Trip to Prague

TEREZIN & PRAGUE, CZECH REPUBLIC:

April 12, 2016

My research had informed me that Terezìn was a town on the German-Czech border that the Nazis constructed a ghetto and prison camp around. Not only was it a place to abuse innocent victims and later send them to camps, but it was advertised by the media as a resort hotel where Jews and workers would find opportunity and live comfortably, luxuriously, and happily. Obviously, this was not true; it was used as a trick to lure Jews into internment and would soon end most of their lives. At Terezìn, we were met by our tour guide Michaela. She gave us a detailed history of the prison camp headquarters and the ghetto. While inside the barracks, she pointed out the hundreds of drawings that were displayed on the musty, yellow walls. These drawings were created by children and teen victims who had no other way to express themselves, but through art. They drew their meager fellow inmates and their vile surroundings; these unique primary source perspectives through art are rare. The images were erie and heartbreaking, and the children’s emotions were conveyed clearly through them. We were then seated in a theater, where the Terezin film commercial was projected. ‘Evil’ does not even describe these immoral actions of trickery and oppression.