During our last full day in Prague, we opted to tour Terezin, a military post from the nineteenth century, that was converted into a concentration camp to hold Czechlosavakia’s Jewish population. Jews from neighboring countries were also deported to Terezin.
Terezin was not an extermination camp and did not have a gas chamber. It was more of a forced labor camp … but many died of overcrowding, malnutrition, and disease. And when the Nazi’s Final Solution plan was formulated, Terezin’s Jews were transported to Auschwitz and Treblinka for extermination.
Our guide repeated many times that Terezin was “not a happy place.” But the Jewish residents of the camp believed that the rail transports were taking them to be farmers in Ukraine or Southern Russia … not a great life, but not death. The rail car above was listed as a replica of those used for the transports.
The Camp consisted of blocks of rooms which had wooden slats for sleeping. There were originally mattresses, which were eventually removed for bug infestations.
The Camp was set up by the Nazis, and feedback started to leak out of the atrocities… specifically, the King of Denmark wanted to know the fate of 700 Danish Jews sent to Terezin. While winning, the Nazis blew off any attempt to cooperate … but when they began to lose, the Nazis set up a visit with the Red Cross to tour Terezin. Many Jews were transported out to suggest a picture of accceptable numbers. The Nazis presented soccer games and orchestra concerts to show a positive Camp lifestyle. The Red Cross did not push any limits during the tour and reported a generally positive picture of the Camp. The day after the tour, the members of the Jewish orchestra were sent to Auschwitz.
We toured Terezin’s Cemetery which contained roughly 15,000 bodies. A Cross and Star of David are mounted to honor the deaths of Christians and Jews. While some are buried in marked graves, most are in the mass graves you see just above. Our guide also said that many bodies were transported about 20 miles away to a mass crematory.
This tour was one I really wanted to do … it seemed very personal. Mrs Bear is Jewish, and her father was assigned to troops that helped liberate the Nazi Death Camps at the end of WW II. He once told me that he never forgot the stench. Touring Terezin was a good first step … Someday we will make it to Poland.
The Adventures of Barry Brink 
I have never been able to bring myself to visit the concentration camps. The holocaust museums are enough to make me weep for hours. I must visit a camp though – my tears are irrelevant in the scheme of things.