Catching Up

Okay, so I am about two days behind on my posting. Actually the day I posted about Dachau wasn't the day we went, it was the day after. So the day after Dachau we were in Rothenburg ob dere Tauber, the most well-preserved Medieval town in Germany. We went to two museums: one a history museum and the other one about crime and punishment from Medieval times to the 18th century. 

Medieval wall

Medieval people must have been really short! :D

Armor and weapons for a little kid. 

Torture in the Middle ages. Your head would go in the top, your wrists below, and at th bottom your legs. The way it worked was if more than one person accused someone of a crime they would be taken in and tortured until you admitted to your crime, whether or not you actually commited it. Depending on the crime you could then be killed. 

The flute of shame for bad musicians. They would have their hands locked to it so that they looked as if they were playing the instrument. 

The day after that we went to Nuremberg, the site of the trials of important Nazi officials after WWII. That was interesting because I hadn't known that they actually executed some of the officials. I also hadn't known that there were four counts that they could be tried on: conspiracy, crimes against peace, war crimes, and crimes against humanity. It's actually a little disappointing, because the four people that everyone most wanted to see brought to justice for their crimes--Hitler, Goebbels, Himmler, and Güring--commit suicide before that could happen. In fact, Güring was the only one still alive for his trial, but commit suicide two hours before his planned execution. Although the world no longer had to deal with these people, it would have been pretty satisfying to see them tried by the Allies after all the terrible things they caused. Other than Nazi officials, they also tried some doctors, lawyers, and other people who commit crimes during the war. It was very interesting to go through all of the legal struggles and planning that went into the trials.

After the Nuremberg museum we got in the car and drove to...drumroll please...Prague! We were kind of tired so we just went out to dinner and came back and went to bed. But this morning my mom got up and said, "Oh my gosh we're right next to the cemetary!" I didn't think much of it at the time--I guess I just figured it was a normal cemetary--but when I got up to look out the window I saw this. 

It's totally your stereotypical ancient haunted graveyard! The reason why it's there is because we're in the Jewish Quarter of the city, which has been around since the 1200s. It's pretty awesome!