great and the people very nice too.
After lunch we walked to the "Krematorium". I know it sounds weird but I had a need to see this part of the journey, again, I had read so much about them that I needed to go there.
On the way a lot of work has gone into making much of the area "real" again with the history of what had happened in Terezin. The tunnels in the ramparts of the walled city have been turned into memorials and reinactments of what went on in those tunnels. One area was a morgue, there were fellow prisoners that acted as morticians and also performed autopsies as each dead required to have noted how they died. For many it was easy, age, malnutrition, typoid or tuberculosis. Other prisoners made coffins for the dead so a funeral could occur and there were mourning areas set aside for families. The lids of the coffins were re used as the bodies were then transported to the crematorium and the ashes returned to the mourning area.
The crematorium had 4 crematoria in it, each able to handle up to 6 bodies at a time due to the large influx of people that were perishing. It was a stark building that still had the odour of oil, as the crematoria were fired by oil and the smell of candles set up in memorial to the thousands who were cremated here. I could only imagine the heat of the crematoria as they would be working non stop for years trying to keep up to the number perishing. Sometimes up to 4,000 a day. It was unbelievable and my head was swimming from seeing it all up close. In respect to the dead, photos were not allowed and I don't think a 2 dimensional picture would do this place justice. It has to be seen and smelled to understand. It was truly and haunting visit and I know Tomas was affected by the visit as well. I will never forget this place or what when on here.
Respect for the people, once dead, was important to the Jewish people and they wanted to continue their traditions as much as possible but in this place, at that time it was not possible to have a full funeral and receive the urn of remains. Many urns were stored in the tunnels of the ramparts in the assumption that a funeral would occur later. This did not happen, as liberation neared the urns were never returned to the families (as many of them had died already) and the ashes dumped in the river near the entrance to the city. Again, another atrocity that can never be recovered.
Silently we walked along the remains of the rail line that would have taken so many to Auschwitz and Bergen Belsen. There was lots to be thankful for in my head as I thought of the millions of people that were affected by this time. As we walked away from there, there were 4 boys playing with a ball in a flowering crab apple tree. It was a complete switch from what we had seen and what was infront of us. They were free to do that. Some 70 years before, not so much.
I was mentally and emotionally tired from this trip.
Back in the car (Tomas has a very nice Volvo, one of the few here) it was back to Prague and a visit to the rowing club. Though I didn't know where we were going Tomas was very proud to take me there. His father (my Uncle Gustav) helped build the club, Tomas rowed there, my father rowed there and this was family history.
I met a couple of gentlemen there who knew of my father as Dad had won a couple of races with the 8's squad he rowed with. Dad's name is inscribed in a history book of the club. The author of the book was there and I showed him Dad's name, he was impressed and very pleased to meet me! Tomas showed me the training area (a pool with stationary boats in it) and the storage area where hundreds of boats are held. We watched the rowers training on the river, some young, and some very experienced. It was a sight to behold. The club, The Czech Lightening Bolts (for lack of a better translation) has been in existance since the late 1800's. It has been part of this family for over 70 years! They have been responsible for providing training for some of the Czech Rowing team members. It is an important training facility for anyone beginning their career as a rower.
Tomas gave me a hat from the club and I received the book as well. Though tired I was so appreciative of meeting these folks and seeing where Dad spent much of his time. I felt part of it all. It was lovely.
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| Winter Training pool, Prague Rowing Club |
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| Training in session, from patio of Rowing Club |
Then home to shower, rest and try and re program my brain after all I had seen that day. I can tell you the weather has been simply lovely for seeing all these things and I cannot ask for better hosts in this land as they want to show me so much of what my father was and did. I can never, in a million years thank them enough.
Tomorrow I will have a free day and then dinner with Tomas and Jana in their apartment.
On to day 9. ...
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