Day 21 Mainly Jewish walking Tour in Prague

Day 21- Glorious and almost hot. Only 4 kms of walking but 4 hours of standing on hard floors!

Woke at 6 and got a few more days of blogs up to date, then dressed and had breakfast. Back to my room to wait until 10:40. I uploaded right up to Blog 17 before grabbing my bag to head down.

The driver arrived 20 minutes early and drove me in the most circuitous direction to get to the meeting point. He dropped me off and I took a few photos of the buildings at that end of the town near the museum. Lots of Art Deco buildings in Prague.

I met the guide, Anna, for the “Jewish Walking Tour” and eventually the other couple in the tour arrived: Alex and Tania from Israel/ Russia, and we began to talk and walk. Our meeting place was actually the Hotel Europa where Sir Nicholas Winton stayed, while he was organising how to rescue 669 young Jewish children from Czechoslovakia to England.

Some Jews were able to emigrate as early as 1938. In 1939 Hitler invaded Czechoslovakia. Because  he considered Czechs to be a low order of people, they were treated with a total lack of humanity. Czechs were used as forced labour. They had a strong resistance army but this was met with massive retaliation. During WW2 320.000 civilian Czechs were killed and 2,500 military. 80,000 Jews were killed by Germans/collaborators, mostly in Auschwitz, which was 84% of the pre- war Jewish population. Even after Liberation the Germans continued to bomb and terrorize Czechoslovakia. At the end of the war Germans were forced out of the country by Czechs. Some were murdered in retaliation.   

A few of the 80,000 Czech and Moravian Jews
 murdered on the walls of the Pinkas Synagogue 

One of the most moving displays.
Art works by children who were
later killed.

Today there are 7 million visitors each year in Prague, who come from 73 countries.

We walked back down the hill through the Old Town to the old Jewish quarter (Between Stare Mesto and Josefov) near the river. We went into several sights including the Old Jewish Cemetery, Ceremonial Hall, Pinkas Synagogue and the spectacular Spanish Synagogue. One of the saddest parts was the exhibition of children’s art work done in the Terezin camp. All these children were killed and what trauma they had already witnessed in their lives. In the old cemetery the gravestones are centuries old. The oldest 1439.  Then we went through the Ceremonial hall which showed us about the burial practices of the Jews. Their faith demands that they are buried, and has many rituals, so being burnt in the crematoriums could be seen as really annihilating them. Thankfully the tour ended up on a much brighter note in the Spanish Synagogue. OMG there are NO words to describe the opulence of this place of worship. Truly amazing. It is now used for concerts, as are many of the churches in Prague.

All hand painted!

Spanish Synagogue

From here we said goodbye to our guide (3pm).  I needed food and by now it was hot. Those tiny alleys and squares heat up during the day. They must be unbearable in summer? On the way back to the Town Square I happened to find a shop that sold gf items. Not great quality- the usual tastes like it is already stale kind. But needs must.

I stopped at the Hussite church of St. Nicholas. Combining several main ideas from a few faiths. It had originally been a Catholic church. In the square I had a Caesar salad and a tea in one of the many cafes at 4: 15. Back to the hotel- finally picking the fastest way, where I had to iron some of my lighter tops. Completed the last upload of the blogs and started typing today’s news.

8pm and now time for photo editing and uploading. Really tired tonight. My cold is considerably better but still lingering. My voice comes and goes during the day. The worst part is the coughing fits that just keep going!