Terezin or Theresienstadt (concentration camp) from the air

Terezin or Theresienstadt (concentration camp) from the air

I thought this was just a happy snap of a nice star fort.  Star forts are fantastic things that were developed for better defense against cannons, and we saw several other ones on our journey: Kastellet in Copenhagen and Kronborg which holds Helsingor (also Denmark).  As a nice bonus they photograph well from the air.

I was finding it unusually hard to identify this star fort in the Czech republic, until google images showed me that it is also known as Theresienstadt (named after the Habsburg empress).  And it's been raining here for 18h.  Why does it all happen at once????

Anyway Theresienstadt was a concentration camp rather than part of the 'final solution'.  There were however many deaths due to overcrowding.  After WWII it was used as a punishment camp for ethnic Germans until 1948, after which it was used by the military.  More information.

Pirna

Pirna is where we started our journey up the Elbe by bicycle.  You're probably wondering why I'm posting the photos in reverse chronological order?

Well the truth is that just thinking about Pirna makes me feel sad.  The airfield is fantastic, the people are lovely, it's historic centre is pretty.  But it's where a whole heap of mentally handicapped people were herded into a church and set alight.  The castle complex containing the church is now a sheltered workshop for the disabled, which seems like an odd choice to me, but I really don't want to have to read any more about this to understand why they made this choice.  What do you think, would you place a sheltered workshop somewhere where the kind of people who work there were massacred 60 or so years earlier?

And what do you think about grim little memorials like this fire stained church?  My gut reaction is to tear it down, take it away and what is represents is just too horrible, but maybe we need this kind of reminder?

Over the door: a strong fortress is our God.  Maybe for some.