i never saw another butterfly...

some of you might know that the first play i was ever in was i never saw another butterfly. i played raja, a young jewish girl from prague who is sent to theresienstadt, or terezin in czech, a "model" concentration camp outside prague. since then, i have longed to see terezin. this is part of the reason we came to prague in the first place. 

so, first we got on a trolley car to the train station, then we got on a 45 minute bus ride. and the first thing we saw was a butterfly: 

almost of the buildings that were in use when terezin was a concentration camp are now museums. here's the museum of the ghetto, formerly a dormitory. 

 across the square, more buildings that were used as barracks. 

this is outside the jewish council barracks. 

this is a replica of what the rooms looked like when women were living here. 

terezin was used a "model" concentration camp by the nazis. they allowed the red cross to come in and film scenes from the camp to show the world that they were not mistreating anyone. of course, no one seemed to have a problem with the fact that the people in the film had been removed from their homes and imprisoned against their will...

because of it's status, the prisoners in terezin were able to pursue a fairly rich cultural life. many famous musicians, artists and actors were imprisoned here, and they were allowed, with strict controls, to put on performances and teach the children. 

here's what the cabaret stage looked like. 

costumes from an opera production. 

 another view of the stage. 

posters advertising performances. 

these are the posters from the children's opera. 

the crematorium. most of the prisoners who died here died of starvation, disease and neglect. there were no gas chambers at terezin. 

another view of the main square.

maps of what the town looked like under nazi occupation. 

ryan took this picture of the tennis court. 

terezin is a sad, sad town. i don't know what i expected, and honestly, i was glad that it was so depressing. after hearing about everything that happened here, you don't want to believe that the town could go on afterwards like nothing ever happened. and it hasn't. 

lunch. that's a balkan salad. it was good. 

this is the cemetery at terezin. after the war, the red cross exhumed remains of over 9000 prisoners who had died in the first year of the camp, as well as a surprising number of graves dated past may 1945, when the camp was liberated. there was a terrible outbreak of typhus in the last month of the war, and many prisoners and soviet liberators died trying to fight the disease. 

two of franz kafka's sisters died here. 

most graves have no name, no dates. 

 the fortress at terezin was used a prison both before and during the nazi occupation. this moat was drained, and during the war, starving prisoners tended vegetable gardens here for their oppressors. 

view from one of the cells. 

this is gavrilo princip, one of the conspirators who murdered archduke franz ferdinand, setting off the events that began WWI. he was imprisoned here in terezin, and died of tuberculosis here. 

this is the outside of the cells. most of this part of the camp was occupied by criminals of all kinds, though Jewish prisoners were treated worse. 

this are barracks for 30-60 people. 

checker board carved into a table. 

capo badges. kapo. 

view from a cell

management office. 

nazi slogan, arbeit macht frei, painted in the courtyard of the prison. 

here is an awful truth. there were no gas chambers at terezin, though there were crematorium. most victims died of disease, starvation and occasional shootings and hangings. there were, however, group showers, during which the sexes were separated and bathed together. this was to prepare them for auschwitz, so they would not panic. 

it is a desolate, sad place. i have been to ghost towns in nevada, and while i'm not superstitious,  per se... i don't think ghosts are outside the realm of the possible. especially after being here. the bus on the way back to prague was full. we stood in the aisle the whole 45 minutes, along with about 12 other people. we could not stomach the idea of waiting for the next bus to take us away.