Post written by Riley Nelson
Today is our sixth day in Prague, and while there is a lot happening in the city between PQ and Prague itself, a few of of us took a hour and a half out of our day to visit the Jewish Museum of Prague.
On this visit we faced a lot of challenging topics, as well as learned a lot about the historical culture that has lived in Prague since the 15th century.
Starting the tour, we stopped in Pinkas Synagogue where there was a memorial to the Jewish victims of the holocaust local to Prague. Written on the walls of the synagogue are the names of these victims.
The memorial is so fully immersive and used the space to a make a heartwrenching display; names following the curves of the synagogues arches and wall. No space was given to breathe when looking around.
Following this is a permanent exhibit of children’s drawings and artwork from the Holocaust, mainly from Terezín that we all visited a few days before. This exhibit was very rough to see alone, but after seeing the real place a few days prior their weight was beyond words.
About 8 years ago, I personally had been in Prague and traveled to this museum before. A specific piece stuck in my mind for till now. Confronting this exhibit again for me was very difficult but it also brought some closure for me. Being the same age as the artist when I first saw it hit me hard. Forever changing how I felt about life.
If that wasn’t enough, following that we walked out to the old cemetery that is speculated to have over 120,000 people in it. The size of this cemetery is about a city block and was active from the 15th century to the 18th century.
Our culture in the states we are very accustomed to seeing cemeteries in a very different manner, they are usually very orderly and neat. In the Jewish culture of this location, they stacked the graves layer by layer, they built up. Placing the stone directly on top rather then spaced in front.
Our group was entirely silent for the whole trip as we just had to process what we just experienced.
The silence was spawned from being overwhelmed with emotions, it was a compelled silence, an unspoken desire to not talk out of respect to the culture. Truly though the air was too thick to even remotely know how to speak.
I think this day will stay with us for the rest of our lives.
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