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Photo 1
note: see USA flag in the back!!! =)Went to Terezin with the folks from town/the museum today. They had the annual memorial today. When we got there I walked around a bit with two girls there that were my age (from what I got out of it, one of them was by boss’s girlfriend/wife’s daughter), and thankfully remotely close to my age so that was nice lol. We were told to be back outside the complex by 10 for the ceremony, however they neglected to mention that the procession begins to line up 15mins before. We realized then when us in our light blue/green/hot pink umbrellas were running through a crowd of uniformed soldiers escorting folks with wreaths (survivors/different people from museums, etc) as well as the president..who we apparently were within feet of. Wish I knew what he looked like BEFORE they had to point him out/we ran into him..hmm. Anyways, as part of the procession our museum directors went up and put one of the wreaths on because they are considered one of the 7? 8? major WWII memorials/sites in the country.
After the service we went for lunch in the little café inside the museum, and then toured more building in the camp complex. Probably
Photo 2
it was pouring out!! one of the sketchiest parts of my day, we were in this huge room with no windows (the girls were translating the signs into broken English for me) and one of them is like “We think this is bathroom. Or maybe fake bathroom. Nazi bathroom with gas?”. And I’m just like greeaaatttttt… not where I wanted to be spending my afternoon. If you thought you were ever claustrophobic before..HAH! The place was far from designed to be spacious either, despite its size. We walked probably a half mile in the catacombs underneath so you could get to the underside of the camp…it was basically long long long tunnels with barely any windows that the prisoners had to trek through before the inevitable. Not to be sarcastic, but it smelled like death in there. Literally..ehh..
Once done at the actual camp, we went to the other half of Terezin which had the cemetery, crematorium, columbarium, art/theatre museum and ghetto recreation. My favorite part was probably the ghetto recreation—I thought they did a really good job with it. They only did one room, but it really gave the idea of how cramped it was with everyone’s things, etc. The ghetto recreation/art things
were in one building..while I was reading the signs (in ENGLISH!!..also czech, german, and hebrew) an older Jewish lady who was originally on our bus came up and was telling me all this stuff about how the ghettos were really run and her opinions of it, etc. Apparently, she was one of the prisoners from Buchenwald(?)/Ravensbruck, and a present day resident of Lidice. I was staying pretty composed, but she was basically in tears when telling me her story/going throughout the museum..what do you say in response to someone who survived a genocide?! The cemetery, columbarium weren’t that interesting, and the crematorium was just CREEPY.
All in all, despite the wonderful depression a concentration camp will leave you with, it was a good day. Is always cool to be able to see in person something that played such a major part in history. Unfortunately it absolutely poured all day, but from what they say, this weather never happens, so hopefully the rest of my time will be sunny =)
Okie, well its nearly 6:30 here and im getting sorta hungry so I may make my way downstairs..!
<3 Sarah
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