The first half of the day, to put it mildly, was mentally heavy. I recall that earlier this morning, Dr. Friends challenged me to let the smells of the Terezin ghetto guide me through the tour. But frankly speaking, I was too scared to smell. The sharp stone quarters in which the prisoners lived spoke for themselves. Some rooms had craggy wooden bunk beds where seven people (or even more) were forced to share a compact space at a time, infested with fungus and disease. Some rooms didn’t have beds; guards coerced many Jewish prisoners into standing continuously for hours, even days, with only two steel buckets for a bathroom that guards would empty weekly. Ridiculous! I vividly remember our tour guide, Philip, describing one abandoned gallows the Nazis used to execute prisoners. He explained that the drop was too short, which caused prisoners to suffocate agonizingly instead of having their necks broken instantly. However, when Philip was explaining why the guards got rid of the gallows, he used words like “inefficient” and “arduous,” rather than words like “inhumane” or “barbaric.” His diction depicted words that people use to describe pests. I appreciate Philip’s style of presenting us with the facts; not only did he provide us with the information, but he also put us in the mindset of the Nazis as he explained some of their absurd reasoning, which was his way of connecting with the material he was discussing.
After our journey through Terezín, we drove to Prague, Czechia. This segment of our day focused on experiencing the culture, and beginning to appreciate a new country in our trip. Here we enjoyed the beautiful sights of the city, getting a sneak peak at the day to come where we would tour in depth Prague and its connection to the Holocaust. We ate lunch at a beautiful spot not too far away from the famous Astronomical Clock and walked around town shortly after our meal. After strolling around the town, we boarded a boat and sailed around Prague, going under the revered Charles Bridge and all of its statues. Finally, we rounded out the day with dinner in a charming spot in town and shortly after drove back to our new hotel and settled in for the night.
