Terezin (in the Czech Republic)

by Daniel

We went to Terezin just out of Prague with my grandparents, the town was used as a concentration camp in World War 2.

15,000 Jewish children were sent to Terezin and only 100 survived. When the Red Cross came to inspect the camp the Nazis fixed it up to make it look good but it really was terrible.

Escape

Terezin has walls all around it that are 20 feet high.  Jonathan and I were thinking that even without the guards it was basically impossible to escape. Less than 5 people escaped but many tried.

 Cells

We went into a hallway with tons of cells on the right. There was one cell that was clean and our dad put us in it and asked us what it was like we said ‘’dark, depressing, small,’’ the cells were 8 by 5 feet.  Sometimes there were 15 people in a cell and it was so tight that they had to sleep standing up.

Showers

Probably the saddest thing was the showers because the Nazis wanted the Jewish people to get used to taking showers in the open so when they went to Auschwitz they wouldn’t fuss because they would want a shower. The gas chambers looked like the showers but when they turned on the water gas came out.

Before we went to the camp we went to a museum that had kids drawings that they did in the camp and that just made me feel disgusted. It also made me wonder why Hitler hated Jewish people. A couple days after seeing the camps I had nightmares.