Confronting Issues and Art in the Netherlands

Among the highlights of our visit to Amsterdam was a lovely Friday night dinner with a speaker, and a visit to the building where Anne Frank and others were hiding out during the Nazi occupation.  Because both of these share a theme about being a minority, we will write about them here.

 
Sam writes: 

Daniel Cil Brecher

We had an amazing speaker talk to us Friday evening about the relationship between Jews and Muslims in Amsterdam.  Born in Israel and raised in Germany, Danny Cil Brecher is a historian who now works for Germany’s National Public Radio covering mostly Jewish-related subjects.  His research is based on his interviews of his target/interest demographic.  He has lived in Amsterdam for decades and is a member of the liberal (equivalent to Reform) Jewish synagogue in Amsterdam, which we did not see.

Danny said that a turning point for Muslims in the Netherlands was the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in the U.S.  This triggered a stream of anti-Muslim sentiment. Jews had been targeted for hatred because of the existence of the state of Israel.  Danny highlighted their common denominator: they are both minority communities that want to define themselves as different.  He said that the desire to"...defin[e] yourself [is a key aspect that] creates a lot of problems for both groups, but also creates a sense of identity. They don't talk to each other because they internalize these boundaries that come along with their ideologies."

The liberal synagogue in Amsterdam is one of the few places to have organized dialogue and interaction between these two groups. This opportunity was initiated ten years ago when the synagogue experienced hostility from the Muslim kids in the school next to them.  Instead of building higher walls, the liberal synagogue created opportunities for the kids to play together.  Since then, 15,000 kids have gone through the programs they developed and this significantly reduced the tension and prejudice between the two populations. 

Danny also described the challenge of racism in Netherlands by describing their version of Santa Claus, who does not have reindeer or elves, but a black helper (read: slave), Black Piet, who looks like little Black Sambo.  The Dutch make displays of Santa and his helper, and they put on black face!  To many it is a beloved Dutch legend, and to other it is racist -- see the photo on the right of protesters.

Joseph writes about the issues of race and migration that he researched, along with his question to Danny:

While focusing primarily on relations between Jewish and Muslim minorities in the Netherlands, Daniel's description of the anti-immigrant policies of current right-wing parties in Europe reminded me of a time immediately after the fall of the Iron Curtain. When former Eastern Bloc countries such as Poland joined the European Union in the late 1990s, many migrant workers from these countries moved west to take up low-wage jobs. I asked if there was a possible connection between current anti-migrant feeling in these western EU countries and what resulted from the employment of, for instance, Polish migrant workers.

Daniel responded by saying no: Poles were white and practicing Christians, which is not necessarily the case for migrants and refugees from Syria or other non-European continents. This racism and sectarianism may come, he speculated, from the inability of the Dutch to truly confront their colonial past. Whereas the British have more notably embraced multiculturalism and welcomed migrants from Commonwealth nations, the Dutch have not.  Dutch who come from former Dutch colonies such as Suriname or Indonesia have a much more challenging experience. They may never feel or be accepted as truly Dutch.

To prove his point that race is the issue, Danny said that there was no backlash to the influx of Polish migrant workers in the 1990s. Instead, it is more about a visible or projected difference, a tribalism and inability to answer the question "What does it mean to be Dutch?" that is more likely behind the anti-migrant sentiment sweeping through too much of Europe today.

It's both a new and fascinating perspective and development outside of the more general news on both Jewish and Muslim issues that we hear about and face in the United States -- an informative and intriguing time was had by all. Thank you again to Danny for meeting with us!

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On Saturday morning we visited the Anne Frank Museum.  Matthew writes:

A couple of days ago we all went to the Anne Frank museum . This was another eye opening experience because generally one does not think of or perhaps remember that here in Holland, persecution of the Jews was widespread and awful much like in Poland, France, Hungary, etc. Though the atrocities and the violence were not as bad here, thousands of Jews from Holland were killed during the war. Over 100,000 Jewish people lived here, and by the end of the war, less than a few thousand were alive. Among those who perished were Anne Frank and the rest of her family except for her father Otto.

After the rise of Hitler, her family moved to Holland because it was safer, but in 1942 they had to go into hiding. They were joined by others who worked in Otto Frank’s business, and so eight people lived in the attic in the building’s annex.  They were discovered by an act of betrayal by –no one knows who – in 1944.  They were all put in different camps except for Anne’s mother and father, who were both in Auschwitz. Only Otto survived.  What's even more awful about Otto's experience was that he was a German veteran of World War I: even though he fought for Germany, his brave service to his country meant nothing to the Nazis. Otto learned the fate of his family after the war. Anne perished in Bergen Belsen from typhoid fever. After learning his whole family died in the camps, it was Otto who had released Anne’s diary. He probably had no idea that it would become as famous as it is today and that so many people would read it in schools across the world. Learning of Anne’s fate when I was younger was heartbreaking. Now that I'm older and understand it more it's still difficult to still comprehend what the Franks and so many millions of people went through, just in the effort to survive.

Carine writes:

While visiting Anne Frank’s house a lot of emotions went through my mind, and I'm sure it was the same for everyone else: It was very moving and also hard to believe that she was in the exact house we were walking in. It seems impossible to live in fear for two years and be trapped in your own home. As we walked through the house the pictures on the wall stuck out the most.

These were pictures her father gave her for decorating her room, some of them photos of celebrities.  These were people who inspired her. She was a very brave girl and looking at her diary gave us all chills. It's crazy to think that such a young girl lost her life after batting so much and almost making it to the end.

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On Saturday afternoon we visited the Rijksmuseum, the national museum of Netherlands. It was pretty awesome!  The art lovers among us spent their free time to visit other museums, too: the van Gogh Museum, the Rembrandt House, and Rebecca went to the Vermeer Museum.  She writes:

Johannes Vermeer was a Dutch artist born in Delft on October 31, 1632 and buried in Delft on December 16, 1675. He was a prominent painter during the artistic Northern Baroque Golden age and painted large-scale biblical, mythological, daily life, and interior setting scenes. He was known for his painting Girl with Pearl Earring and only has 36 known paintings today.


He trained in Italy, France, and Flanders. He was exposed to earlier Baroque artists such as Caravaggio and Rembrandt who influenced his painting style. Some common themes he painted consisted of women reading or writing letters, playing musical instruments, or adorning themselves with jewelry. His aim was to express a sense of inner harmony within everyday life, primarily within the confines of a private chamber. He also utilized the laws of perspective and the placement of objects such as chairs, tables, walls, maps, windows, etc. to create a sense of nature's underlying order. The objects are carefully chosen as well as their position, proportion, color, and texture-- all of it contributed to the big idea, or the concetto, the Italian term for an overall concept.

Vermeer's work was very calming to look at and his signature color was yellow and blue, which can be seen in almost all his work. One of my favorite pieces is Woman Holding a Balance created in 1664. The viewer is immersed in the 17th-century Protestant Dutch women's traditions and culture. For example, the woman in the painting is holding a balance to know the gender of her unborn child. Behind her there is also a painting of the Last Judgement as well.

However, The Art of Painting is my favorite painting by Vermeer. He is depicting two muses, La Pittura and Clio, the muse of art and history. La Pittura is painting Clio, and is thus making history. In The Art of Painting, he is painting a painting within a painting, painting a sculpture, and painting a map. This not only shows his skills in painting but also his preference in the arts. Clio in the painting is believed to be a depiction of his daughter as well.


The art of painting is not being able to trump all other medias available at the time, but by being able to portray precious memories that cannot be relived any other way, not in sculpture or maps. Vermeer is preserving this exact memory of his daughter, and only painting can do that at the time.

Like most artists, he did not receive proper recognition and appreciation for his work and skills until after his death. He died almost penniless and from an unknown illness at the age of 43. Even when walking around Amsterdam, I noticed that Rembrandt is highly recognized and has several squares, bars, and hotels named after him, while Vermeer is not given as much attention or recognition despite his phenomenal paintings.

If It's Friday We Must Be In Amsterdam

We flew out of Prague early Friday morning and arrived in Amsterdam, cool and rainy.  It was a relief from the hot and muggy weather we had experienced for the previous 11 days.  After storing our luggage in our hotel in central Amsterdam, near the Rembrandt Square, we were taken on a walking tour by our tour guide, Norbert.

Lesley and Gus write about what we saw:

hook at top of building 

Norbert pointed out the historical features of the city: the different clock towers, the Rembrandt house, old buildings, and we noticed a feature of the many old houses in the city: a large hook protrudes from atop the highest window of the house.  He explained this is because the staircases are so narrow that the only way to get furniture to the upper floors is to lift it up to one of the large windows by rope (think of the old comedy gag of a piano being precariously lifted).

Another interesting site we came upon was a collection of buildings that directly border the canal, meaning that if one of the residents opened their front door and took one step forward, they would find themselves immersed in water; no sidewalk or porch separated building from water.

We passed through the flower market on our way to visit the Portuguese synagogue.  It is located in the section of the city where the Jews settled at the start of the 1500s.  The Jews arrived in the Netherlands after the monarchs made an edict that they would have to leave unless they converted to Catholicism.  Most left for Turkey, but some went to the Netherlands, and over the next century some of the ancestors of the Jews who had converted to Catholicism in order to remain in those countries, began to depart for the Netherlands also, where they could live openly as Jews.

The synagogue’s design was very modest compared to other synagogues (particularly the Spanish synagogue) we visited back in Prague.  The Dutch word for it is Esnoga (sounds like synagogue?).  It is the largest synagogue building in Europe, reflecting the size and the wealth of the community at the time.  The building was started in April 1671 and was completed in August 1675, and it took so long to build because there were a limited amount of available supplies.

  At the front of the synagogue’s interior was a plaque written in Portuguese giving credit to the builders.

Norbert told us some of the history of the Jewish community in Amsterdam.  There were more than 60,000 living in Amsterdam before the German Nazi invasion of the Netherlands.  A very high number of them perished.



We also heard about some current political issues.  Unlike Poland and the Czech Republic, the Netherlands is not being ruled by a right-wing politician.  Jessica writes:

The current prime minister of the Netherlands is Mark Rutte, who has been in power since 2010. His political party is known as the People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy. For the most part, he has a positive approval rating by the Dutch people especially since being sworn in 2010, Rutte became the first liberal prime minister in 92 years.  According to the official Government page of the
Netherlands, the King and the Prime Minister make up the government of the Netherlands under a constitutional monarchy.  Although there is a presence of a monarchy, the power of the king is very limited and kept mainly as a political symbol of national identity.  When parliament introduces a bill, in order for it to be to be official, the Royal House must sign it.

your bad deeds will
come back to haunt you

The Netherlands has a parliamentary system, and one feature of it I found very interesting and different than the U.S.  The executive members of the government and individual ministers must enjoy the confidence of parliament. Parliament can withdraw this confidence by passing a motion of no confidence. If an individual minister, or the government as a whole, does not enjoy the confidence of a majority in parliament, they have to resign.





Norbert brought us to a historic building that was once used as a weighing house, in the middle of a square.  It had an important function back then, but it is now a restaurant/bar/coffee house, and we all cared far more about the caffeine than its value to the past local economy.  Just before going back to the hotel, we set off to the bicycle rental shop to pick up the bikes to ride through Amsterdam. Five people originally opted not to rent one, and one more—after seeing first-hand the way people bike in the city—decided it was not worth the risk.

stop light
for bikes

Something very noticeable about Amsterdam is that about half its population uses bicycles to get around. There were bikes everywhere: parked in racks, chained to bridge rails, and many on the move. Bikers speeded around, and they seem to have the right of way.  Bicycles are such a staple of life in Amsterdam that there are even traffic lights specifically for bike riders.

Jordyn writes:
Bike riding in Amsterdam is the most common form of transportation. Our guide explained it is due to the frugal nature of the Dutch people.  Bikes are cheap, far cheaper than cars, and the terrain is flat.  Those who do own cars in Amsterdam are known to only drive them on the weekend and ride bikes throughout the week, rain or shine.  Our tour guide warned us to be very careful locking our bikes.  He informed us that in his twenty-five years of riding bikes he has had twelve bikes stolen.

Once we had our bikes, helmets, and lock and chain, we returned to the hotel and dressed for our Friday night dinner and speaker. 

Music!

After a morning and afternoon of free time, on our day in Prague, we went to a classical music concert at the Clementinum – Mirror Chapel.  Dat describes the concert:

The Dvořák Symphony Orchestra’s instrumentation may seem small—with only one cello, one violin, three violas, and a harpsichord—but they effortlessly filled the concert hall with their rich and vibrant sound.

And what a concert hall!  

They opened with Georges Bizet’s energetic Overture from the Opera "Carmen."  This upbeat little tune was a perfect way to start the program and left many of us thinking, “Oh, I heard this somewhere.”

Then the orchestra played three famous tunes from the Czech composer, Antonín Dvořak. Humoresque feels fast but it’s quite light. Some of us commented that this song reminded them of the Lord of the Rings. The next piece, the Largo from his New World Symphony is grand and majestic, an easy crowd-favorite. Lastly, Slavonic Dance No. 8 is a lively dance tune.  The question is, what is "Slavonic"?  In dictionary.com, the term defines a family of languages:

• a branch of the Indo-European family of languages, usually divided into three subbranches: South Slavonic (including Old Church Slavonic, Serbian, Croatian, Bulgarian, Bosnian, etc), East Slavonic (including Ukrainian, Russian, etc), and West Slavonic (including Polish, Czech, Slovak, etc.)    

In terms of Slavonic as music, it sounded like Dvořak was capturing the tunes of the national groups to the southeast of his home.

After that, we heard one piece from Bedřich Smetana, another Czech composer. Moldau sounds very fairytale like.  Its sweeping musical passages was meant to evoke images of the surrounding countryside, rivers, and of course, the city of Prague. It may be familiar to Jewish people familiar with Israel's national anthem, which seems to borrow Moldau's central theme.

The orchestra finished with Antonio Vivaldi’s Four Seasons (Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter). It really felt like the orchestra took us on seasonal trip. Spring would probably feel the most familiar to everyone’s ears (when most of us think of classical music, it’s this song). Summer surprisingly feels a bit darker than spring but that is because it is played in a minor key. This movement featured a very dramatic viola solo which left many of us on the edge of our seats. Fall should also be a familiar tune to most people (if you ever called someone and they had classical music as a ringback tone, it’s likely this one). Winter was also a dramatic tune, starting off steady staccato beat from the orchestra and accompanied with a fast, almost frantic, viola solo.


To our surprise the orchestra played two more songs. Ronald Binge’s Elizabethan Serenade (Alžbětinská serenáda) and Tomaso Albinoni’s quite somber, Adagio in G Minor (an odd somber choice).

I hope I can speak for many of us that the Dvořák Symphony Orchestra brought Prague’s history to life with their music.

He was there in spirit.

P.S. The organ in the concert hall was played by Mozart!

Free Time in Prague

Each afternoon in Prague, and the most of the third day, we had free time to explore the city according to our interests.

Robyn writes:

In our free time, the bibliophiles of the group split off to explore the exquisite baroque library at the Clementinum historical complex.


 Built by the Jesuit order and untouched since 1722, the library holds over 20,000 books and is ornately decorated with celestial globes. Breathtaking frescos by Josef Diebel line the ceiling and depict scenes of The Temple of Wisdom. While no photographs are allowed on the tour (and the one we tried to sneak came out blurry), a quick Google image search has allowed us to include this picture on the left.



As stunning as the library appears in photos, nothing can capture the feelings of warmth and smell of old books wafting through the room.


The guided tour also included a trip up 52-meters (that’s about 171 feet to you Americans) to the old astronomical tower. The 172 step climb to the top was rewarded by panoramic views of “the golden city of a thousand spires” below. We all took plenty of photos and were amazed at the 18th century ingenuity represented by the astronomical equipment on display.

Eduardo’s research on Franz Kafka will explain why there is a Kafka Museum in the city:  Franz Kafka was born in Prague in 1883 in a Jewish family that was not spiritual and not that religiously observant.  He studied German literature then law at the German University in Prague.  He aspired to be a writer, and he pursued this in his spare time.

Kafkaesque statue 

 He wrote about two dozen novels and many short stories.  His day job was at the Accident Insurance Institute, which focused on workers’ safety issues.  He became part of a circle of intellectuals and began publishing prose pieces in a German-language newspaper.  His interest in Judaism was whetted, and in 1912 he began to study Judaism and give lectures on the Yiddish language.  He never managed to make a lasting commitment to a woman, although there were several in his life.

manuscript of Kafka's
Letter to His Father
(which he never gave to father)

Lesley writes about the Kafka Museum, which six of us attended: The Museum exhibit developed Kafka’s feeling about Prague as comforting yet smothering—he even once called it the "little mother [with] sharp claws."   His surrealist works of fiction contained themes of alienation, existential anxiety, and a recurring theme of a controlling force over the protagonist (influenced by his relationship with his father).

The museum showcased relics of Kafka's life, as well as biographical and historically contextual excerpts that reveal how these events influenced his work and perspective on life. Such relics included letters written by him, photographs of himself and people he knew, his published works, influential books (such as philosopher Immanuel Kant), and official documents.  The exhibit showed a bizarre short film that was a montage of Prague during Kafka's time, showing his constantly warping perception of the city. We managed to see all the exhibits leading up to the death of Kafka, who eventually succumbed to tuberculosis in 1924 at the age of 40.


Serena writes:
On our free day activity, after breakfast Jody and I took a tram right outside of our hotel into the city center, then on one more up the hill past the Prague Castle to the Strahovsky Monastery, and we entered the Library building.  First we entered an exhibition room with cabinets.

These contain small animals, insects, shells, and random natural finds that 17th century scientists were trying to catalog.  One of the library rooms was the Theological Hall containing thousands of books on that theme, with religious paintings on the ceiling and a statue of John the Baptist.  There was also a Philosophical Hall containing many more books on subjects like history and sciences.

We walked through the monastery grounds to the Czech Republic’s replica of Paris’s Eiffel Tower, called the Petrin Tower.

It's higher than it looks.

The walk there was very beautiful.  We walked uphill along a trail with greenery surrounding us on all sides. When we reached the top, the trail flattened out but was just as green with trees on both sides. To our left, there was a great view of the city. To our right was a tall stone wall. Eventually we crossed through an opening in the wall to the other side until we reached a colorful rose garden, and eventually we reached a line to climb the tower stairs or take an elevator – of course we climbed!  We walked up the winding stairs of the tower and reached the first platform where we saw a 360 degree view of Prague. We continued upward to the highest platform – unknowingly, we had entered the wrong staircase (there were two separate stirs to go up and to go down the tower), and we kept running into people descending the narrow stairs muttering to us.

holding tight and peeking out

Reaching the top was even more breathtaking: we were able to see into the sports stadium and the far outskirts of Prague. This top smaller platform was so crowded. It was swaying slightly, either from the wind or the large crowd, but it was a bit frightening.  The view made me realize how little of the city we actually are going to see versus how much more there is to see.  It was a lot of walking but completely worth it, and I would do it all over again.

Prague's Jewish Quarter and residents

On our second morning in Prague, we were treated to a talk from a local rabbi.  Rabbi Ron Hoffberg came to the seating area of our hotel breakfast room and talked to us about his experiences in the city.  He was born in Chicago, and after finishing college he attended rabbinic seminary in the Conservative Movement, which is traditional but moderate -- not Orthodox.  He served for years in a New Jersey congregation, but the past dozen or so years he has been living in Prague.  He was interesting and funny, and he gave us a sense of what it's like for Jews today to live in Prague.  The Jews are overwhelmingly not Orthodox, but the community institutions are controlled by the few Orthodox Jews.  Rabbi Hoffburg enjoys helping serve the community and also teaches at Charles University, which has thousands of foreign students. His description of the vibrant student life in the city convinced a couple of us to investigate applying for international study in Prague.

Our tour guide guided us by tram to the Jewish Quarter.  We learned about the very long history of the Jewish community in Prague, and how the Jews eventually lived in a section of the city that became so decrepit that it was torn down and reconstructed in the early twentieth century.  But the old Jewish synagogues and some of the community buildings were saved and reconstructed.  Now these buildings are all part of the Jewish Museum complex.  One of them serves as the museum with artifacts from the first few hundred years of Prague Jewish life, while another one has artifacts from a later era.

The Maisel Synagogue was transformed into a memorial for all the Jews in Czechoslovakia who were murdered in the Holocaust. All the walls are filled with the names of every single Jew who died (see photo on left).  The red writing indicates the town, and then the surnames of the people and the dates of their lives are in other colors.  It was very moving to see them all.  Our tour guide told us the story of how Madeline Albright, when she was Secretary of State, visited Prague, saw her family surname, and was reconnected with someone in Prague who knew more about her background than she did. This was how she learned that her parents had been Jews.

The most intricately designed synagogue is the Spanish synagogue, so-called because of the Moorish style.  It was awesome!


The Alt-Neu synagogue, or Old-New synagogue, was associated with the famous Prague rabbi.  Michelle reports on him:

Rabbi Judah Loew was born in about 1512, or 1520, or 1526 -- no one really knows-- in Pozen (Poland).  He served as rabbi in the city of Mikulov in Moravia.  He is most often associated with his service to the community in Prague, where he became the spiritual head of the Jewish community.  He was a talmudic scholar and established a Talmudic academy. He was also famous amongst non-Jews for his great knowledge of mathematics, astronomy, and other sciences and was friends with astronomers Brahe and Kepler. With that knowledge, he wrote about the Jewish calendar, but he is most famous for his commentary on the Torah, which is actually a commentary on a commentary. He insisted that his pupils had a good understanding of the Bible and Mishnah before they began studying the Talmud -- this background seems obvious to us, but it was actually rather unusual.

Rabbi Loew is most known for his creation and animation of the Golem of Prague – but this is a legend, and there's not much basis for thinking it occurred. A Golem is a human-like creature. 

de-animated Golem

According to the story, the rabbi created a golem from the clay of the Vlata River to defend Jews who were going to be killed by Rudolf II, the Holy Roman emperor.  He used the name of G-d to bring it to life, written on a piece of parchment and inserted into its mouth.  The legend has many different endings, and a common one was that the rabbi once forgot to de-animate the Golem during the Sabbath, the Jewish day of rest, and the Golem was so angry that he damaged property.  Another one is that when the rabbi forgot to de-animate the Golem it dissolved back into its original clay form. Legend says that the remains of the Golem were placed in the attic of the synagogue. Upon excavation in the early 1900’s, people hunted for it but no such remains were found.  The legend of the Golem of Prague lives on.


After free time in the afternoon, we all gathered at a tram station to meet Ladislaw, who is the president of the Jewish college organization in the Czech Republic. We walked together to a beautiful, huge park that is on a hill overlooking the city.  Great views!

Ladislaw talking
Serena listening intently

We eventually reached an area with an outdoor cafe and lots of seating areas. It was great to talk to a resident of the city who was so patient in answering our questions about normal, everyday life in the city, and also some of the political issues. He described some of the programs that he organizes for college students, and he gave us great suggestions for what to do in Prague in our free time. 

Prague and its history

Charles Bridge clock tower
at night

Czechs believe their buildings
should be elaborately decorated

It was a long bus ride to Prague through the beautiful countryside of green farm fields, meadows, and rolling hills.  We stopped for lunch in Brno and stocked up on Czech kronas.  Some of us were awake enough to go out that night to see Prague all lit up at night, but most of the group settled in and slept.

The next morning, we had a walking tour of Prague that started with a tram ride across town and up the hill to the picturesque Prague Castle that looms over the city.

the middle window
in the lower row

Michelle describes it:  Prague Castle dates to the ninth century, but it is still the official seat of the head of state.  The Czech Republic flag flies over the section of it when the president is in town (he lives elsewhere).  The castle was built and rebuilt many times, and each time its style fit the era.  Although it was partially burned in a fire that occurred in 1541, it remains the largest castle in the world.  Our tour guide described the religious conflicts that fiercely divided the rulers and the populace, and she suggested that this is perhaps the reason 78% of Czechs today claim to be atheists. She showed us the window that was important in a religious revolt, when several individuals who were Protestants objecting to the Catholic rule were defenestrated (thrown out of a window).  They survived, but the event exacerbated the revolt of the Bohemian people against the Habsburg emperor and was part of a larger war.

Katie wrote about the St. Vitus Cathedral that is within the Prague Castle:   This is the most important and largest church in Prague. It was started in the tenth century and was not completed for another 600 years!  It is central to the religious and cultural life of the Czech Republic, because it is the burial place of the former Czech kings, the storage place for the Czech Crown jewels, and it holds other treasures and religious relics.  The cathedral looks impressively Gothic and Baroque in its structure. It has impressive glass depicting biblical scenes and flooded with colors from stained glass. It also has carved wooden doors decorated with reliefs of Bohemian Saints. It is one of the most beautiful cathedrals still standing in Prague!

We walked from the castle down to the river that flows through Prague.  There are several bridges linking the two sides of the river. 
Here is Katie’s description:

The Vltava River is the longest river within the Czech Republic, running southeast along the Bohemian forest.  It is commonly referred to as the "Czech national river." During the day, there are many cruise boats that can be rented for exploration; there are people kayaking, others fishing, ducks swimming, and some fish jumping in the water. (On our free day in Prague, a few students rented paddled boats and explored it.) There is also a lovely little island, located near the bank of the small quarter on the Vltava river where you can relax and watch life as it happens on the famous Charles Bridge.

religious statue on
the Charles Bridge 

In the vicinity and on both sides of Charles Bridge, there are restaurants where you can have an enjoyable, relaxing, delicious Czech cuisine while enjoying the Vltava River scenery. The river is a sight to see!


Sam Ceja and Sydney describe some of the history of  Czechoslovakia and the Czech Republic:  Originally Czechoslovakia was created in the dissolution of Austria-Hungary after World War I in 1917, in the “Pittsburgh Agreement.”  Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk and other Czech and Slovak representatives were part of this agreement, and they promised a common state consisting of two equal nations, Slovaks and Czechs.

Sydney reports about the division and dissolution of Czechoslovakia under Nazi German rule.  The Munich pact was a settlement permitting Nazi annexation of portions of Czechoslovakia along the southern and eastern portion of Germany’s borders. It was signed by the British and French prime ministers, and Hitler.  The British and French thought this would satisfy Hitler’s desire for land – but others say they knew it would not, and it was just a way to “buy time” and prepare for an inevitable war.  War came for the Czechs on March 15, 1939 when the Nazis invaded the part of Czechoslovakia that had not been absorbed earlier. The Germans began to enforce their special policies toward Jews.  Jews were considered inferior, were forced to live segregated into ghettos, had to wear identifying badges, and were extremely restricted. 

Soviet army liberated
Prague from
Germans- here is a banner

According to the census in 1940 there were 88,951 Jews in Czechoslovakia. Estimates are that 70,000 Jews were deported and 6,000 escaped to Hungary – but some of those were murdered, too.  Most were killed in Auschwitz and Sobibor. There were very few Jewish survivors after the war.    Still, antisemitism persisted, as Joseph’s photo of this 1950 poster (right) indicates. 

In the Old City, next to the national museum, there was a historical display of the different phases of Czech history.  Like the Poles, the Czechs staged a revolt against the departing German army – they hated the Nazi regime, and they wanted to show the Soviets that they deserved independence.  Unlike the Poles, the Czechs were not bombarded by the Germans.  But like the Poles, they did not retain independence.  Sam C reports that the Soviet Union occupied Czechoslovakia and reunified the territory as the third Czechoslovak republic.

Wenceslaus statue in
Prague town square,
gathering place for protests

The ”Prague Spring” of 1968 was a time of reform in which the Czechs received more freedoms.  But the Soviet Union did not approve and sent troops and tanks into Prague. They reinstituted repressive rule under the one-party government Communist Party of Czechoslovakia.  Our tour guide told us about a young man who burnt himself in protest, in 1969!  One of the lasting effects of the 1968 constitutional reform was an official federal structure, recognizing separate Czech and Slovak areas.

Sam C reports on the “Velvet Divorce” of 1989.  It was named this because of the virtually non-violent end of communism, and—in 1993—the dissolution of Czechoslovakia into the Czech Republic and Slovakia.  All Czechoslovak citizens automatically became citizens either of the Czech Republic or the Slovak Republic, based on their previous citizenship, permanent residence address, birthplace, pedigree, or occupation.  Once both countries signed the Schengen Agreement (part of the EU), they no longer even needed passports or anything official to cross the border.

Slovakia has higher political stability than the Czech Republic: as of 2018, Slovaks have had only four prime ministers since 1998, while the Czechs have had ten. Slovaks have become a more integral part of the EU thanks to their adoption of the euro. In the Czech Republic, the right wing has been regarded as the key to economic growth.  We kept hearing snide comments about the current government.

We had a free afternoon and broke up into smaller groups for different activities.