We’ve got a lot of driving to do today, and little else. So we have decided to take a trip to Terezin – it is really out of the way – an hour past Prague (where we will be staying the night), but we’re very interested in the camp there. And, it’s less driving than going to the Mauthausen camp in Austria – although we’ve read that it is an incredible experience there.
So, we pack up, have breakfast and head out of the hotel by 8:15. Alice gets all confused because there is a one-way street she doesn’t know about, but we figure out our way and get headed in the right direction. Unfortunately that direction was clogged with traffic. It took forever to get through the outskirts of the city and onto the “highway” to head to Prague and Terezin. On the way, we pass a line of about 500 Syrian refugees—men, women and children--waiting at some building. The name didn’t make sense to us (sometimes we can figure these things out – but not here). It’s the only time we’ve seen them. We expected to see many more along the road, since we are driving exactly where they are traveling (Hungary to Austria and eventually to Germany). But, this is our only sighting.
Outside of town, there is a wreck involving 3 tractor trailer trucks. And it has the whole roadway shut down. Fortunately, it is going in the opposite direction, but it is 9 KM long and at a dead standstill. The worst part is, the back up extends well before the airport exit. There are tons of cabs sitting there, stuck. Can’t even imagine that stress if you are trying to make a flight!
As we finally make it out of town, Alice sends us on these roads that don’t seem to be autoroutes. There’s got to be a better way (Google showed a couple different routes) but you know Alice – always the scenic route. Honestly! And it is scenic - driving through the Austrian Wine County – acres upon acres of vineyards and farmland.
There are some adorable towns, like Poysdorf, with a wine market and more vineyards. There is also this great sign, made up entirely of different color wine bottles that spells out Brod & Wein. If only we wanted food – we would have stopped!
After some minor diversions (I missed an exit once we were finally on the stupid autoroute), Dodo Alice sends us directly through Prague to get to Route 8 on the other side for Terezin. Really? come on! We could have gone the bypass which is auto route – but no – right through town. Oh, and right past our hotel as well. Well, at least we know where we are!
An hour later we roll into Terezin, right past the work Camp we want to tour. There is a large parking lot that says “free parking & free wifi” – hey, that’s for us. Signs direct us to the museum (600 Meters to the left) and the Fortress (300 Meters to the right). We head to the museum first – which turns out to be way more than 600 meters – but this will be our exercise for the day.
We really need to get more info on Terezin, and will find a book at the library or Kindle – because this place is so different from the extermination camps. It is a transit camp, where the vast majority of Jews came on their way to Auschwitz and other “final solution” camps. But here, they house children and intellectuals and artists who were able to put on theater productions (both young and old), and also make drawings and writings about daily life in and around Terezin. By no means a wonderful place, but different than other camps. Those who were chosen to work were still tortured and deprived of food, but there was much more culture here.
I could spend hours in the museum – they have an incredible amount of information and relics from the time – notes, diaries, paintings, drawings – and all the explanations are in English, so you could just walk through this place and read everything (in a day or two!). We decide to just skim what we could, because, it will take entirely too long to really absorb everything here – and there is so much else to see.
The town itself is oddly quaint and serene (well, maybe not so oddly, but with its history you just don’t want to like it, you know?) – and very picturesque as we walk down to the barracks that housed the many “transitory” Jews.
The barracks are very much more palatable than any others we have seen. Because the Nazis used Terezin as an “example” to International Organizations to show off how well they were treating the Jews, the living quarters were much better than in the extermination camps – and probably other camps around. When the Red Cross came to inspect, the Nazis even cut off the top section of the 3 bunks so it looked like there were only 2 levels of bunk beds in the dormitories. They even produced movies showing how much fun all the Jews were having at the “retirement” camp – as they called it. Scary, sad and sick.
Of course, these are just the dormitories in the old military barracks. The work camp itself was a different story – although still better than Auschwitz. We walked back the 600 (ho ho ho) meters to the Work camp, where the National Cemetery is placed right out side the gate, with the oddest juxtaposition of the Cross and the Star of David. Strange (doesn’t really show in these pictures, but the Cross is in the middle of the graveyard, and the Star of David up on a rise at the end of the graveyard, next to the camp walls).
We go explore the camp – but without an extra cost guide, so we just walk through the living quarters, looking at bunks and rooms with desks and other items we don’t totally understand, but get the basic premise.
It’s been raining like crazy the last few days, so the yard is a mess of mud, and we can pretty much imagine it to be this way or worse during the camp days. In the back of the dormitories is a long, dark tunnel with a sign saying 500 meters. We walk a few meters in, but then turn back because we don’t trust their distances (see above with the museum!) and we’re not quite sure where this leads – so – nah – let’s skip it (even though we know a couple of tour groups have gone in there because they were back here, and then they disappeared….eery…..).
We cross over that was probably once a moat…
…and back into the main area, we wander into the cell block where they must have held prisoners (as if the whole camp isn’t a prison)….
…and around a creepy exhibit by a local painter who has taken original photos of the camp and super-imposed blood, slaughtered livestock and naked human bodies atop them. Ick – I get it – but I don’t need to see it.
That about concluded our tour here. We got back to the car, and then went out to the crematorium which was on the outskirts of the town. This was used for bodies of those who died while here – it wasn’t used to exterminate. At first, they just buried the bodies of the dead, but they quickly ran out of room, and began cremating them. First putting their ashes in wood boxes, and finally ending up using paper boxes there were that many.
At the entrance to the crematorium is an interesting rock sculpture presented in January 2015 (the 70th anniversary of the end of the war) by the European Jewish Congress on behalf of all the Jews who were murdered or incarcerated in Terezin.
Wow. We have reading to do!
Back on the road to Prague, there was horrendous traffic. So many trucks, it was crazy. There is an amazing number of them on the road here. It took us forever to get back, and for once Alice sent us in the right direction – going straight through town was the right move, as the backup to get on the ring road was kilometers long with all the trucks going that way!
Since we know where we are now – having spent 3 days at the Coronet hotel already), getting there, parking and checking in were not an issue. We dumped our bags and headed to the little Asian grocery for beer and wine. They don’t have the same wine (how can that be???) and the Asian girl tried to rip us off for 100 Czk Kroners giving us change. Um, no, you owe us 100. She gives us a 10 coin. N0, there’s a 0 missing – even me with the “0” problem knows we need 100 back – not 10. She kept playing dumb, but finally gave us our money. I wasn’t leaving without it!
Crisis averted! Back at the hotel we organize our bags (flying again – all liquids in the correct bags) and head to dinner at Kandlebr. We hate going to the same place twice, but it’s pouring and we’re not in the mood to try to ferret out someplace new. Plus, this place is just cool!
Great waiter, great service – I got camembert wrapped in bacon with raspberry marmalade and grilled pineapples. Yum!
Ed got the mixed grill with a ton of different sausage. They delivered the plate, and the big reveal….revealed nothing! Where is the sausage? Where is the rib eye steak and the chicken and the bacon and everything?
Apparently it is a joke they play on the waiters – because our waiter finally comes over and looks, and then laughs and tells us they are playing a joke. Too funny. We were laughing too, because after all, it was pretty funny. The real meal finally came, and as usual, was excellent!
Great end to a great tour around the Czech Republic, Hungary, Austria and Slovakia!
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