WW2 Abroad 2016: Life in a Time of War

After the Nazi Regime marched into Prague, Hitler appointed Reinhard Heydrich to keep order in Prague over the Czechoslovakian citizens.

But today we learned that the Czech resistance had other plans for Heydrich’s future in Prague. This morning we visited the assassination site of Reinhard Heydrich in the north part of the city. Following our tour guide, we ran up and down the street reenacting the action-packed, premeditated attempt to kill Heydrich who was 2nd in command of the SS army.

The slightly over cast, gloomy weather set the tone while visiting the historical Lidice village that sits just outside of Prague. This village was the victim of Hitlers revenge, due to his anger resulting from the death of Heydrich. Hitler killed over one hundred men, woman and children along with burning and destroying the city to the ground.

Today was more impressively interesting because every site we visited related to on another. Learning chronologically, while visiting the actual sites of these events made it easy to understand Prague’s involvement in WWII.

-KC

Prague is said to be amongst one of the most beautiful cities in Europe. Hearing how amazing, and awe-inspiring the city is from those who have visited, I had a hard time envisioning what the Castle and the city might look like.

The originality, in my opinion, is what makes Prague such a beautiful city. The hundreds of years of different architecture make this city a melting pot of culture. The city’s buildings display a timetable of the most popular architectures of their own specific era.

Prague has been able to keep these immaculate buildings in tact and in their original form because of an important decision made by Emiel Hacha, the Prime Minister of Czechoslovakia, in 1939. When pressed with the threat of Nazi invasion and bombardment, he surrendered his city to the Third Reich.

Walking around touring the Castle, appreciating the intense detail of each building, Emiel Hacha deserves credit. Making the decision to surrender and not resist the Nazi Regime protected the city’s beautiful architectural time line and shear beauty.

-KC

Today was an incredibly unique experience. We visited an old and restored war time hospital that was built to serve victims of air raids during the war. As war times worsened, the hospital began to accommodate all kinds of victims and became extremely overcrowded. Walking through the corridors, the rooms were filled with wax figures which gave us a perspective of what the hospital may have been like when it was operating. The hospital was top secret so as to preserve its location as best as possible to ensure the safety of victims and doctors. After the hospital, we watched a film giving an overview of Hungarian history and enjoyed a light lunch. Next we took a bus tour to Gellert hill, which has many important statues as well as breathtaking views of the entire city. Afterwards we saw the shoes on the Danube, which was surreal to see in person as it signified the countless Jewish lives takes in vain. We ended the evening with a fantastic dinner aboard a boat that toured the river ask offered amazing views of the city lit up at night.

We started the day off with a visit to the Holocaust museum. After discussing the history of the Hungarian Holocaust and the
Hungarians role in deporting their own Jewish citizens, we walked through the museum. The museum was very difficult to walk through. We saw several videos and images of the terrible conditions the Jewish population were put through. There were stories on the walls describing how horrifying the war time was. One example discussed a doctor using children as test subjects who would inject diseases into the children’s blood to see how they’d react. He favored twins especially and performed experiments on
them regularly. Next we went to an old and unrestored synagogue where we spoke with a local Jewish woman who explained more details of the Holocaust and answered any questions for us. We had a free afternoon to ourselves. Some of us explored the market while others visited the United States Embassy to meet with Ambassador Bell. A few students got dinner at a local restaurant called Kajahu. This restaurant had computers in the table to order, which was a very unique experience.

We began our day at 9:45 after a breakfast at Stex. We headed out to explore the Pest side of city and learn about how the history of Pest differs from that of Buda. Our first stop came after a tram ride alongside the river where we arrived at St. Stephens Church. We had some time to ourselves to explore the church and many of us took advantage of climbing to the top of the church to see the breathtaking views of the city. Next, we continued on to see the Hungarian Parliament building where we learned about the civilian protests in 1956 that were brutally oppressed by the Russian secret police. Bullet holes from the shooting of innocent and unarmed protestors can still be found around the building. After this, we moved on to Liberty Square which was built by the communists in the 1950s. We saw the liberty memorial which ironically does not represent any true form of Liberty for the Hungarian people. Though the Russians granted the Hungarians many material signs of liberty, the people were by no means free of the Russians and to this day despise the memorial. After a quick lunch, we resumed our day with a tour of the House of Terror – a former Nazi torture and prosecution building that now serves as a museum. We had a private and incredibly informative tour during which we were able to see the original prison cells and torture chambers for Jewish prisoners. We ended the day with a visit to the House of Baths and a group dinner in the evening.

Budapest Day 1:

After what seemed like endless hours of travel we finally arrived in the city of Budapest. Our first day was a whirlwind filled with a visit to the Buda part of the city where we walked through the Buda Castle. We learned about the history of the Hungarian reign as the nomadic tribes moved eastward and conquered all that was in their path. We also talked about the Mongolian Empire, the Ottoman Empire and the rises and falls of Budapest as a whole. We also learned about the final fall of the Germans in Budapest as Soviet Russia invaded the city of Pest and ultimately killed every remaining German and Hungarian soldier. Being able to see the sights that we have learned about in class was so incredible and it was great to have the historical context behind the sights we were learning about. After a delicious lunch at Pest Buda Cafe, we moved on to tour the museum where we learned about art during the Renaissance period. The art that we saw reflected the fluctuations of Budapest and both the pride and humiliation that the country experienced as their ‘golden years’ came to an end in the 19th century. What we learned today helped us understand why certain generations today have the attitudes, perspectives and outlooks that
(more…)

Welcome to our WWII 2016 blog. Your leaders are (from left to right) Michele Kleckner, Liz Bailey, and Gabriel Fawcett.