Butterfly Project

" Preparing for the commission's visit " . . . The commission, because of which a transport left and the three layer bunks were torn down, has departed, and I believe they were satisfied. They didn't see through very much, stayed scarcely a half day, but that seems to have been only a rehearsal. The camp command issued new orders about the "beautifying campaign" that must be finished on two months. It's ridiculous, but it seems that Terezín is to be changed into a sort of spa. I don't know why I was reminded of the fairy tale "Table. Set. Yourself!" But that is how everything seems to me. The orders are received in the evening, and in the morning everyone's eyes are staring with wonder, where did this or that thing come from? For three years it never occurred to anyone that streets might be named anything but Q and L. . . But all of a sudden the Germans had an idea, and overnight signs had to be put on every corner house with the name of the street, and at crossroads arrows pointed: To the Park, To the Bath, etc. . . . The school building that had served as hospital up to today was cleared out overnight and the patients put elsewhere while the whole building was repainted, scrubbed up, school benches brought in, and in the morning a sign could be seen afar: "Boys' and Girls' School." It really looks fine, like a real school, only the pupils and teachers are missing. That shortcoming is adjusted by a small note on the door: "Holidays." On the square the newly sown grass is coming up, the center is adorned by a big rose plot, and the paths, covered with clean, yellow sand, are lined with two rows of newly painted benches. The boards we wondered about for so many days, trying to puzzle out what they were for, tuned into a music pavilion. We even have a café with a fine sign "Coffeehouse." . . . They have already got quite far in painting the houses. . . . In two of the barracks some bunks and shelves were painted yellow and they got blue curtains. In the park in front of the Infants' Home they put up a luxury pavilion with cribs and light blue, quilted covers. In one room there are toys, a carved rocking horse, and so on. None of us can explain why they are doing all of this. Are they so concerned about that commission? Perhaps we don't even know how good the situation is. Diary entry from Helga Weissova

I commented on Vanessa's, nathaly's, Dena, Ingrid,and  Sophia's .