Blogs from Terezín, Ústí nad Labem Region, Czech Republic, Europe

I went to sleep last night thinking about the prison cells at the Little Fortress / the local Gestapo headquarters in Terezín, Czech Republic. https://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005424 There are a variety of sizes and shapes, but mostly they are rectangular, about 15’ x 25’ with a high barrel ceiling. They are whitewashed and have a window set in one end. A sink and enclosed toilet are the sole sanitary facilities for the roughly 70 men who might have been housed there. The bunk beds were made of rough cut wood and must have slept about 5 a piece. The isolation cell, reserved for ‘criminals’, was bleak and without any plumbing and very little ventilation. The only window was very small and set high in the wall. It too might hold as many as 70, But only if they ... read more

Freezing cold weather did not stop us from making a day trip to Terezin on day 2 of our Prague adventure. I wacked on my wellies and off we went. A bus ride that only took 1 hour got us there safely and the cost was 75 Korun Czech which is probably equivalent to about £1.50 (or not even). Terezin is a former military fortress and garrison town. It may be better known to most as Theresienstadt Concentration Camp. During WWII, the Gestapo used Terezín as a ghetto, concentrating Jews from Czechoslovakia, as well as many from Germany, Austria, the Netherlands, and Denmark. More than 150,000 Jews were sent there, and although it was not an extermination camp about 33,000 died in the ghetto itself,mostly because of the apalling conditions arising out of extreme population density. ... read more

On March 23, Ahmed and I had our tour of Terezin (the Lesser Fortress, the Museum of Terezin, the Jewish Ghetto and the Crematorium). Terezin's fortress was used by the Nazis as a concentration camp for general Czech prisoners (most of whom were Christians) and for Jews as well (most ones who were part of underground resistance). Prisoners from other places in Europe also ended up here before being taken further East to the Death Camps. This was my first chance to visit a place like this - I have studied the Holocaust extensively as a History student in university but have never been able to visit places associated with it. Terezin was not Auschwitz, but it was terrible. The Jewish Ghetto area was used as propaganda by the Nazis to show the Red Cross and ... read more

"A stop on the road to death."... read more

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 ... read more