Terezin concentration camp

When I was in Holland I became aware that the tolerance, once a character trait of the Dutch, is slowly disappearing. I saw more and more signs of intolerance, xenophobia and racism and people voted for the party of Geert Wilders and his hate speeches against Islam. I noticed that this is not only going on in the Netherlands but that a wave is going through many countries. It made me sad and I find it also scary as we have seen in the past where hatred could lead to.
On our Prague holiday we went for one morning to Terezin, one and a half hour drive from Prague. Terezin is an example of what can happen because of racism. Many buses with schoolchildren went there. Hopefully they learned a lesson from it and these things won’t happen again. In the 18th century Terezin was build as a fortress to protect Prague and got the name of Keizerin Maria Theresia Terezin. Terezin or Theresianstadt consisted of the large Fortress which was turned into Theresianstadt Ghetto and small fortress which was turned into a Gestapo prison from 1940. Although executions took place at Terezin, most jews who arrived at Terezin, were sent to extermination camps like Auschwitch were 88.ooo died. Because of disease caused by overcrowding and poor health conditions 33.000 died at Terezin. At the end of the war 17.247 of the 144.000 who entered Terizin had survived We went to visit the small fortress which left a huge impression on all of us. It was quiet on the way back in the bus

The slogan "Arbeit macht frei" was placed at the entrances to a number of Nazi concentration camps

 

Vell blocks A and B consisted of 17 group cells and 20 solitairi confinement cell. 1500 people shared these blocks

In these cells 60 to 100 people lived together

About 15.000 children passed through Terezin. Most of them died They found some poetry of the children and made a book of them called "I never saw another butterfly" You can find .poetry from the children in the camp here 

The Butterfly

The Butterfly 

The last, the very last,
So richly, brightly, dazzlingly yellow.
Perhaps if the sun's tears would sing
against a white stone...

Such, such a yellow
Is carried lightly ‘way up high.
It went away I'm sure because it wished
to kiss the world goodbye.

For seven weeks I've lived in here,
Penned up inside this ghetto
But I have found my people here.
The dandelions call to me
And the white chestnut candles in the court.
Only I never saw another butterfly.

That butterfly was the last one.
Butterflies don't live in here,
In the ghetto.

by Pavel Friedman, 1942

Pavel Friedmann was born in Prague on in January 7, 1921. He was deported to Terezin on April 26, 1942 and later to Auschwitz where he died on September 29 1944