We walked by this building on the way to the synagogue on Friday night. My dad explained that it was a former SS building during the war. When his father, my grandfather, was trying to emigrate, he was told to arrive at the building at 1:30 to collect his papers, which he planned to do. Then an official took him aside and mentioned that he should come in at 1:15 instead. When he arrived at 1:15, he received his papers to go to South Africa, and he was told that he must use the exit papers before midnight. Good thing, as they closed the border at 12;30, and was one of the last people to get out of Prague. Without this guidance, it would have been a whole different story. And most likely, he would not have been here to tell it.
