MandysCzechExperience: Terezin Terror

Well I have been looking for towns to go to for some day tripping. I wanted to find towns nearby of interest, that I could and see in a day and come back in the evening. I was looking through my Czech and Slovak Republic Guidebook done by Lonely Planet (great company by the way!), and just started to browse some towns. I happen came across a town called Terezin, and the layout of the town is what struck my interest at first. Then I started to

read the history of the town, and that was it, I knew I wanted to go to this town.

Map of Terezin

History of Terezin
Terezin, Theresienstadt in German, was built in 1780 an an immense fortress by Emperor Joseph II with the idea to keep Prussians out. Ironically, when the Germans took control of Terezin during WWII, this role was reversed and the walls were employed as a grim holding pen for Jews bound for extermination camps, thus it's called a transit camp, as well as a prison for those

opposed to the German Reich. In 1940 the Lesser Fortress was established as a prison by the Gestapo. The next year the Germans evicted the townspeople from the Main Fortress the next year and structured it as a transit camp. During the time period it was set up as this, 150,000 European Jews passed through Terezin en route to Concentration Camps. The conditions

of living was appalling in Terezin, while the population continued to increase from 12,968 to 58,491 in 1942. This left prisoners 1.65 square meters of space, causing disease and starvation on a terrifying scale. During this time period, the number of deaths increase to fifteen-times that which was normal within the prison walls. With the increase of population in Terezin, trains departed

regularly heading to Auschwitz, and death by starvation, disease, or suicide of around 35,000 Jews.

Day Tripping
I looked up bus departures from Praha that went to Terezin (luckily they have several buses that go to and from Terezin during the day) and was amazed at the reasonable prices for tickets. I started asking friends if they'd be interested in going with me. I can explore by myself, but I was hoping others would be interested in experiencing a piece of history with

me. I was successful in finding two guys, James and Iain, who are both Architecture Students from Scotland, to go with me.

We headed out this morning to the bus station to travel an hour to Terezin. On the bus ride, I read up more on the history, and what places we can go see while we are there. As I mentioned in the history, there is a Lesser Fortress and a Main Fortress, both had many displays to see that talked about the stages of the Nazis hold of Terezin. The Lesser Fortress had a selfguided tour that you could just walk around and

explore it's grounds as well as a small Museum. The Main Fortress is now an existing town, with several buildings that had exhibits and some old ruins left by the Nazis. Between the two lies the river Ohre and a national cemetary.

When we arrived at the bus stop, we decided to start in the Lesser Fortress. It was a fairly nice day, sunny and a light cool breeze, but the desolate surroundings made it eerie and foreboding. I have seen the Jewish Memorial in Washington DC, but this was so much more moving then that could ever be. Wandering towards the start of the tour (numbers guided you through the complex) we explored the Nazis

offices, where they had rooms of records of the people held there and offices for everyday work.

As we passed under the archway that states the Nazis' mocking concentration camp slogan, Arbeit Macht Frei, which means Work Makes you Free, we entered the first courtyard with several doors leading to very tiny holding cells, dormitories with three to

four bunkbeds stacked high, and washing areas for those who were held there. It was very dark in most of these places, what light did come in created a very dramatic mood (as well as amazing pictures). Wondering through the clusters of cell after cell, dormitory after dormintory, it actually hit me how many people this place could hold. It was very overwhelming at the thought and made me realize that this place is just one of many that the Nazis had set up. I know I learn in history about Europe, but like the fact I never really knew how old Europe really was until I got here and experienced it myself, the same went for the history that I was taught as a child.

After a while of wandering through many different courtyards that held the cells, dormitories, and washrooms we arrived at an entrance to a tunnel. We decided to give it a go, and explore this elaborante labyrinth of passageways and tunnels. Now they have gated the passageways, so there was only one path to take, but you could see the network of tunnels they used. If it was not gated off to where you had one path to take, you definitely could get lost. There was low lights placed at knee height to give a little light every few meters and there were also a few slices of light coming through irregularly placed windows. Once in a while you would look down what you thought was a hallway that was

gated, but would see it went up towards the surface and was full of dirt and then just ended abruptly (later we found out this is where they kept ashes of prisoners, I'm so glad I didn't know that at the time). Stairways would branch off leading to the surface, but they were gated as well. We finally ended up at the end of the tunnels and found ourselves at a grassy field like meadow between the Lesser Fortress immense walls.

We started walking towards a shelter area in the field and found three crosses outlined in a concrete retaining wall filled with dirt. We have found our way to the execution grounds, not even a century ago people were shot by firing squads a few meters away and a hangmans post wasn't too far past that. After a moment of reflection, we headed through

an archway and found ourselves at a meadow of hills and trees within the Lesser Fortress walls, if it wasn't such a forebading place, it would almost be a lovely place to have a picnic.

Turning towards a tunnel that lead upwards we ended up in the area which housed more buildings that the Nazis used as housing and offices. We found ourselves an ancient swimming pool, that would no longer be used, and stumbled across a statue which depicted the prisoners that was held here. After this discovery we continued on and found one of the last

courtyards of holding cells and dormintories. This one had a look out tower above the entrance to it. The dormitories were almost a little more humane with skylights flooding in light to the room, but who could ever call this humane?

After wandering around the last courtyard, we headed to the

musuem that had the progression of the Nazis hold of Terezin and a small art gallery of artwork created about this time period. The information that was presented was immense, what was happening, who was held here and died, people after people of importance, name after name. The most shocking was the death of a twelve year old girl who helped in an assination by taking a

bike away from the scene. After this, we pretty much had explored the grounds in a few hours, and decided to head to the Main Fortress to see some more displays, and some old ruins.

The town was dismal, and almost a ghost town, except for the rare child on a playground, or person walking their dog. We

headed towards the town's main square to visit the musuem which had another display of what happened in the town during the war and an art gallery of more artwork about the time. In a smaller gallery, there were eerie pictures done by childern that were held in the town during the Nazis hold of the town.

After exploring the museum, we headed to the old barricks to see the display of what little arts that flourished amoung the captivesWe started off by crossing the Ohre, which is a river that runs between the two fortresses. and arrived to a small bridge that lead to across a moat through the thick fortress' walls and into the during the war. It was small, but they were allowed in the Main

Fortress a pinch of freedom to be creative in art, theatre, and music.

After exploring the exhibit, we headed towards the remains of the Railway Siding and was at the edge of the town. The train tracks were few, mostly covered up since the war, but some still remained. We headed out of the city and through the fortress

walls towards the last place of interest at Terezin, the Jewish Cemetary and Crematorium. It was peaceful outside the fortress walls and it almost seemed like a different place. Fields stretched out as we walked along a path that lead to the cemetary. Once we got to the cemetary, the Crematorium was insight, and we headed over to it to see the process of a Jewish burial. I did not know that

people were cremated before they were buried in the Jewish religion, it was quite interesting to learn about it.

Afterwards we decided to head back to the town and then onto the bus stop to wait for the bus back to Praha. We didn't want to miss it and have to wait even longer till the last bus comes for the day. When our bus arrived, we bought our bus tickets from the bus driver (yes for the most part you can just buy tickets for seats available from them), it was pretty full and we all split up to find the few spare seats left on the bus. On the way home, I flipped through a book I picked up about the Small Fortress of Terezin and it had old pictures and documents in the book, and thought about my day spent in history. I know I have wandered the streets of Praha and experienced history in many ways, but this was a different experience. I was glad I stumbled across this town in my guidebook, and had the opportunity to experience something that most only learn from history books.

A Little Relief from the Serious
Ok, so I know that when most people are in a very serious, dismal situation, a little fun and laughter can make it better, even if it's just for the moment. These are some shots of us goofing around, yes I said goofing around, for the day. I promise we weren't trying to be disrespectful in anyway.