Lidice @ MindSay 
Sunday was an early wake-up as I had to catch a bus a few metro stops away at 8:30 a.m. About 70 students from my program headed to Terezin an hour outside Prague. I didn’t know too much about the area before I left; only that it was a holding camp for Jews and other prisoners during the Holocaust and also a ghetto.
Our first stop was Lidice. Today, it is just a monument and a museum dedicated to an entire Czech town that was completely destroyed by the Nazi regime. After one of the members of the town was suspected of helping in the assassination of a Nazi general, the entire town was wiped out. Men were killed immediately or sent to Auschwitz, and women and children were sent to camps as well or to live with new families in Germany. Where there was once a large city of almost 400 people, today there is just a hill and valley and a few monuments. One of them is a statue of many of the children who were killed in Lidice. It is a bronze statue of children starring at the area where the town once stood and now only grass grows.
No more than 45 minutes from there is Terezin. Originally a small fortress and then a prison in the late 19th century and during WWI, Terezin was used as a holding camp for people all throughout Europe, but mainly Czechoslovakia. Political opponents, Jews, gypsies, many different groups were housed here and a great majority of them were later sent to Auschwitz. It was an odd experience being in Terezin just one week after spending an entire day at Auschwitz. In truth, I felt desensitized in many ways throughout the day. Just eight days prior, I roamed Auschwitz, a much more storied camp and larger space. This is not to say that Terezin is any less significant; it simply caught me very off guard to not be as emotional or moved by Terezin. Part of the reason may be because Terezin is so well preserved, looking much the same as it did sixty years ago, while Auschwitz is ruins, destroyed barracks, and demolished gas chambers and crematoriums. With that, Terezin looks like any other fortress with high walls, lots of crammed sleeping areas, and areas for prisoners and guards. Auschwitz, however, is unique in its complete and utter destruction as well as the feelings you expect to encounter as you go there from the hundreds of stories, books, and movies that detail the story. Additionally, going through Terezin as a group of 70 felt like I was touring the place more than experiencing it, as Auschwitz felt.
From the fortress and prison, we went to the town of Terezin that was turned into a ghetto during the war. Jews were kept within the city, crammed in close quarters with limited amenities and even less knowledge of their situation and fates. We toured two museums while there, and both were well done and interesting, but I wish the tour would have included more of a walk through the city than a museum dedicated to the city. Again, I just think it was the size of the group that hurt the trip because the program, CIEE, did a great job with it, but large groups tend to lessen the experience a bit.
Sunday is the Oscars and I hear John Stewart is hosting, but they don’t come on here until 2 a.m. and I have no interest in staying up until 7 a.m. just to hear who wins, so I’ll wait until the next day to check them out. Plus, I’m pretty convinced no bar, not even the best expat bar, will care to stay open for the Oscars.
On the movie note, there is a great film festival in Prague right now called the One World Film Festival. It is an international festival featuring documentaries and full-length features that deal with human rights. I plan to catch a few of them on Tuesday and Wednesday.
I’m getting to sleep early tonight, try to store some hours for the coming week. Traveling next weekend is up in the air right now as it is the weekend before spring break and we are guaranteed to be out of town for the next five weekends in a row. I’d like to stick around and catch a soccer, sorry football, game on Saturday in the city if I can. Anyway, see you later, have fun and enjoy.
