Transnational History of the Second World War in Europe

For my STEP signature project, I completed an education abroad program through the Office of International Affairs. I traveled throughout the United Kingdom, France, Poland, and Germany for nearly a month where I studied the transnational history of WWII. By being able to participate in this program, my understanding and assumptions of the history of WWII and the way it influenced the post-war world were challenged and transformed.

Learning about history in the United States is from the biased perspective of our national memory. We learn about what we experienced and remember from WWII, not exactly the full story of what happened or all of the different people and nations who were involved. Relearning this history from the perspectives of so many different countries allowed me to compare these histories and to arrive at my own conclusion of what is likely the most accurate representation of what happened in WWII. This has allowed me to gain a broader understanding of the history of WWII and how it shaped the world into what it is today.

My interactions with the locals in the countries I visited had a very large impact in the transformation of my understanding of the history of WWII. Interacting with the local people really revealed the nation’s national memory and sheds light onto what that nation’s perspective of the war is formed around. The nation where I found this national memory to be the most profound was in Poland. Here, many Polish citizens referred to Poland as being innocent throughout the war and really stressed the theme of national victim hood. Even when asked about Polish participation in Nazi atrocities, every Polish citizen we conversed with continued to deny this and stress national innocence. This was much different than what I was taught in the United States, where we did not shy away from acts of Polish compliance with the Nazi regime throughout World War Two.

Auschwitz Concentration Camp in Poland

Many of the places I visited also impacted my understanding of the history of WWII. Seeing the differences in the ways that museums and memorials were designed also reveals the way that nation and their people remember and teach history. For example, many of the museums in France and Poland emphasize that they were victims of Nazi atrocities who suffered greatly and often present warnings for future generations to prevent this from reoccurring, where as in Germany these memorials were very matter of fact and didn’t exactly seem like the most heartfelt apologetic memorial. These differences in museums and memorials allowed me to really compare and contrast the national memory of these nations and to be able to understand why these differences exist. Being able to understand these key components were crucial in being able to truly analyze the transnational history of WWII.

Exhibit at the end of the German History Museum in Berlin

The transformation of my understanding of history and the world during WWII has been incredibly valuable to me. Being able to understand these differences and why they exist will help me in my personal as well as professional life to understand why nations and their people perceive history so differently and how this contributed to the formation of the post-war world. By understanding this, I will be better able to understand and adapt to cultural differences. Additionally, these skills will be useful to me in my future history classes and will hopefully allow for more cross cultural and transnational comparison of history.

Omaha Beach, Normandy, France