I thought I had a grasp on WWII knowledge before coming to Europe, but I never knew how sheltered I was from the pain of the war until I came to Europe and saw the destruction war bestows upon a country and its people. I felt the memory of the “People’s War” in the London culture, and I walked the beaches of Normandy where so many soldiers lost their lives, but Poland was where I felt the pain of war the most. While walking the streets of Krakow, I kept thinking about how Poland experienced the blunt force of war from beginning to end, and I felt disconnected from the history; I found it difficult to digest the information and to appreciate the history because I actually felt guilty for being an American in this situation.
To the United States, WWII is a very different story than it is to the rest of the world. Our hardships came from losing loved ones to the war and distributing rations among our families. Conversely, countries like Poland were torn apart. Poland faced the wrath of Nazi Germany from the beginning and is still greatly affected by the war today. While combing through old postcards at the market in the main square, the vendor began chatting with me in broken English. Adamant on selling me a postcard, he described each one in full detail identifying them either as “before-the-war” or “after-the-war” postcards no matter what subject the picture was. In that moment, I could see just how much WWII really shaped the way Poland is today.
I have had the privilege of learning about WWII from a distance. Traveling to the landscapes where the war took place was more of an adventure than anything else to me. However, my time in Poland aggravated that mindset. I began to feel guilty because, as an American, I had the privilege to traipse through these cities, going from museum to museum knowing my home and my life have been largely untouched by the war while so many people here still ache from the memory. There is no way for me to change nor relinquish this privilege, but I can change how I move forward with this trip and in my historical studies. From my experiences in Poland as an American, I realized that recognizing perspective and exercising empathy are powerful tools in both historical appreciation and how we live our daily lives.