29. Iyyar 5768
June 03, 2008

Terezin - Prague 2008

Yet again arrived the month of May, the last among the many since the Allied Armies definitely routed the Nazi Germany. It brought liberation to the near-death-exhausted prisoners of the many concentration camps, including the ones interned in Terezin. After so many years of hopelessness, they could go home. We all know those stories, yet we remind ourselves every year and recall the ordeal of our loved ones.

How to describe an action that takes place every May, yet always ends up uniquely on the bank of the Ohre where we all stand with our own inner thoughts concerning the ashes of our loved ones that were carried away by the river's currents so far in time and space?

This year, The Jewish Liberal Union of the Czech Republic, the Jewish sports club Hakoach, and the American Jewish Joint DC jointly organized the 7th bicycling Liberty Tour.

The fourth May weekend - according to the tradition we gather before 7 AM at the Masaryk Railway Station, the weather ideal for bicycling, not too hot, the sun peeking out from behind the clouds frequently. I had no idea how many bicyclists would show this year and what surprises would await me. The first surprise - unlike last year, I was not the only female participant, one women came from as far as Slovakia. Moreover, my happiness in women participation was enhanced by the girls taking the tour (boys always participate). The crown was the presence of a three-year-old Eliska. It meant more effort for her father and more worries for her mother to ensure her safety. So there were twelve of us.

We faced 70 km of riding on thoroughfares, road, paths, and lanes. We also faced negotiating a long stretch of the Vltava river bank – Eliska’s parents managed well, only twice her carriage overturned, but Eliska took it all bravely. She has her mom and dad there, so with them, all is safe.

The bank of the Ohre river was reached not only by us – the first generation born after Holocaust – not only by the kids able to negotiate the whole tour, but also by little kids who cannot even reach the bicycle. And yet again that special feeling there – do the dead watch are there? Or does the river pray with us? We stood there reciting Kadish as a symbol of the continuity of life with the message that we are here, we continue living, and we even have small children with us.

When looking at the memorial there, I thought about my father who survived the hell of the concentration camps, and who died last December, I thought about his fellow prisoners who are leaving this world relentlessly one by one, and that one day the last witness of the nazi mad rampage will be gone. It will have left us, the ones who say “my parents survived it”, with many unanswered questions. Will the world believe us that it had happened? Will we be able to pass this sad inheritance to the next generation? We have to, and the Liberty Tour is a part of it.

And like every year, the same tiredness, the same yet unreproducible feeling, we are leaving Terezin and heading home.

Vera Dvorakova
May 28, 2008