Week 1: Terezín (Thurs)

Thursday was our first of two mandatory day trips and is the more somber of the two trips. We had the choice to visit one of three locations: Lidice, Terezín, or Príbram. I chose Terezín because it was featured in an unfinished Nazi "documentary" that I wrote about in a paper during my art history capstone course last semester. If you'd like to read it, you can do so here.

Terezín (Theresienstadt in German) was a ghetto in operation from 1941 to 1945. It served mainly as a transit camp, where Jews would be held before being sent on to a killing center, concentration camp, or forced labor camp. In many instances, Jews held at Terezín would die of starvation or disease. Terezín became its own form of propaganda in 1944 when the Danish government pressured the International Committee of the Red Cross to inspect the ghetto and confirm Danish Jews were not being mistreated.

Prior to the inspection, Nazi leaders at Terezín had the ghetto “beautified.” They reduced overcrowding by deporting a portion of the Jews living in the ghetto and transformed it into a “spa town” by forcing the remaining Jews to build a swimming pool, plant gardens and build parks, and conduct cultural events, such as performing in an orchestra. Following the inspection, the International Committee of the Red Cross determined no mistreatment was taking place. Nazi leaders decided to further capitalize on the renovations by ordering the creation of a propaganda film, Theresienstadt: A Documentary Film from the Jewish Settlement Areas, with the intention of depicting Terezín as a retirement town for elderly Jews to live in safety. You can watch the remaining 15 minutes of the film here.

Map of the Theresienstadt Ghetto

Our visit began with a tour of the small fortress, which was a military fortress built in the 1700s and used by the Nazis as a prison during WWII. We saw the guard's offices, mass prisons, solitary confinement, showers, hospital, and execution site. We also saw the house the Nazi's lived in, looking over the prison courtyards, as well as their theatre and swimming pool, on the other side of the execution site wall.

When walking from the guard's offices into the prison courtyard, you pass under an arch that says, "Arbeit macht frei." I don't know why, but this caught me off guard. Our tour guide told us there isn't a real reason it was painted in the small fortress, and that a guard visited another concentration camp that had it and thought it was cool. 

"Work makes you free"

One of the solitary confinement cells held Gavrilo Princip, the student that assassinated Archduke Franz Ferdinand, until he died of poor conditions in 1918. I find it fascinating how much history you can stumble upon in Europe. Of course, much of Terezín's history is devastating. There was a point walking back to our bus that I almost complained that my feet hurt and felt incredibly guilty. It's difficult to visit and learn about places like Terezín, but I think it is important to remember the history and put our own lives into perspective. 

Gavrilo Princip's cell

We then drove into the town of Terezín and started by visiting a Jewish prayer room that had been left untouched during and after the war, as well as a replica of an attic where the Jews lived while imprisoned in Terezín. 

We then headed to lunch. Many of us were hungry because it had been awhile since breakfast, but didn't have an appetite after touring the small fortress. During the afternoon, we visited the ghetto museum and an exhibit on art, music, and literature within the ghetto. 

The town itself is beautiful, which makes it difficult to fully comprehend its past. I have I lot I could say about Terezín, especially after spending a semester writing about it, but I don't want to ramble. I will say that I am grateful to have been able to visit a place I spent so long studying. I also learned later that Zuzana's mother-in-law and sister-in-law both perished in Terezín, which helps put into perspective how recent the Holocaust really was. 

When we got back to the dorms, we spent some time debriefing with students that visited Lidice and Príbram. Both sounded interesting and extremely sobering. The Príbram trip made me consider how recently communism ended in the Czech Republic and its continued effect on society. I may talk about that in a future post.

After some time reflecting, Julianna, Ella, Lilly, Sadie and I headed to dinner at Restaurace U Labuti, where I had hot chocolate and a caprese salad, and got gelato on our way back to the dorms. 

A nice end to a difficult day