Which was worst, the nazi or the communist?

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Today we spent the day at the Jewish Museum which is not one building but rather several synagogues, a cemetery, and another building. I took notes while the tour guide was talking… I found out some pretty interesting stuff! First, in 1215 the pope declared that the Jews were slaves and they should have to wear yellow, the color of treason. This is why Hitler made them wear yellow stars. (He also took the deportation idea from the way the Americans treated the Native Americans, but let’s not get into that.) Also, Christians tended to not like Jews because they were the ones who did the money lending because Christians were not allowed to do so. Because the Jews had this profession, they tended to make more money, hence the hatred.

Here is some Czech history. Charles the first, who the bridge is named after was very good to the Jews. Charles the 6th said only the first born Jew could marry. This was to reduce the population. Joseph II freed the Jews, making public schooling available for them and established Jewish ghettos. The rich moved out though leaving the poor and the orthodox. The Jewish quarter then became dangerous and started being destroyed. This was the impetus for the start of the Jewish museum in 1906. They wanted to protect important items. This became more important when the Nazis took over because important Jewish materials from all over were shipped there. Actually during WWII the US and England did some damage to synagogues here. They missed Dresden and hit Prague instead. The Jews were made to run the museum and later only one of those curators survived. It is unbelievable but many German Jews paid to go to Terezine because it was publicized as a spa town.

I thought it was interesting that most Jews do not visit the cemetery. Because it is so easy to become not pure there and so difficult to become pure again most chose not to go. Another interesting thing that was mentioned was that the Jews were blamed for epidemics because they usually escaped the disease because of their hygiene habits.

Of the synagogues we visited, two really struck me. First was the Spanish synagogue. It was absolutely beautiful! I was so disappointed that pictures were not allowed there. It was probably the most beautiful synagogue I have ever seen. Plus, it was the only one functioning, as could be seen by the closed doors over the torah and the light above it. The other that struck me for completely different reasons was Pinkas Synagogue. It had the names of people who were killed in Prague in camps all over the walls. Of the 50,000 Jews that lived in Prague before the war, only 5,000 survived. It was incredible because the number 6 million Jews actually became personal.

Later, we talked about the Munich Agreement. An expert came in and told us the Czech point of view, which was one I had never heard before. It was really interesting seeing how England and France were making decisions on the behalf of Czech Republic. I thought it was interesting how there were no better solutions according to the expert.

After, we saw a video on Terrazine. I did a report on it earlier in the year and this story was very interesting to me. I had known that the Red Cross had come to visit, but I did not know about Kurt Gerron who was told to create a propaganda video about it. He was excited to work again, even if it meant that his fellow Jews saw him as a traitor. I definitely understand why he did, and cannot believe that after he did that for the Nazis and he was killed anyway, murdered at the entrance of Auschwitz on the last transit. It made me so sad that the transits had stopped for the creation of the film and after it had ended everyone in it was sent away to Auschwitz. How absolutely horrible!


So things to remember: to fit in must have a dog that is as big as a bear, I am never going to be ready to wear heels in the cobble stones, always hold on to the metro rails for fear of death, Czech waiters do NOT like splitting checks, watch out for dead rats, keep your metro stub, Bohemian mean tye dye and crimping, and you must smile if you are a tour guide talking about extermination camps. When all else fails, follow the sunflower!

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Comments

[Marie]

Wow!
Beth - this all sounds so exciting!! :D It's exciting for me to read, never mind for you actually being there! Lol, you're title sounds a bit like 1/2 of my genocide class....I can't wait to read your next post! :) <3

[Stacey]

Wowz
That's some pretty cool history lesson going on Beth! If you feel so inspired later in your blogging, you should write about where the Czech Republic came from, who the "Czechs" are... I guess because I'm confused about that. Are they ethnically more German, Spanish, Polish or what? Also, follow the sunflower? Gotta hear the story behind THAT one :) Wish I were there, it makes me want to learn more history! Learn as much as you can ok!! :) and stay safe! <3 <3 Stacey