Terezin

On Sunday my friends Kristen, Katie and her friend visiting (Becky) took a bus to Terezin. It's about an hour north of Prague. It's a walled city that was built to protect the Czechs from the Germans back in the day (like the vague history?). During WWII, the Germans ironically took control of the town, moving out the few thousand residents and moving in 60,000 Jews. The town was a ghetto, and used to show the world how good the Jews' lives were in their own community. Of course a lie. There's also a small fortress that acted as a gestapo prison and concentration camp. This is the third concentration camp I've been to and honestly, I'm ready to see some happy history. But I still think it's a good thing to see up close, and though emotional, amazing that this actually happened, that hate and ignorance and pride and just plain evil resulted in the deaths of so many. The people living in the ghetto of Terezin daily lived with the fear of being transfered to Aushwitz, and many of them were, and most of those died.

I've been watching all the news on the war in Iraq, and quite amazed to think how I now live in a place that once resembled what's happening there now.

(pics: symbolic grave; sign to gate reading "work makes one free"; windows to where prisoners slept; door to barracks)