The Watkins Family Adventures: Terezin Concentration Camp Memorial

We were all awake early again, so got ready and headed to the dining room for breakfast. Once again we enjoyed a huge variety from the buffet. Alison and I tried the fresh made waffles today! They were delicious!

After breakfast we met up with others in our group for a tour to Terezin Concentration Camp Memorial - about an hour's drive north west of Prag, which was opened in 1947 on the initiative of the newly created Czechoslovak government. The key mission of the Terzin Memorial, the only institution of its kind in the Czech Republic, is to commemorate the victims of the Nazi persecution during the occupation of the Czech lands in World War 11 and to look after the memorial sites connected with the suffering and death of thousands of victims. Terezin was established at the end of the 18^th century as a fortress and is still surrounded by its massive ramparts. After Hitler’s occupation of Czechoslovakia, the Nazis opened a police prison within the small fortress. It housed Czech & Moravian patriots and members of numerous resistance groups. In five years, some 32,000 men and women passed through the gates of the Small Fortress. The conditions under which the prisoners lived worsened from year to year and prisoners were forced into slave labour with the majority of prisoners working outside the fortress for various firms in the area, and until the closing days of the War contributed to production and work for the Reich. Citizens of Jewish origin were hunted down and, from November 1941, gradually deported to the town of Terezin (the Main Fortress), where the Nazis arranged a ghetto for them. Here they were to be massed until the extermination camps further east were ready to carry out their final liquidation. In less than four years, more than 140,000 prisoners were brought her – men, women and children. In the last days of the War, a further 15,000 prisoners arrived at Terezin from the east, carrying a total of more than 87,000 individuals; of these, only 3,800 would see liberation. The fate of the children of Terezin was equally tragic; of the 7,590 youngest prisoners deported, a mere 142 survived until liberation. The situation of prisoners at Terezin was complicated at the end of the War by the evacuation transports which arrived there between April 20^th and May 6^th, 1945. Thousands of pitiful and seriously ill prisoners who arrived at this time brought with them typhus, which quickly spread to the original Jewish occupants. By the end of May the worst of the epidemic had passes and the repatriation of liberated prisoners, who came from a total of 30 countries, lasted until 21^st August 1945.

We visited the Museum in the town of Terezin. There Alison found a copy of the book "Hana's Suitcase" which she started to read as a class novel at the beginning of the year. She bought her own copy so she can finish reading the book.

One of the courtyards of Terezin

more buildings at Terezin

more than 600 people were squashed into this room - with some having to sleep on the floor!

there is barbed wire all around

at the front of Terezin is this memorial cemetery for all who died here - this is the Christian part of the cemetery.

this is the Jewish part of the cemetery

the complex is surrounded by a moat and high walls

the Jewish Cemetery near the Crematorium

the Crematorium

The tour finished at the Crematorium where many Jews were cremated.

From there, we came back to the hotel by coach, arriving just before 2.00pm. We left some of our stuff in the room and headed down to Wenceslas Square for lunch. We decided to try one of the local “hot dogs”. Keith & Alison enjoyed theirs but I didn’t like it. After lunch we headed to a Bohemia Crystal Shop to do some shopping. Alison got a necklace and I got a Crystal mouse to add to my collection. We wandered around for a while longer, stopping for a drink and spiral doughnut looking thing we had seen people eating! It was really delicious!