Day #10: Saturday, February 23, 2019 (Prague/Terezin)

Today I woke up around 6:40, texted Mrs . Freeman I was awake at 6:42, took a long hot shower until 7 then got ready to take on the day. We were forewarned that it would be a chilly day so my roommate and I layered on four shirts to keep warm, I layered on double pants and double socks. Double scarves too just tired be safe. I ate a decent breakfast, drank some bomb ginger green tea and set out for the bus. We observed on the way to the memorial many sites such as Charles Square with the new town hall and a Prague car accident between a bus and car to the left. In addition, we passed a famous church where the three men who assassinated Heidrich hid there in the church basement and we also saw the site where one of the largest battles of war took place. There were even bullet holes on the walls of the church! I was surprised at how beautiful the buildings looked, so pastel and colorul, as well as rich in history. Additionally we passed by the dancing building also known as the Fred and Ginger building made by Frank Gerry (idk how to spell it) an American architect and there was a "Hunger wall” built at the end of the royal property. Mick Jagger performed in Prague on a stadium we briefly glimpsed at where the large communist games took place as well during the commission regime. This story was particularly funny because  as a result of the concert, the whole city experienced a blackout and so out of embarrassment, he then funded the lights in the castle. Can I just say, mood. On the way to Terezin aka Theresienstadt we saw a memorial - a series of stairs with unfinished people created to commemorate communism and it has been attacked by terrorism and bombed twice. Prague is the only European country that does not have a museum to communism which is particularly interesting because he memorial has a very American style to the design.


When we got to the ghetto, we saw a church which was cleaned by workers from outside while Jews were living there. This clearly proves that some people knew about what was going on inside to the Jews. On the land around this church, kids were not allowed to play on grass, which must have been a bummer. We also saw the girls’ barracks where some of the artistic drawings and paintings we saw had been made by the children there. Further on the walking tour, we stopped to see a mental hospital where people were not allowed to commit suicide because only Nazi could control their lives and deaths and so if anyone did kill themselves, the next 10 on a list were killed. This prompted people not to commit suicide and a noteworthy psychologist I forget the name of encouraged disemployed people to work at soup kitchen (unpaid) to help them and they were able to find resources to get a job. By busying themselves with community service, they were able to stay alive and figure out how to make and living which sounds wholesome in its right but also goes to show how easily capitalist/communist propaganda is spread.


Later on the tour we saw a brewery (which Mr  Hourigan recognized), which became a center with water access for showers and delousing, especially since there was a fear of disease spreading. Our tour guide Mr. Crane told us the story about a group of boys from Auschwitz who were sent on a train to Terezin around 1942 when people generally had no idea about the camps. These boys freaked out in the showers at Terezin and told stories of what happened in Auschwitz with fake showers in the gas chambers. However, to prevent word from spreading, they formed a football league to keep away from other kids, then the boys were later sent back to Auschwitz. This story stuck out to me particularly because Terezin was known as a "spa town" specifically since it was supposed to be ideal. We were hen told that German Jews came with high heels and fancy clothes, they even paid first class tickets on trains to get to the town of Terezin, but Czech Jews came knowingly with normal sweaters. This made me wonder how Czechs new and why didn't they warn the Germans or how come Germans were left in the dark. It also made me raise an eyebrow when I heard there was a Terezin family camp created in a small section of Auschwitz where there was even a football team of Polish boys similar to the original one for Czech boys in Terezin. This sounds so wholesome and cute, but all good things come to an end and unfortunately they were liquidated.

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Jewish council members were told to create list of 1,000 people to be transported out of Terezin (specifically 1,000 because of a train discount for that number), but many refused to, so the Nazis kept on firing them until they found someone who would comply.


This next part is one of my favorites of this whole trip, we visited the Terezin museum in former Magdeburg barracks which included art, film, music, and theater pieces created by those in the ghetto. People found meaning through the arts and observing all the works or art was truly inspiring for me. They were so precise about capturing their time in the tightly packed bunkers in ghettos, writing specific transport numbers on suitcases, depicting those about to be transported as dead already with skulls. For those who tried to escape, it is heartbreaking to hear of families separated and killed, but also hopeful to hear from those few people who did manage to escape and survived the Holocaust.


Terezin chamber orchestra interested me a lot because I wonder how they felt playing music, receiving higher food rations while also witnessing their friends and families sent to be tortured and how unable they were to do anything to resist. One musician I thought was so strong and passionate, a mean played his own music instead of what he Nazis told him to and he was beaten, but still continued to play his music until he was beaten to death. The people who managed to hide art in walls made me so grateful thinking wow,  had it not been for them, we wouldn't be able to see all this amazing art of charcoal and watercolor, composed music, written poetry and performed theater.

After we saw the museum, we continued the walking tour and learned that Russians had come to Czech Republic in order to escape communism prompting the question of how bad conditions had to have been to bring about this movement of people. So the Russians came to join the party as they were escaping communism with the Germans vs Czechs fighting the same enemy of Nazis, but also trying to survive themselves.
We walked past a yellow house which was a bakery where women got bread, but also picked up dead bodies along the way into their carts. This reminded me that although all the buildings were preserved and the town was kept in tact, there was still tragedy and struggle. We heard the story of a young woman named Helga who was sick with scarlet fever, but survived because her dad sent math worksheets in the mail and she would angrily send them back to him finished. This is claimed to have kept her fighting and alive. I related to this story because it sounded like something my own dad would do. Later, Helga and her mother went to Auschwitz and luckily survived because the chambers ran out of gas! How wild, am I right?

I thought it was also beautiful how all Czech students learned ballroom dancing and one Holocaust survivor recalled wanting to dance with her crush, bringing about a rush of positivity and reminded all of us that we are still humans who feel emotions and can find happiness even in troubling times.


We visited the crematorium, which was created because of issues burying dead bodies due to the high water table. It was shocking that the rabbi here had to persuade the Nazi officials to let them have a crematorium and morgue because of the circumstances and how normally Jews don't believe in cremation. Toward the end of the war, ashes were dumped into a nearby river to try and hide crimes committed by the Nazis. It definitely was odd how the Nazis classified people as Jewish. Instead of people whose mother was Jewish passing down the identity, the Nazis had it flipped and considered those whose fathers were Jewish also as Jewish. Talk about patriarchal sexism. In addition, only male prayers counted in the Jewish religion. We visited a hidden synagogue which at least 8 men knew about because of how many people were necessary for proper prayer. We also saw the fortress where Jews who broke rules in ghetto and resisted as well as some Russians were tortured and imprisoned. It is important that I mention Terezin was not a concentration camp as Auschwitz or Birkenau. This is not to, however, belittle the suffering of people in this place. There were torture chambers, tiny places for solitary confinement, and a brick wall with bullet holes where people were executed for trying to escape or resisting. What makes this all the worse is that these victims were not helped by organizations such as the Red Cross. Representatives visited Terezin and saw decent living quarters as well as a room where Jews would supposedly wash up with the sinks and shave in the mirrors, however there was no water connected to these sinks. I attempted to twist a sink knob, but it wouldn't budge. Had the Red Cross done a better job of inspecting the place, perhaps more lives would have been spared, but they did not and the numbers dead remain unchanged. Leaving the small fortress, I felt rather incapable of helping these people, but I reminded myself that what we can do now is not going back in time, but make sure nothing like this ever happens again. We can educate ourselves, respect the victims, learn about and listen to their stories, and figure out a way to acknowledge their suffering in a way that is not passive, but instead work to educate more and together as a people, be grateful for the lives we have.


After the bus ride from Terezin back to Prague, we crossed the Charles bridge, I bought some souvenirs, and I’m going to jump to the highlight if my day: Jazz! We entered the jazz club, smelling of smoke, but on the stage was a magnificent percussion set lit with blues and greens from the lights above. In the middle, a black stool with a man and his guitar, which we would be introduced to as Tony, and to the left a large electric piano with its hood opened, which would be played by Martin on the keys. Musa on percussion and later his son Imran joined in on percussion as well. As he music began I scanned my eyes across from Tony and his incredible skills on his seven-string guitar, eyebrows furrowed and hair flopping back and forth, then to Martin tickling the piano keys with and jolly smile on his face as his hands bounced up and down, and to the right to the Musa managing his bajillion instruments the bongo drums, three cow bells, cymbals, chimes, triangle, and more, then to his son Imran keeping the beat with his foot and shaking his head to the music. To see how harmoniously his group performed gave me hope for mankind that we all can create beautiful music if we work together. Amid the rich historical sites and struggles of human life in the past and present, people are stronger as a group. For me as agreed a musician myself, I find it difficult to keep pursuing failed audition after another, but it is performances like these that inspire me to continue learning how to improve or start learning how to play piano again or reach out to others and try to form a band or even just a friendship if I’m lucky.


- Anna

NOTE FROM MS FREEMAN: WE WILL POST WHEN WE HAVE BETTER WI-FI VIDEO OF Declan, Sam C, and Augustine playing percussion with the jazz band!