WWII and the Czech Republic

On Sunday, November 7th, we traveled to Lidice and Terezin, two towns located relatively close to Prague in Bohemia. These cities are modern parts of the Czech Republic; however, they are most renowned for their history during World War II and Nazi occupation of the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia. Lidice was a small village that was randomly selected for complete destruction for Nazi revenge, and Terezin was a former Habsburg fortress and prison that was converted into a holding concentration camp for Bohemia Jews.


Our first stop on the trip was Lidice, which is noted because of the atrocity that occurred there in 1942. After Reinhard Heydrich, one of Adolf Hitler’s favorite commanders was assassinated in Prague by Czech paratroopers, the Nazis decided to randomly destroy two Czech cities as a sort of revenge. Lidice was one of these cites which was devastated not only physically but also in its population. Every single man over the age of 14 in the town was lined up and murdered in a firing squad by the Nazi SS officers. The remaining women and children were shipped off to concentration camps or Germany, where many were killed or forcibly adopted by German families. This horror is unimaginable, and it is unique because it was not related directly to the Jewish “problem” and the Nazi Holocaust. Today, this awful event is commemorated in a memorial and museum in the new town of Lidice. I was particularly struck by this event because the horrors done to the children of the town. Not only were they separated from the parents and siblings, many were sent to live with German families instead of being murdered just because they looked “more German.” It is hard to believe that a whole city was just wiped off the face of the earth in one day.


The second and more in-depth part of the day trip was Terezin, a Jewish holding camp during the Nazi occupation of Czechoslovakia. Many of the Jews of Bohemia and Moravia, including those from Prague, were shipped to Terezin to wait to be taken to other concentration camps in Germany and Poland. Although life was certainly horrific in the despicable conditions that the Nazis forced Jews to live in, Terezin was relatively better than most other concentration camps. I was surprised to learn that there was such a cultural life for the Jews forced to live in this camp, when the situation during WWII had become so desperate in other places of the Nazi occupation. Compared to my previous visit to Auschwitz-Birkenau, I was not as emotionally moved by Terezin. While it is difficult to comprehend the senseless horrors of the Holocaust, there is certainly something to be said of the difference between a holding camp and an extermination camp. Overall, it was very interesting to see how the Czech Jews were particularly affected by the Holocaust.


The histories of Lidice and Terezin are awful and difficult to comprehend by just seeing pictures and stories in museums; however, it was a powerful trip that helped me further understand the modern Czech and Jewish history of the World War II period.