Prague

We are winding down to our last few days but still seeing and learning so much.  Our hotel in Pargue is The Mark and our hotel room is more like an apartment!  It is modern and beautifully appointed and huge!  Two bathrooms, a bedroom, living room, kitchenette, several closets... pretty luxurious.  Prague, on the other hand was pretty gross when we arrived last night.  it was Saturday night and it was party central for Europe.  The streets were a combination of Mardi Gras and Times Square - but much grosser.  We have not been out on the streets yet today because we went out of the city this morning.  However, we'll see if Sunday night is any better when we head out for dinner in a little while.

This morning we went to Terezin or Theresienstadt, the "model" transit camp outside of Prague.   It was a former military fortress which the gestapo turned into a prison and ghetto through which 150,000  German and Austrian (and others) Jews passed on their way to Auschwich.  15,000 children were imprisoned at Terrezin.  33,000 Jews died at Terezin from torture, disease and starvation.

Entrance to the Gestapo Small Fortress prison.

Small Fortress courtyard

Prison where about 100 Jews were kept.  There is a stove, but heat was negligible if not nonexistent.

"Processing" (torture) room

"BATH HOUSE" that was constructed for the Red Cross propaganda visit - then closed the next day, never to be used by the prisoners

We visited the site of the Terezin  Ghetto, where thousands of Jews were squished into attic/loft rooms:

In the Ghetto - in the 1990s, a tiny hidden prayer room was discovered in a basement.  The walls had been hand painted:

We also visited a fantastic and comprehensive Holocaust Museum that was housed in the former Boy's home.  A suitcase of 45,000 drawings by Terezin's children made for an incredible history of what was in the minds of the children imprisoned here.  Museum also had extensive displays and records.  Could have spent hours here.  However, after an hour, we very much needed a Pilsner Urquell:

And, look what we found in the nearby towon of Litomerice: