travelling into the past

I jumped on a bus at the last minute and went to Terezin today. Terezin was a town when the Nazi's invaded the borders of the Czech Republic. They ordered all the citizen to leave and turned it into a ghetto for the Jews. Propaganda at the time, referred to it as a resort for the Jews; "Hitler has built a town for the Jews."

What it was, was a place to concentrate Jews until they could be "liquidized." The entire town, every single building was utilized. The Nazi's even built an auxiliary road around the town to keep people away. It was bizarre. Now, it is a town again. Very few of the original citizens chose to return after the war though. Almost every building has a marker on it, explaining its use during the time it was a ghetto. It was also nearly deserted. I saw a few people riding their bikes though town and a few children, but almost no one, except tourists that had come to Terezin to see the horrors of what it once was.

Now I know I have no interest in seeing any more Nazi history.

It felt very bizarre and odd and I felt terrible taking photos, so I almost didn't. After a while, I didn't want to see the old Jewish cemetery or other places "of interest". The first thing I saw was a memorial to all the children who had died at Terezin. I cried. All the saved drawings, the poems, the little pictures. Terezin was an anomaly of concentration camps. The Nazi's allowed art, theatre and music. Children were given drawing lessons. They did it to keep up the propaganda of being a "resort", of being desireable. But as a result, was these really amazing drawings, portraits, pictures, sketches and paintings that survived. Many of them so good, had the artists survived, we may know more about them today.

Unfortunately, many of those artists were caught with clandestine pictures and accused of creating "hate propaganda" or something. Most of them, when caught, were either killed or shipped to Auschwitz.

What a very strange day has it been.

I have also returned my ticket for Cesky Krumlov and arranged for earlier passage to Paris. I want to make sure that I have enough time to see all that I want in Paris and Brussels and I'd rather see Bruge. It will be a little bit more costly, but it's the reason I'm here. I knew that 4 days in Cesky would make me antsy and restless. Downside is that I'm having trouble booking a hostel in Paris. I seemed to have forgotten that its spring break in Europe and most students have the month off.

Fantatsic.

Keep your fingers crossed for me.