Day 4: Czech Republic

Longest. Day. Ever. Almost 12 miles of walking and record high temperature of 104 degrees!!  We had a jam-packed day. 

In the morning, we took a walking tour of Prague. Our tour guide, Luba, was an amazing treasure. I learned so much that I cannot possibly record it all, but here I will capture the peaks. 

Charles Bridge: commissioned by King Charles after prior kings had wooden bridges built. Myth says that King Charles requested all Bohemia farmers to bring him eggs to use in building the bridge. Why?  The calcium in the eggs. At this point, the bridge is ancient (I need to check with someone else to see when it was built) and there is no scientific evidence that this is true. There also stand 31 statues, all of which are representative of religious, mythical, or famous people of Prague.  From there, we walked down around the canal and under beautiful overpasses. Also saw these... Charming statues. Worth a good laugh. 

Next, we drove to the top of Prague and got out to explore Prague Castle. The cathedral was ordered by King Charles to be built for his French bride. His builder came from France and spent the remainder of his life building. The building took six centuries to complete!  Lots of neat stories about the stained glass windows inside. We were witness to the changing of the guards, as well. This was a handsome site to see ;-) It was a great morning, but we did a lot of listening and waiting, so there's not much more interesting to report on. 

Next we drove out to the Bohemian uplands to Terezin Ghetto. Terezin (Theresienstadt) was a unique camp of the Holocaust. Terezin served as a holding pen until deportation. Terezin was originally an early Jewish settlement in the 16th century.  After they were forced to resettle, the fort was used and taken over. Hitler established a reputation for Terezin: a self-contained center of Jewish culture in which families lived together, children went to school, food was aplenty, and life was good. This was an obvious deception. The original fort was established for a 7k person community. At its peak in WWII, 58k prisoners lived. 

In 1944, the International Red Cross set up a visit of the camp. The entire place was made over to look well and good. After a few hours' visit and dinner at the hotel, they deemed the camp in good order and health under good management. Basically. In reality, typhus was rampant and so many died and were buried in the surrounding fields, that the Nazis dug up or dumped piles of bodies into the crematoria and dumped ashes in the river. Today, people SWIM there.  

There were amazingly talented prisoners everywhere, but Terezin allowed for those creative to pursue their talents (for Nazi purposes).  However, the art, literature, music, and design movements and remnants remain. Children, too, were encouraged to take up art and their haunting work remains. 

For me, this was the most useful experience. While it's true that I could research at home, there's a feeling a person has standing in a converted barracks reading poetry and waking through an art gallery and memorial where many before me stood.  Students need a more personal connection. I envision myself using photos from this trip as a supplement to specific memoir excerpts or poems or art specific to each camp. There are some truly amazing stories of cultural dedication and courage.  Most of all, artwork is timeless. It could be put aside modern children's artwork and analyzed for mood, tone, subject, story. Lots of activities possible for today's experience!

Terezin is a town today and there is such an eerie and desolate feeling walking through it. I don't know how anyone could live in the same walls as the 200,000 prisoners who struggled to survive between 1940-1945. Even after liberation, freed Jews and their liberators (Russia) died of typhus, basically written a death notice by isolating the sick.  There's little green grass, children's toys, stores, or people around. I guess offering low-income housing in a former ghetto and one of the Nazis' most deceptive secrets isn't really enough!!  

The Jewish Cemetery and memorials were up next. In front of a granite menorah we had a small service consisting of the Jewish Kaddash prayer, Psalm 23, and a Terezin child's poetry. It was moving and there were tears. 

Outside the walls there is the Small Fortress, a jail for political prisoners. There are some interesting history and sites, but I was so hot and hangry by 4:30 that I kind of shut down. 

(More to come. Very tired. Will pick up tomorrow and repost.)

 But here are two teasers:

And now... Poland!