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Dobry Den everyone from Prague!
I have been here for three days now and it has been a great experience. The weather has been beautiful and we have been having our fair share of goulash and schnitzel as well as taking in the views from the St. Charles Bridge, the Hradcany Castle and of course the beauty of all the cobble stone streets and plazas here.
When we arrived here on Thursday we got a great overview tour of the whole town starting from the castle and working our way back to the Old City Centre. We are staying at a hotel about 4 tram stops away from the centrum and it is nice to be off the beaten path a bit. After Cesky Krumlov, where we loved the freedom of walking everywhere we once again had to get used to a whole new tram system. Luckily it is pretty easy to navigate. I have expanded my Czech vocabulary to include a few more words but still I am limited to Hello, Thank you, please and a few others.
Prague is beautiful. A place where communism reigned from 1948 until 1989 and a place where every aspect of life
here was controlled. We went to the Museum of Communism and got a taste of what this all looked like. There were some great exhibits about how communism affected all realms of life here in Prague--industry, agriculture, commerce, art, the military and others. I only wish I could bring my students in my history classes here to show them first hand what the artifacts look like and to learn about communism in context. I also spent a bit of time on Wenceslas Square where many of the protests in 1989 took place after the fall of communism. Two young men even burned themselves in protest. We also found a wall that has been dedicated to the message of John Lennon in Giving Peace a Chance. The wall was originally graffitied by some people in protest for the lack of equality and the revolution going on here. It bears many words and paintings including a large peace sign saying imagine and a bust of John Lennon. My friend Jacklyn and I and our friends Tracey and Eric also added words of inspiration for the future to the wall and took our photos there.
Our next stop on our daily excursion
was to head to the funicular to go up the Petrin Hill. There is a very interesting memorial to all those who died during Communism here in the Czech Republic. There are some spectacular views of the Old Town from the funicular as well as from the top. We could see the crowded St. Charles Bridge down below. Jacklyn attempted to climb up the tower... said the views were nice but decided to descend quite quickly... heights are not her favourite. I personally prefer the real eiffel tower after which this tower is modelled that is found in Paris.
Today I decided to take a tour to Terezin, the place that was a transit concentration camp for many Jews not only from Czech but from all over Europe. This was a Gestapo prison, also used for many political prisoners, mostly from Russia. This is where many people were sent by the Nazis to live in a ghetto, were detained and then eventually transported to concentration camps such as Auschwitz, Treblinka and others. I got to see the bunks, the prison cells, the facilities at the Small Fort. We also got the chance to go to the Ghetta Muzeum which
has excellent exhibits on the artwork of children both who died in the camps and who survived. This was particulary moving. We also saw a video of Nazi propaganda which showed how people lived in the ghetto. What was most impactful was that they read out the statistics of the different plans of people transported to the camps listing the number who went and the number who survived. On one of the journeys 7,800 people were sent to Auschwitz only 96 survived; on some trips over 1,000 people were sent and none survived. I will spare you the rest of the details but it was very important for me as a historian to go and visit these places and begin to understand what life must have been like during these times where the Jews were forced to obey the Nuremburg Laws and to have to live in such horrible conditions, many dying of starvation and disease in the ghettos and sadly being sent to the camps despite the fact that they had committed no crime... just because they were Jewish. It is important to remember though that in addition to the Jews, many gypsies, homosexuals and other individuals who were
not part of the "Aryan" ideal were killed too. In going to Terezin and learning of their plight I am learning to understand the tragedies of their past.
Any way, it is very hot here in Prague, tomorrow we take the train to Teplice nad Metuji still in the Czech Republic and then we head to Auschwitz and Krakow.
Hope you are all doing well.
Thinking of you. Wish you could see all that I am lucky enough to see here in Eastern Europe.
Hugs,
Katy
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Ryan
non-member comment
Amazing
Hey Katy! Just wanted to say what an educated post that was! To read about these stories in our history texts are one thing, but to actually see it for what it really is, truly puts the experience into perspective. Looking forward to stories from Auschwitz and Krakow! Ryan