Terezin - part of the 'Final Solution'

Tuesday 17^th July

Jana had gone out early to do some work in the forest – both are involved in conservation work and it is Honsa’s main job. I went to have breakfast with Honsa and sat in the same chair to eat my breakfast and drink coffee; they don’t have a table to sit at. For breakfast I had crunchy muesli and Jana’s homemade yoghurt with blueberries; it was very nice.

Honsa’s English is not quite as good as Jana’s but we could communicate well. He is a very thoughtful and gentle man. He offers me a choice of activities today because he has to go to his office, and then go to a meeting, so he could drop me off, either to go for a hike in the forest or to go to Litomerice, a very town and explore that for the day. I elect the latter. I wasn’t up for a four hour hike. Honsa also told me I could visit another town nearby, Terezin. Terezin was not only a very large old fortress, much of which is still intact, and the town is situated in the middle of it, but which during the war had been turned into a concentration camp for Jews by the Germans, and in 1942 the entire population of Czechs were ejected for this purpose.

It is about an hour’s drive to Litomerice but it is through very nice countryside. En route, Honsa points out to me various castles, some on the top of hills and other places of interest.

Once in the very large and beautiful town square, unfortunately filled with parked cars in the square, I seek out a coffee shop. We had had an early start, setting out at 7 a.m. I sit under gothic arches to take coffee and a cake. The coffee was good but the cake was hard; I didn’t complain, just left it. Now came wandering time. For a lot of the day the sun hid behind a mottled sky and I kept waiting for the sun to light the coloured decorative buildings.

I walked along various streets, looking around and looking for good photos to take. It was nearing lunchtime and feeling a little hungry I looked for a place to eat. There was a lot of choice but I decided to go down to the little eating and drinking place at the bus station. It was not a good choice. I indicated to the lady what I wanted by pointing at a board of pictures. She microwaved something and bought it out to me, also a small beer. I’m not sure what was in the bap but the only thing I could say about it was that it was hot. I took a few mouthfuls and left it. I then got the bus to Terezin which was a ten minute ride.

As you enter Terezin the old stone ramparts of the 18^th century fortress can be clearly seen. I got off the bus in the centre of town and headed for the information office. Once there, a slightly disinterested man showed me a map of all the places I could visit. Basically there were two choices, either visit the old fortress and learn about Czech history, battles etc, or the area the Germans commandeered during the war for the imprisonment of Jews. I chose the latter. I crossed a wooded square towards the Jewish museum but felt very weary. I sat to rest and gazed at the map, pondering which way to go.

After my rest and calculating which direction, I went to the museum. It wasn’t very big but had a lot of information about the internment of the Jews into the Ghetto and that most of them were deported to the death camps. What was most striking were the pictures the children had drawn on the walls, mostly depicting some aspect of life in the camp. In another room on very large smooth stone tablets were written the names of all the children that had been in the camp. Only some ever survived because many were sent to Auschwitz, Trablinka, Sobibor and other such camps for mass extermination. It is harrowing to visit such a museum but not as harrowing as visiting Auschwitz Birkenau itself; I was there some years ago in Poland.

After my visit there, I wandered around some more and came across a very large warehouse type building. On a plaque on the wall it said that women and children were housed in this building and could never go out, except under guard. However, just across the road were ordinary houses where local people would have lived until 1942, when they were kicked out and the town was then filled with Jews; a town turned into a prison. I couldn’t help wonder how the residents must have felt being neighbours to others whose life was not only terrible but also probably doomed.

I could have visited the police/Gestapo prison just outside the town, goodness knows what happened there, but I was tired and anyway, didn’t fancy seeing more about the terrible things which happened to people there. I headed for the bus station and was glad I only had to wait a minute for its arrival.

Back in Litomerice it was wasn’t yet two and I would have to wait until five when Honsa would pick me up. I had noticed a nice looking restaurant situation in part of what was once the old city wall and headed for that. I hoped it would be third time lucky in getting something decent to eat. I ordered a wild boar sausage in a roll and a dark beer – Czerny pivo. When it finally arrived it was very big, covered in chopped vegetables and sauce, and came with home made hot crisps. It was tasty, a strong flavour, but too big to eat all. After my meal and beer it was time for another walk around town.

Honsa arrived forty-five minutes later than the planned meeting time and by then I was pretty weary. It had been a long hot tiring day. However, on the way back Honsa wanted to show me a religious place of worship high on a hill, which we first saw from a distances. Fortunately we could drive most of the way up but then had to climb the stone steps past the twelve stations-of-the-cross, which devotees pray at on their way to the top. At the top are two towers and a rectangular building which is said to be a replica of the tomb of Jesus but it looked like a stone hut. Although I wasn’t particularly keen on seeing this, the view was spectacular.  

When we got back we headed for the local pub at which you can only sit outside and is only open during the summer season. It was good to sit in the shade and enjoy a beer.