Terezin

Louise didn't really pull her weight in the Czech Republic. We were a little bit horrified when we realised that we would have to do things the old fashioned way - like read a map. This seems straightforward until you realise that all the road signs are in Czech.

After Prague, we drove north west to Terezin. It was originally known by its German name of Theresienstadt and it is by this name that it has become infamous. It was a fortress town, purposely built as a military facility in the 18th century. Over the years, it has served as a barracks and a prison, but during WW2, it was used by the Nazis as a concentration camp.

Even though large scale exterminations were not carried out at Theresienstadt, it was a major transfer centre for groups of people sent to camps like Auschwitz and Bergen Belsen. Many people died here after beatings and interrogations, Typhus outbreaks and executions.

The fortress is surrounded by a moat that is fed by 2 rivers and the flow of water was able to be controlled when required. 

During the war, Theresienstadt was the site used in the making of a Nazi propaganda film that misled the Red Cross into believing that the camp was like a health farm and that people had nothing to worry about by being taken there. Trains brought people from all over Europe to Theresienstadt for 'processing.' 

The ironic slogan which appeared on the gate of several concentration camps - Arbeit Macht Frei - work sets you free.

This large bath room and the shower room, still have the mirrors and plumbing fittings that were in place during the war.  

The rooms that did not feature in the promotional film however, housed 60 people in squalid and crowded conditions that would have been freezing during the winters.

The crematorium where eventually 38,000 cremations took place. Earlier in the war, ashes were placed in heavy paper containers and buried. Towards the end, ashes were dumped into the nearby rivers.

To spend time in a place with such an appalling history is unsettling, but compelling. The nearby town is a sad place - rather like a ghost town - but it includes museums with artefacts and details of a time in history that should not be hidden away and should never be forgotten.