Today we continue our journey south west out of the Carpathian Mountains and towards our final destination of Prague. Our first stop was the Terezin Concentration Camp. This is not your typical death camp. The neighborhood began as a Czech Military base before the Nazis seized control of the area and turned it into a concentration camp, death camp and propaganda machine. Concentration camp because hundreds of thousands of Jews were forced to resettle in certain areas of the village and forced to engage in slave labor for the Nazis. Terezin was a holding station for Jews before they were sent to other camps, most likely Auschwitz to work and be gassed. Although Terezins primary purpose was to establish a ghetto and concentrate Jews for transportation, the Nazis did establish a gas chamber and finally a crematorium to murder Jewish residents. The most disturbed part of Terezins story is how the camp served as a propaganda tool. The Swedish red cross was invited to visit a fabricated version of Terezin in order to distract attention from Nazi death camps at a time when the Nazis were hoping to broker a ceasefire agreement with the Western Allied nations. A most disgusting detail is how after the Swedish report was sent to the American Red Cross, the US used the report, knowing very well it was a lie, to quiet Jews trying to reach out to the US to intervene and bomb the camps.
Second detail, in a Jewish act of defiance a synagogue was built in an old store room and Jews under the penalty of death worshiped behind it's wall, until the Nazis reversed their punishment and allowed Jews to worship in order to film it's use an further their propaganda campaign to show the Jewish religion was tolerated. From Terezin we drove to Prague were we had the whole afternoon and night to ourselves. This is when the trip became less of an "experience" and more of a vacation. We left the hotel more then 30 strong, but as most of these trips go, the clicks scatter and I was soon walking with 6 or 7 people who still looked like lost puppies in an unfamiliar city, with lots of people and shiny souvenirs we slumbered down the street in disarray, it wasn't until their appetites began to wine that the amputation had to be made and me and a girl named Ivy made a graceful departure. I was hoping this would happen and I was just waiting for the right time to ask if we wanted to break off from the group and walk the streets like we did yesterday or was it the day before.
Anyway, we had a wonderful dinner, which was combined approximately 17 bucks total after you drop all the Crowna zeros and covert to dollars. Wilth Ivy navigating the streets I was free to look, observe and question. We talked about everything and anything best of friends would hope to talk about. I learned so much from our conversations, there are so many wheels turning in this world, it is so hard to pay attention to the parts when make up the machine. As the sky darkened senate desert outside a near by monastery. The city looked beautiful below us. We walked, and walked and walked some more, then we snuck into a hotel to use their computer, a little escape back to reality. I closed my eyes. It was midnight now and we beaded back to the hotel. Bats flew in the night skies ans large spiders began to their assent up the churches walls. We climbed the stairs of a cathedral, plopped on the ground with our backs on the big cask iron door and Ivy read to me from her journal. It was remarkable. Such poetry and emotions I cannot begin to describe. Her journal put me in a trance and I understood much of the emotion that conversation often misses. I slept well with the sounds and sights of Bohemia fresh in my brain.
Second detail, in a Jewish act of defiance a synagogue was built in an old store room and Jews under the penalty of death worshiped behind it's wall, until the Nazis reversed their punishment and allowed Jews to worship in order to film it's use an further their propaganda campaign to show the Jewish religion was tolerated. From Terezin we drove to Prague were we had the whole afternoon and night to ourselves. This is when the trip became less of an "experience" and more of a vacation. We left the hotel more then 30 strong, but as most of these trips go, the clicks scatter and I was soon walking with 6 or 7 people who still looked like lost puppies in an unfamiliar city, with lots of people and shiny souvenirs we slumbered down the street in disarray, it wasn't until their appetites began to wine that the amputation had to be made and me and a girl named Ivy made a graceful departure. I was hoping this would happen and I was just waiting for the right time to ask if we wanted to break off from the group and walk the streets like we did yesterday or was it the day before.
Anyway, we had a wonderful dinner, which was combined approximately 17 bucks total after you drop all the Crowna zeros and covert to dollars. Wilth Ivy navigating the streets I was free to look, observe and question. We talked about everything and anything best of friends would hope to talk about. I learned so much from our conversations, there are so many wheels turning in this world, it is so hard to pay attention to the parts when make up the machine. As the sky darkened senate desert outside a near by monastery. The city looked beautiful below us. We walked, and walked and walked some more, then we snuck into a hotel to use their computer, a little escape back to reality. I closed my eyes. It was midnight now and we beaded back to the hotel. Bats flew in the night skies ans large spiders began to their assent up the churches walls. We climbed the stairs of a cathedral, plopped on the ground with our backs on the big cask iron door and Ivy read to me from her journal. It was remarkable. Such poetry and emotions I cannot begin to describe. Her journal put me in a trance and I understood much of the emotion that conversation often misses. I slept well with the sounds and sights of Bohemia fresh in my brain.
No comments:
Post a Comment