Afterwards, I was reminded of the wonderful holiday that Alison and I spent in Vienna in the summer of 2000. We saw stunning architecture. We heard beautiful, beautiful music. And yet, despite the hot weather, a coldness crept into my thoughts from time to time. All around us were reminders of the Second World War, of the Nazi regime, of the Holocaust.
I experienced the same feelings when, later, we holidayed in Prague; indeed, the hotel we stayed in was said to have been used as the Gestapo headquarters in the city during the Nazi occupation. On one morning during the latter holiday, we took a taxi to Terezin, the infamous garrison town that was converted by the Nazis into a concentration camp and Jewish ghetto. Acting on the taxi driver’s advice, we made the mistake of visiting the Terezin Small Fortress first. A short walk from the concentration camp, the fortress was used as a prison by the Gestapo. The photo below shows its entrance. In one of the buildings, we saw a row of tiny, half-dark cells, some with manacles still screwed to the walls. Political prisoners, mostly Russians, were interrogated and tortured in them. As we left the cells, a bunch of very noisy American kids entered them, oohing and aahing and laughing while taking pictures. Beyond the row of cells was a long, narrow tunnel, along which prisoners were led to the execution courtyard, where they were shot against a wall. We were halfway through that awful tunnel when we heard the American kids come up behind us. I was already filled with trepidation, but now I froze; I couldn’t take another step. I had never felt so spooked in my life. After pleading with Alison, we turned back, saw the rest of the prison and then walked over to the concentration camp. The whole experience was a harrowing one for us. When we returned to Prague, we found a bar and got quietly drunk. It had not been a good day.