During our time in Berlin, it was interesting to see how the Germans present the facts from World War II. As I have seen traveling to England, France, and Poland, every country attempts to portray themselves in the best possible way. I thought the Germans would be exempt from this as there is nothing to celebrate. Yet, they were still able to focus on aspects of their past that glorify members of the small German resistance.

We visited a memorial to Claus von Stauffenberg, a man famous for an attempt to assassinate Hitler. Connor Mason presented his site report here and told us about the plot. The plan was to kill Hitler using a briefcase bomb placed near his feet. Stauffenberg would be the one to place it as close to Hitler as possible then leave to Berlin. There, other members of this resistance group would take over the government. This plan was not successful as the bomb was moved too far away from Hitler. Stauffenberg and many others were executed for their actions in the same place Connor was giving his speech. It is important to note that even though this story is popular, wide scale German resistance was virtually nonexistent. While it is good to remember those who fought back against the Nazis, these groups were an extremely small minority. It was interesting seeing what we have been learning about for so long from the German perspective.

Memorial to Stauffenberg and others. He was executed on this wall.

We also visited the Holocaust memorial in front of the American Embassy. It was a truly unique memorial. It consisted of gray rectangular stones set upon an uneven, wavy surface. The way that they are arranged form long halls. It is easy to get turned around within it. Its effect is interesting. You can be walking and suddenly someone will just appear right next to you, forcing you to confront them face to face. I think this is what the desired effect was from the architect, for people to directly confront their past. I really liked this memorial as it was completely unique compared to memorials we had seen previously.

Holocaust Memorial.

We toured the Soviet Memorial in Treptower Park as well during our time in Germany. This massive memorial was dedicated to the Soviet troops that had died during the war. In the center, a large Soviet soldier is crushing a Swastika with a sword. Leading up to this monument are quotes by Joseph Stalin. Typical of a Communist cemetery, there are no individual graves. One large mass grave is located at the base of the large statue. It was interesting to see a monument to the Soviets after they had occupied the city under oppressive rule for so long. The memorial obviously left out the horrific actions of the Soviet troops on the citizens of Berlin. It appears to celebrate the bravery and strength of the Red Army while leaving out the horrible things that they did to the people of Berlin.

Soviet Memorial. The man is crushing a Swastika with a sword.

Our stop in Wannsee was especially interesting as it allowed me to see how the Germans remember the planning of the Holocaust. There are two sides to the debate about the planning and execution of the Holocaust. They are the functionalist approach and the intentionalist approach. The functionalist approach asserts that there was never an initial plan to annihilate European Jews, but that the Holocaust came about as a result of a wide range of small decisions made by countless Germans. Intentionalists assert that it was Hitler himself who ordered the destruction and mass killing, and that was his plan all along. The museum at the Wannsee house was very much intentionalist. I think the reason for this is again the idea that countries attempt to portray themselves as positively as possible. When taking an intentionalist view, as the Germans do at this museum, they are able to pin all the blame on a few people. This completely disregards the amount of cooperation and collaboration of thousands of other Germans. While the Germans are very open about their past, they still succumb to attempting to portray themselves in the best possible way just as every other country does.

The Wannsee House.

To me, France was just how people described it to me. It is a small French town with narrow streets. The town is dominated by a towering ancient cathedral. While we spent some of our time wandering the streets and discovering new places to try new French foods, the most memorable times in Bayeux occurred when we left the small city and went to the beaches of Normandy. We visited many sites, including Ste. Mere-Eglise. This site was particularly interesting to me as my site report covered the paratroopers in Normandy and this is where much of the fighting took place. We also visited the statue dedicated to Dick Winters of the 101^st Airborne where I have my report on Steven Ambrose’s novel, “Band of Brothers.” Seeing where these men actually landed and where much of the fighting on the first few days of the invasion was incredible. I was able to connect all that I had learned about this area in my reading to the actual location that the men of Easy fought.

Pointe du Hoc was the most impressive of the Normandy beaches. At this site, men were tasked with scaling steep cliffs in the face of a well-fortified enemy during the invasion of Normandy. The men were given grappling hooks and ladders to climb the cliffs and had to do so under intense German fire. Seeing this in person truly showed me how daunting the cliffs must have looked to the Rangers. The perception of this battle is that it was a resounding success. While in the grand scheme of the war this may be true, the amount of casualties that the men took would lead me to think that it wasn’t as successful as it is made out to be. Over half of the men that scaled the cliffs were killed in battle. It seems that the success of a battle was determined not by how many men survived, but if the overall strategic goal was accomplished. The bomb-cratered battlefield is littered with the remains of German defenses. Walking through the defensive structures and seeing what the Germans would have looked at puts in perspective how dangerous this mission was. The casualties reflect the harsh terrain.

German fortifications looking out towards the ocean.

Cliffs of Pointe du Hoc.

Perhaps the most interesting and humbling experience during my time in Northern France was visiting the memorials to the men that died fighting in Normandy. We visited American, British, and German memorials. Each memorial was unique in the way that it remembered the fallen soldiers. The design of the headstones varied based on how that country remembers the war. In the American Memorial, all the headstones were perfectly lined up and were all made of marble. The only thing that differed between them was the religion of the soldiers that were killed, a Cross for Christians, and a Star of David for Jews. This uniformity of burial reflects the idea of the “Good War” as all these men were fighting together and as one. This is also evident in the fact that only Americans are buried there. In contrast, the British cemetery represents the “Peoples War,” which is demonstrated through the personalization that is present there. Family members of fallen soldiers were able to write personal messages and select an emblem to display on the tombstone. Another difference here is the fact that people from all nationalities are represented here. There were Poles, Soviets, and many others. This is another example of how this war for the British was the “Peoples War.” Both the American and British cemeteries in Normandy glorify the fallen soldiers and remember them as heroes. The German memorial does not attempt to do this. The German cemetery does not seek to glorify the fallen German soldiers; it only serves to recognize the sacrifice made by often innocent people.

Tombstone of a 17-year-old British soldier.

What had the greatest impact on me was seeing the ages of the men that were killed in Normandy. I always knew that people younger than me had died fighting, but seeing it in person really drove it home. In the British cemetery, this feeling was compounded by the messages from the soldier’s family. Seeing messages from mothers, fathers, brothers, and sisters to their dead family member was sad. This had a much larger impact on me than I was expecting.

Our time in Paris was short but I tried to make the most of it. I visited many of the typical tourist locations such as the Arc de Triomphe, The Louvre, and the Eiffel Tower. Seeing these landmarks in person was a great experience. We also visited a museum dedicated to Charles DeGualle. Here, it was interesting to see how the French attempt to portray him as a hero in World War II. They are very forthcoming and sometimes disingenuous when describing all his positive attributes and seem to be completely fine with leaving out some of his mistakes.

Overall, I loved France and the people. The stereotype that they are rude to Americans is not true in my experience. Now off to Poland!

Poland was not what I expected. Sitting from my hotel room, my view was of a large mall the size of the one in my hometown with several signs for American fast food places. I am willing to bet that there are more KFCs in Poland than there are in Ohio. The culture here is very similar to that of the United States and many of the people I met spoke English very well. While Poland and The United States share very similar cultures, it became clear to me very on that our countries vastly different histories have a profound effect on the way we view the world.

Schindler’s Museum was on of the first stops in Krakow. After a short ride on the tram system, we arrived at the actual factory where Schindler saved 1,200 Jews. He employed these Jews and kept them from being deported. Schindler was a member of the Abwehr and had advanced warning to raids that would take place on his factory. He used this knowledge to help save Jews that were about to be deported. Compared to Jews in the ghettos, the Jews working in Schindler’s factory were treated better and received more food. I was surprised how little the museum actually focused on Schindler’s actions. It seemed that the majority of the museum focused on Poland before, during, and after occupation. The museum was particularly effective in immersing the viewer in what it would have been like to live under Nazi rule. The tight, claustrophobic hallways filled with Nazi propaganda surrounded me as I walked. Hitler saw Poles as subhuman and wanted to Germanize the area to make a suitable home for Germans. The common theme of this trip so far in museums has been trying to determine the bias that is within it. In the museum’s depiction of Nazi occupied Poland, any mention of Polish collaboration was absent. As our group discussed in a group discussion at our hotel, each country attempts to put their history in the best possible light. Poles do not want to be remembered for their collaboration with the Nazis.

Learning about the Nazi occupation of Poland and the dehumanization of Poles was a fitting transition to our trip to Auschwitz. There are no words I can use to describe what it felt like to walk through the camp. We started in Auschwitz I, where we walked through rooms filled with human hair harvested from the innocent people murdered. We walked through a room filled with shoes from men, woman, and children. Seeing children’s shoes was especially heartbreaking. We walked the streets that the prisoners of the camp had to stand at attention for hours during role call. Role call could last for hours during the harsh winters of Poland. Auschwitz-Birkenau was even harder to comprehend. The entrance is ominous and has been called “The Gate of Death.”

Gate of Death.

We walked along the same path where selection took place. Selection was where the Jews were separated into those fit for work, and those not fit. Those who were not fit were led down the same road where I stood to their deaths. In Jon Schulman’s site report, he impressed upon us the idea that luck was the determining factor to who lived and who died. Sometimes all that mattered was what side of the train car they got off on. Continuing down the road, I walked up to the rubble of the two largest gas chambers at Auschwitz. The Nazis would tell the people deemed “unfit” for work that they would be taking a shower. They were ordered to strip down and enter the shower. The German soldiers would then lock the door and fill the room with poison gas. When the Nazis knew that the Soviets would soon liberate the camp, they attempted to destroy the evidence of their atrocities. All that remains is a pile of rubble, evidence of atrocities committed against Jews during Nazi rule.

Road where selection took place. Jews would arrive on the rail line, then be sorted.

The American memory of World War II is distinct from that of the Polish. American’s are able to put the War into a neat block of time, 1941-1945. After this, America moved on to the Cold War. This neat organization of History cannot be done in Polish History. As Schindler’s Museum pointed out, after the horrors of Nazi occupation the Polish people were subject to Soviet rule. Polish history in the mid 1900s can not be separated into distinct events, rather, they suffered through the same situations for decades. While Poland and America share much of the same culture, evident by the countless McDonalds and KFC’s, we do not have the same memory of the 1900s.

I arrived in London from Dublin on the night of May 7^th. I was able to explore a little of the city before the official World War II program began. I walked through Hyde Park and got my first order of fish and chips of the trip. Having spent a few days in Dublin with Kevin Roberts, I had already fought past the worst of the jet lag that hit others. I quickly discovered that London is significantly larger than Dublin, so I had some adjusting to do.

The first day consisted of traveling to the statue of Winston Churchill in Westminster. This was the day that I was forced to learn how the Tube works here in London and it is as easy as people say. After only a few trips I felt like I had a pretty good idea of how to traverse the city. A small group of us toured Westminster Abbey and then did some sightseeing along the Thames. We finished the night at a pub by our hotel. We managed to fit most of the group in that small pub and we took up about half of the available space.

Westminster Abbey

Our first museum stop was the Churchill War Rooms. It was great to finally see the topics we had spent so much time studying back in Ohio right in front of me. The British remember the war as the People’s War and this was evident in the Churchill War Rooms. I was reminded from Rachel Harriman’s site report and the museum itself how Churchill was able to galvanize the people of Britain through his charisma and leadership. He hated the idea of having to hide underground during the air raids. He wanted to show the people that he wasn’t afraid, and they shouldn’t be either.

Though we share the same language, it is clear that our two countries have two different recollections of the war. At home, it was the Good War, here it was clearly The Peoples War; Churchill made sure of it. Seeing the calls for national unity and working together demonstrated this. Churchill called to his people to carry on through the war, and together they would prevail.

The next day, May 10^th, was a free day and I put it to use. Our first stop was the Tower of London where we learned about the fascinating and sometimes brutal history of London. We also saw the Crown Jewels which were incredible. Our next stop was the British Museum where we saw a wide variety of historical artifacts from all over the world. For dinner we went to a pub in Trafalgar Square called The Admiralty — great food everywhere.

This is the mansion at Bletchley Park.

Today was the trip to Bletchley. For me, this was the most interesting location as I like learning about the complexity of the code breaking operation. Beau Bilek gave his site report here and went into detail about the spy rings and double agents that the British used to manipulate the Germans. I felt that this trip was my favorite as it gave context to the environment that the British code breakers were in when they eventually deciphered Ultra. It was very clear that the British are proud of the work done by the people in Bletchley. The nature of their work prohibited them from receiving recognition after the war, so I think it is important that they are remembered for their contribution.

Tomorrow is the Imperial War Museum then off to Normandy.

We are almost there.