After a good night’s sleep, we got up this morning and ate the pastries I had bought yesterday.  We lazed around the apartment for a couple hours and then went out to meet our tour guide and fellow travelers to drive to Terezin.  It was pretty cold out at 9:30 and we weren’t really dressed for it.  It’s going to be a bit of an adjustment.  I think fall has really arrived here.  We met at the Intercontinental Hotel and boarded the small bus to drive to Terezin, about an hour away.

Terezin located northwest of Prague is in an area of mountains that were old volcanos.

Czech mountains extinct volcano

Terezin was the concentration camp used by the Nazis as an example to show the world how well Jews were being treated.  Many famous artists, actors, and musicians were imprisoned there, in an old Hapsburg fortress.  There were parks and playgrounds, schools and libraries, but it was all show.  There were 60,000 prisoners within the fortress. When the Red Cross visited on several occasions, everything was cleaned up and only the nice areas were on display.  As soon as the visit was complete, things would go back to normal, with the Jews kept in extremely crowded conditions in sub zero weather with no heat.  Anyone who appeared ill or was unable to work became part of the next shipment to one of the death camps. Anyone who broke camp rules or became politically active was transferred to the prison in the smaller fortress to the north and following interrogation and torture was hanged or sent to one of the death camps.

The little town of Terezin is quite nice and you can see how the Red Cross was fooled into thinking that it was a humane ghetto.  The Nazis were masters of propaganda.  Here are some pictures from Terezin.

On our return to Prague at 4PM, we were very hungry so we picked up some cheese and bread and meats for later, dropped them at the apartment and went over to another close-by restaurant called Lokal.  We took our friend Bahman’s recommendations and got the dark beer, fried cheese, a variety of sausages, and some Goulash. Very good and chased it with a local herbal digestif called Becherovka, which was actually very tasty.  Then back to the apartment for rest and reading.  Tomorrow we have a Taste of Prague tour scheduled.  I think Prague may be a definite return visit place.