A Postcard A Day - Tuesday 10 September 2024 - T for pilots

 Hello lovely peeps,

Here we are again on Tuesday morning getting ready for the T-Party hosted by Elizabeth and Bluebeard. I have a postcard to show you before we get to the subject of drinks:

It comes to me from Poland and features Litomeríce, a small but beautiful historical town in southern Bohemia.

The population of Bohemia used to be German speaking, the so-called Sudeten Germans. 

And Wikipedia writes: After WWI, the Sudeten Germans found themselves living in the new country of Czechoslovakia. The Sudeten crisis of 1938 was provoked by the Pan-Germanist demands of Nazi Germany that the Sudetenland be annexed to Germany, which happened after the later Munich Agreement. Part of the borderland was invaded and annexed by Poland. Afterwards, the formerly unrecognized Sudetenland became an administrative division of Germany. When Czechoslovakia was reconstituted after World War II, the Sudeten Germans were expelled and the region today is inhabited almost exclusively by Czech speakers.

I have also found out that the concentration camp Theresienstadt (Terezín) is only a few kilometres from Litomeríce. 

Encyclopedia Brittanica writes: Theresienstadt founded in 1780 and used from 1941 to 1945 by Nazi Germany as a walled ghetto, or concentration camp, and as a transit camp for western Jews en route to Auschwitz and other extermination camps.

In 1943 the Nazis sent to Theresienstadt some 500 Danish Jews who had not escaped to Sweden. While Europeans elsewhere often quickly lost interest in their deported Jewish fellow citizens, the Danes persisted in demanding that the Germans account for these Danish citizens and allow the Red Cross to visit the ghetto.

To dispel rumours about the extermination camps, the Nazis permitted the visit, but they arranged an elaborate hoax. They deported many camp residents to Auschwitz to minimize the appearance of overcrowding and erected fake stores and cafés to give the appearance of a life of comfort and ease. 

The Red Cross visited the Danish Jews—no more than two or three in a room—in freshly painted quarters. A children’s opera, Brundibar, was performed for the guests. The hoax succeeded so well that the Nazis made a propaganda film at Theresienstadt showing how well the Jews were living under the benevolent protection of the Third Reich. When the filming was finished, the Nazis deported most of the cast, including nearly all of the children, to Auschwitz. (all from encyclopedia Brittanica)

My father's brother (my uncle) had married my aunty Nelleke. She was Jewish, and she and her sister were sent to Theresienstadt as children, but survived (obviously), so my three cousins have visited Theresienstadt and I have seen many of their photos. It is a museum now.

The stamp is amazing:

Wing Commander General František Peřina (born 8 April 1911, Morkůvky –died 6 May 2006, Prague) 

Wing Commander General František Peřina was a Czech fighter pilot, an ace during World War II with the French Armée de l'Air, who also served twice with Britain's Royal Air Force. Wikipedia

So much for my card and stamp. Let me tell you what I have been up to.

Not a lot to be honest. I am still without a car, so I can't go anywhere. I've had a lovely relaxing week at home. On Sunday, I was invited by my Danish friends to a paella meal.

We went to a cave restaurant near here called Cuevas Al Jatib:

It is also a hotel I think which has a spa. We sat outside (photo above). 

Our friends had their daughter and partner visiting (the daughter took the picture). That was the occasion. It was evening and the sun was low, but the temperature was ideal.

As a first course we had fried eggplant/aubergines with Miel de caña (melasses):

Very yummy, my favorite.

And this was the seafood paella. It also had some chicken bits in it as is the custom.

My plate and my glass of wine for the T-Party.

There we are. That was my news for this week. 

Please leave me some love so I know you've visited.

Happy T-Day all, 

Hugs,

Lisca