Day 6: Terezin and Old Prague Ham
Tony and I woke up early this morning to try and get yesterday’s blog up before heading out – the internet was slow, so sorry for the delay yesterday!
We walked a whole three minutes over to Old Town Square to meet the bus, and started our one hour journey outside of the city to see a concentration camp.
Terezin, or Teresientadt, was built for use as a military fortress, starting in the 1780’s, but then was used as a political prison during the 19th century. In 1940 the Gestapo (Nazi Secret Police) was assigned to Terezin, and it became a ghetto – a concentration camp.
Terezin was huge.
There was a “small fortress”, which was very large, and also a large fortress. There were “dormitories, and a crematorium.
Although Terezin was not an “liquefaction” site, or an “extermination camp” thousands upon thousands died of starvation, terrible living conditions., and typhus toward the end and even after the end of WWII.
Terezin was often used as a “first stop” for Jews to first be “concentrated”, before being transported to Auschwitz or another concentration camp for extermination. Also used for propaganda, the site would be used to demonstrate how “nice” concentration camps could be, including staged bathrooms and “comfortable” living quarters that weren’t actually used by the Jews.
It was an intense day, to say the least. Here are a few pictures:
NOTE: Tony also uploaded a bunch more pictures from Terezin (with background/historical info) on his personal page.
We arrived back to the city at 3pm and were starved!
We sat in Old Town Square for a late lunch – I tried some Czech goulash, and Tony (surprise) had a chicken Cesar salad. We knew we’d be too pooped to go back out again later for dinner, so we took the advice of an attendee at Tony’s workshop and bought some “Old Prague Ham” from a street Vendor, and went back home for a night in.
I cooked up the zucchini from the Farmer’s Market , and along with the Carrots and the Old Prague Ham, we had a relaxing night at home!
Tomorrow, our last day in Prague. Sad, I know!
Talk to you then,
Lisa
(and Tony).
