While many students use spring break as a time to explore the beaches of Florida or work up a nice tan on the coast of Mexico, I and eight fellow students from the University of Minnesota took a different approach this year. Instead of packing swimsuits and suntan lotion, we renewed our passports and hopped a plane to Prague, seeking not just a break from the daily grind of college, but a fresh cultural and educational experience.
Throughout the first half of the spring semester, the nine of us met once a week to learn about the history of the city and its Jewish community and to get to know one another. With all of this background information and preparation, we were not only excited for the trip we would be taking through CET Academic Programs, but also well-prepared. And on March 20th, we took off for a spring break none of us will forget.
With only six days to explore Prague, we hit the ground running. Our first tour was of a king’s castle atop a hill. Built when the Czech Republic and Slovakia were joined as Czechoslovakia, the castle originally served as the king’s summer home, but today it is the seat of the Czech Republic’s presidency. Below us we could see the Old City and the Charles Bridge, built by King Charles IV to span the mighty Vlatva River.
The next day we immersed ourselves in Jewish culture as we toured Prague’s Jewish Quarter. As in most European towns prior to the late 20th century, Prague’s Jews had been forced to live in a ghetto. After emancipation, when the Jews were given full rights, all those who could moved away from the overcrowded homes of the Jewish Quarter and settled elsewhere. These vacated homes were soon filled by the poor and destitute and within just a few decades the old Jewish Quarter had turned into a slum area with very few Jews. Finally, the Czechoslovakian government decided to beautify the city by cleaning up the slums. Today the Jewish Quarter is a very expensive place to live, and although it no longer has a concentrated Jewish population, it does house the Jewish Community Center as well as many synagogues.
One of the most important parts of the trip was our visit to the town of Terezin, located just an hour outside of Prague. During World War II, Terezin’s military personnel were evacuated and its fortifications turned into a ghetto and concentration camp for political prisoners. Throughout the Nazi’s genocidal campaign, Czech Jews were transported to Terezin before being shipped off to death camps. Hitler called Terezin the “City for the Jews,” using it for a propaganda movie and as a sham example of a typical concentration camp for a Red Cross delegation that was sent to determine whether the Jews were being treated fairly.
In addition to planned activities such as the Terezin trip, we also had a good amount of time to explore the city on our own. We experimented with traditional Czech food, explored the beautiful parks surrounding the city, used internet cafes to keep in touch with people at home, and of course shopped for the Czech Republic’s famous Bohemian crystal.
The trip was amazing. Due to its success, the CET program has decided to run another spring break trip in Prague next year and expects the University of Minnesota to be heavily involved. Spending spring break in Prague was not only something interesting and fun to do over break, but a wonderful learning experience as well.
