Swanson School of Engineering

Today, we visited Terezín, which used to be a Nazi concentration camp. From the moment we arrived, I could feel the eerie solemnity of the area. The more we walked around the small fortress, the more real everything we learned in high school history class became. Living in the Pennsylvania all my life, there were no landmarks that I saw left behind from the World Wars. But since arriving in Europe, exactly where this time in history took place, everything started to sink in. Many horrors against mankind took place in these concentration camps, things I can’t even imagine. Daily life became a nightmare for the Czechs, especially the ones connected to anything Jewish. Even through all of this, hope was not lost. People found ways to survive, to fight back in their own ways against the Nazis. I heard and read many stories of resilience during the museum visits, such as the Rabbi that created a secret prayer room. Even after their suffering, Czech people did not play the victim card. They rebuilt their cities and towns and returned to as normal of a life as they could. That is, up until the communists took over. But they were able to fight their way through that as well! Thus, the history of the Czech Republic serves as an incredible testament to their strength and resilience as a nation.