Stephanie Cake

So my grandmother called me the other day to see what was up and find out how my Prague trip went. I knew that my grandfather had been to Czechoslovakia during WW II but apparently he was actually stationed there for a period of time. She told me that there are a bunch of pictures somewhere of him in Prague and she remembers thinking how interesting the architecture was. She said she would try to locate them for me. How cool! I wonder if he was photographed near anything I would recognize.

I knew my grandfather had been to a bunch of places in central Europe - France, Germany, Austria, etc. I was 90% sure he had been to the Czech Republic because he was involved in the Allied forces liberation of some of the concetration camps... Terezin was one of the smaller camps and located just north of Prague. But I was suprised to find out (or rather, re-learn because I'm sure I've heard this at some point while I was growing up) that he was actually stationed there.

Also, my uncle was apparently named after a Czech man that my grandfather was very close to. I knew that Steve (Richard is his 1st name and I think that's the namesake) was named after someone my grandfather knew during the war but I never knew enough to put 2 and 2 together. I'm so glad that my grandmother remembered this stuff to tell me but it makes me so sad that my Pa died before my trip. I would love to have shared my experiences in the Czech Republic with him.