Terror in Terezin

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Crossed the Czech border - it was just a group of empty buildings - we barely slowed down. Today was a holiday so most shops etc were closed. But we were aiming for Terezin, In German this is Thierenstadt, and was one of the transit points for Jews on the way to labour and death camps. It is a walled city and basically the Nazis threw all of the inhabitants out and used it as a concentration camp. The town originally had about 9000 inhabitants and at its height as a concentration camp had 58000 residents - lots of disease. This was the place that - after some tidying up and beautification - the Nazi's brought the Red Cross to see (who were completely taken in). However it certainly wasn't a model camp. The whole place had a sombre air, quiet and echoing - even though people are still living there. Because of the the conditions and epidemics of disease they had to manage a lot of deaths - over 3000 a month at one stage - and so built a crematorium - with 4 hightly efficient oil fired furnaces - if you do the maths they were doing 2 cremations an hour per furnace per 24 hours to get through the bodies.

The various museums were excellent - the Mageburg barracks museum was about how the residents - temporary though they were - managed to find a life for them selves - drawing, writing (the moist poignant poetry), performing plays and music. The doctors tried to manage disease, operated where they could etc. Of the displays the vast majority - because it was in reality a transit camp - ended with "transported in 1944 to Auschwitz where he perished." Only a few survived.

In the "museum of the ghetto" which is in a building that was a school for some of the older kids they had copies of the magazine they managed to publish and their drawings and stories. All of the kids were transported and almost all of them died - something like 10,000 of them went through the camp. There was a room where all 4 walls were covered with their names.

What has been really interesting to us so far is puzzling how the Nazi regime made up of ordinary people like the grandparents of the German tourists that we were mingling with could have established, and been able to carry out the atrocities that they did. Civilisation is only a veneer, its fragile, and its something to be protected with all of our strength and knowledge.
As a detail is the language that is used. All of the German displays would say that was "..... was murdered at Auschwitz."neutral--read Not mincing words. The Czech translations were more neutral--ie more inoffensive.

Sometimes we do dishes in the camp kitchen just because there is more space and hot water that we don’t have to heat. We were happily doing the dishes when a man with no trousers walked in looking sad. He was speaking Czech but gestured that the button had come off his trousers and that he needed sewing. I had of course packed a sewing kit, so rushed off to get it and gave him a needle. Then he looked helpless so of course I sewed the button on for him, all the time him standing there with no trousers. I’m not sure what was underneath his long shirt. Any way, he was thrilled and delighted and at the end clicked his heels together bowed and kissed my hand—just like they do in the movies!! I get the feeling that Czech men still feel that a womens place is in the kitchen, but at least they are very dashing when they say thankyou!!

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Photos

Terezin Crematorium
Contained 4 high capacity furnaces

Terezin - Lesser Fort
Prison barracks