TEREZIN

It was a clear, almost sunny day in late October; I had a thick, woolen sweater on me, and yet I felt chills all over my body. My brain was busy translating sights into people and happenings, my camera 'behaved' as if it highly resented the idea of taking pictures.

Visiting a place which used to serve as ghetto, prison and concentration camp was not an enjoyable experience .

Terezin (Teresienstadt) , a peaceful little town one hour north of Prague. has been turned by the Nazis into a ghetto for the jews of Czechia and adjacent countries during World War Two.

Things are somehow dispersed here, confusing the first time visitor. There's the main site (the city Ghetto) and a small fortress ( Gestapo political prison) - some twenty minutes walk apart from each other. Both places have museums and exhibitions , cemeteries, yards, barracks, torture cells, bunks, gallows - all testimony to the attrocities that have been comitted here by the Nazis.

'Arbeit Macht Frei ' sign ( upon the inner gate)

inhuman cell

Outside of the small fortress (Mala Pevnost - built in the 18 century on the edge of the town of Terezin) , near the entrance, there's the National Cemetery , dedicated to the victims of Terezin prison and concentration camp. Buried here are people exhumated from the mass graves within the fortress, urns containing ashes from the Crematorium of the Ghetto, and also remains of the dead from the Ghetto. In all, 10,000 victims (jews and other nationalities - and there 's a Cross and a David's Shield on the spot).

entrance to the small fortress


national cemetery

I believe , a visiti to places like Terezin (Czech Republic) , Dachau (Germany), Auschwitz (Poland) gives one a new perspective to the concepts of Life and Death; it teaches a lot about Human Nature , about Evil and Suffering. After visiting places like the above mentioned , one's view of the world ceases to be romantic , and becomes more lucid and realistic.