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While walking around Prague we went to the John Lennon wall. Back when Prague was under Comunist control people would write portraits of John Lennon but then it would only be covered up by the Comunists so then people of Prague would put another portrait up. When communism was over in Prague someone spray painted on the wall “WALL IS OVER” but then someone covered up the two L’s and replaced it with an “R” so it said “WAR IS OVER”. More and more people started to come and paint there own things on the wall, whatever they wanted to. We got the chance to spray paint your own unique things on the wall.

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Something that was significant to me was the John Lennon wall. Even though John didn’t visit Prague, the wall was a symbol of uprising against the communist government. The people weren’t allowed to experience western media (including The Beatles) so the wall acted as a place for people to write their grievances against the government. Now it acts as a place for people to preach peace, love, or really anything they want.

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Today in Prague we visited the John Lennon Wall. This wall was established after the communist wanted tried and stopped people from expressing their human rights. People were not able to watch popular shows such as Popeye. This led to the people wanted to rebel against communism and The Beatles music was the thing that helped pull the trigger for rebellion. They have decided the oppression has went on for too long causing them to express their thoughts with graffiti of peaceful symbols. Though, the communist would just repaint the wall to hide the opinions of the people they were persevere & kept showing their want for freedom.

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When in the Strahov Library we were surrounded by precious authentic books, statues, globes, and the floors themself. Some books on the shelves are even older than the city of Prague itself, so damaging them would be incredibly disrespectful and we would be losing an important piece of not only history, but humanity as a whole. Not to mention these books were handwritten and made from precious, fragile materials. In order to help not damage the floors, or step to hard and shake the room, we all had to wear funky slippers over our shoes, and slide instead of step around the rooms. By doing so, we helped preserve collections of old books, so that the books could help preserve human history.

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Going to the Strahov Library, we encountered interesting history about Czech Republic and the European world as whole. Encountering objects like the picture below which shows a representation of the European World and how Czech Republic was the heart of the women. This connects to the Holocaust because during the time, the people of Prague did not let disasters ruin their hope and pride because they would express their emotions on the John Lennon wall which shows their heart is full of hope. They way the people express themselves connects back to the representation of the historic map of the women because it proves why Czech is on the heart of the women.

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Whethis was an old representation of the european world and how czech was the heart of the women and connect it to how in the Holocaust the people of Prague didn’t let that ruin their hope because everyday they would express their emotions on the john lenon wall which shows their heart is full of hope

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Today we went to the freedom of speech memorial. We got to write our own messages where we could aswell  express our speech choices. We wrote our messages just like all the other people that visited the wall today. The wall was symbolic of the Freedom of speech that was taken away under communism.

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During our time at the Strahov Library, Mr. Barmore explained the importance of books as a whole, stating that they act as a respository for knowledge. Connecting this to the Jewish culture, Mr. Barmore then went on to expand on the importance of Jewish tradition and teachings, as all Jewish boys were literate even during the Middle Ages because they began learning to read the Torah at the age of three. This literacy created a sense of continuity from gerneration to generation within the Jewish community. For example, books and texts have been used to build upon the teachings of the Torah, as rabbis interpret the ancient commandments, translating them into a contemporary context. I found this interesting because I had never realized that books had such a huge impact on the Jewish community, as I wasn’t unaware that rabbis contextualize the Torah into books of their own. I found it fascinating that for the Jewish community, these texts serve as a connector between the past and the present, allowing them to continue to follow their faith, despite the vast dichotomy between current society and society 2,500 years ago.

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Today we went to the John Lennon wall and to our surprise we got to spray paint the walls with whatever we wanted. In that sense i felt like i had freedom to express whatever. During Communist times when it was still Czechoslovakia the Czech and Slovak people had no freedom of expression whatsoever until the two countries split and became a democracy. The wall represents the new freedoms they now have and to show that people spray paint the wall to whatever they wanted to put.

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In the first day of being in Prague we visited the Strahov Library, and it contains books from the sixteenth century! The big mural on the top of the library contains stories and important characters from the Bible. On the side of the wall the architects designed a “secret” staircase in the bookshelf in order to get to the balcony level. We discussed the symbolism of books in the nineteenth and twentieth century. In Berlin, anti-semitists we’re burning books in the streets, while here in the library the shelves are bursting with knowledge-filled books. These books also signify the importance of education. The anti-semitists oppressed the Jews by taking away their right to read and gain knowledge.

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Today at the Strahov Library we discussed the impact that the literate nature of the Jewish faith had on the Jewish people and those around them. Because they were literate and used for trade, the Jews had an advantage over others when they read about the past and learned different languages, giving them a new way to communicate with the people living in the countries that they traded with. This of course was seen as a threat to those who weren’t literate. While they did not like the Jews, they had to respect them because of the power that they held within the books that they could read. Nazis tried to take away that power that the Jews once had and the fact that Judaism is based on knowledge and learning when they burned books that contained ideas of Judaism and literature written by Jewish authors during WWII.

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I never realized how important books are to the Jewish faith until we visited the Strahov Monastry. The library dates back to the 10th century containing about 45,000 books.  Mr. Barmore explained that Judaism is based on the law and that law comes from the Torah, or the commandments. This made me realize how painful the Burning of the Books was for the Jewish community. Anti-semitists burned tons of books demonstrating the Jewish religion, including books about the faith and books written by Jewish authors. These texts are something that is sacred to Judaism, and seeing their history destroyed is more painful than I ever imagined.

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Today at the Strahov Library, Mr. B discussed with us the importance of books and how they are responsible for passing down knowledge for generations to come. Knowledge is power essentially, which makes books a huge advantage for any society looking to thrive. With this in mind, it is interesting to note that one of the first things the Nazis did was hold a book burning for books that contradicted their ideas or beliefs. By doing this, the Nazis took away the people’s ability to think for themselves and develop their own opinions or point of view, since they would no longer have a diverse range of books to choose from.

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At the Strahov library there is a statue of a man that looks fearful with a bag of books in his hand. This makes me think of how powerful knowledge can be and how it can make or break a society. Back in ancient times the Church used god to put fear in people’s hearts and force them to follow certain rules. In Ancient Rome before he died a Catholic priest named Copernicus uttered under his breath that the Earth actually revolves around the sun, and it shocked everyone that a man of faith would believe such a thing. If he wasn’t already on his deathbed he would have been executed for speaking against what the church had been telling everyone to believe. Only the literate were able to read and learn while the illiterate were kept in the dark and believed whatever they were told. The Nazis did the same thing as they came to power when they burned all Jewish books and anything that did not agree with their cause. They knew there was power in books and the spreading of ideas and knowledge, so they tried to keep everyone in the dark and make sure that no one would be able to prove that they were actually wrong.

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The John Lenon wall was created in order to give the people of Prague a place to fully express themselves. Today I learned that when people would come to express their feelings, the communist of Prague would come and white wash all the art and writing off the walls. But without a doubt, the next morning the people of Prague were back writing everything they had to say and the process went on for months. This reminded me of the current situation occurring in Poland at the moment. Instead of dealing with the history their country once faced, they made it illegal to discuss the past, basically stripping them of their basic human rights. During these times, extreme measures are taken by everyone but by taking away someone’s freedom of expression shows one’s true character; a fearful coward. To me, the only reason countries would hide the truth is because it’s the one thing they feared the most.

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Today we visited the John Lennon Wall in Prague where we were surprised with spray paint to graffiti the wall in order to share our own messages of hope for the future. During the 1960s, Prague was under a Communist regime which limited certain music genres from being played. Citizens would graffiti the wall in the 1980s with portraits of Lennon and The Beatles’ lyrics. The everchanging  wall highlights how expressing peace and love in the form of art creates hope and unity among citizens who are feeling oppressed. Communism was unable to censor the ideologies the local Prague community tried to express.