Terezin, the Theriesenstadt!

We detoured our trip through this uninteresting, nearly deserted town called Terezin, near Litomerice where we spent a night, wondering what would we see. I guided Alex to drive down there just because I briefly saw the name of the town on our guidebook, “… a deeply moving day trip…” I recalled.

I then flipped through the book again and read out loud to Alex, who is driving at that time. “The huge 18th-century fortress town of Terezin is better known to history as Theriesenstadt – a notorious WWII concentration camp… in the Main Fortress, where the Museum of the Ghetto documents daily life in the town in WWII. The Lesser Fortress is a 10-minutes walk east across the Ohre River, where you can take a grimly fascinating self-guilded tour through the prison barracks, isolation cells, workshops, morgues, execution grounds and former mass graves…”

OH MY GOODNESS! We nearly miss one of the most historical important concentration camp! We instantly stopped the car and ran to the Museum of Ghetto. We then spent the next 4 hours there, absorbing the painful experience of the WWII prisoners…

Personally I am very impressed by the artistically inclined display in Museum of Ghetto. The museum established in October 1991, houses a permanent exhibition tracing the history of the Ghetto and portraying the individual aspects of everyday life of the inmates as well as artworks (i.e. drawing, painting, poem and music) made by both adult and young prisoners.

‘The children’s paintings exhibited in this museum bear eloguent witness to the world of their authors. The children who painted them put their feelings, desires, ideas and memories of homeinto them. The lives of the great majority of these young artists were annihilated. Their artwork thus remains an indictment against those who had a part in such a horrific crime.’ Text from the display. My heart sank and my soul moved while glancing through the display… I found some very strong works here.

‘Anti-Semitism had been one of the core components of Nazi ideology since the NSDAP esd founded. Of course, it entailed more than just propaganda and verbal assaults against Jews. Discrimination against Jews became tenacious shortly after the Nazis took power.’ Text from the display.

For more information about Museum of Ghetto, check: http://www.pamatnik-terezin.cz

One of my strongest curiosity has been developed after coming to Europe is the Jew community. The discovery of Terezin on our way to Praque was a pleasant cum bitter surprise. It gave me better understanding to a small part of their history especially during WWII…

Jing