Day 4: Jewish Quarter and Old Town Tour

On our journey through the city of Prague, the day was great, the sun was shining, and our tour guide was nice. Our first stop was the wounderful Astronomical Clock which was created in 1410 by a blind man named Jens Olsen. As we continued our tour we moved along to Paris Street where the Jewish people were forced to live and eventually settled. Wondering why the Jews had it so bad from the early centuries until the Holocaust had my mind puzzled. Our tour continued to the synagogues where we saw many different styles of architecture and different religion's houses of worship along with other religion cultures. Finally we visited the Charles Bridge located over the Vlatava River, followed by a quick tour of the city.
While learning about the Old Town we also learned about one of the concentration camps that is located in the Czech Republic. That camp is called Terezin. This camp was supposed to be what they called a "model camp." This was a camp that invited the Red Cross in to observe how it was run. Once the war started getting heavy, the workers from the Red Cross were asked to leave. After the people from the Red Cross left the camp the prisoners than were sent to Auschwitz. If this was a model camp then how come the other camps were not ran the same way? The answer to that question is because the Nazis did not want the public to know exactly what was going on and also how many people were being killed and their many different ways of torture.
In addition to Terezin we visited Charles Bridge which was also part of the Old Town. Charles Bridge was beautiful with its very own unique style and structure. Once we stepped onto the bridge as we slowly walked across it, we were able to see the beautiful landscape of Old Town. Once we stepped onto the bridge we realize how beauitful Old Town was with distant landscapes of buildings and churches. The Charles Bridge was unique with its structure of showing histories of Old Town with statues of Jesus and others religious symbols. In addition, people were performing and selling things on the bridge from singing to drawing and selling souvenirs. The bridge was crowded yet it felt comfortable because everybody seemed nice and close even though many of us come from different places and speak different languages. Yet, at this wonderful place King Fredrick and native Bohemians conflict had broken out in the 17th century causing King Fredrick to kill 27 people in order to stop the rebellion that was occuring at the time. After King Fredrick killed 27 people he hung the heads belonging to the executers for 10 years on the Charles Bridge.