Author: ehrenfeld.2

Honesty is the Best Policy: Comparing the Interpretations of World War II Through German and French Museums

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Honesty is the Best Policy: Comparing the Interpretations of World War II Through German and French Museums

Comparative Blog

Erik Ehrenfeld

     No country escaped its history. While some nations worked tirelessly to come to terms with the sinister aspects of their pasts, others opted to conceal their failures. Germany, for good reason, fell into the former category, while France was an example of the latter. These differences in collective memory did not simply constitute academic disagreements; rather, they proved that some nations were more historically honest than others.

     The German museums were commendably frank about their nation’s egregious past. Each museum of the Nazi period was essentially a showcase of human depravity on a mass scale. In a poignant example, our guide at the German Resistance Memorial Center immediately stated that less than one percent of Germans resisted the Nazis. Thus, while the individuals and groups depicted at the center were rightly remembered as heroes, contemporary Germans understand that they were brave exceptions to the norm of almost total obedience to a criminal regime. The takeaway was clear and effective: an honest accounting of the past helped visitors to recognize and combat the heinous actions that every human is capable of.

Evidence of German conformity to the Nazi depravity.

     The French museums followed a different course of collective memory. Although historians have proved that few French men and women resisted the Nazi occupation, the French museums deify the brave minority and vilified or, more often, ignored the collaborationist majority. Without previous knowledge of the true situation, most visitors to the French museums would assume that most of the population resisted the occupation. I found this interpretation dangerous and insulting, as it failed to inform the public of the true nature of moral ambiguity under occupation and it trivialized the courage of the few true resistance members. I hope that the French will one day follow the German example and restructure their museums towards historical honesty and away from celebratory propaganda.

Personal effects of General Charles de Gaulle, a favorite subject of French museums.

Bitter Lessons of the Past: The Importance of Historical Memory in Poland

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Bitter Lessons of the Past: The Importance of Historical Memory in Poland

Contemporary Blog

Erik Ehrenfeld

     Poland was a country of incessant memory. The monumental events that occurred there have left a deep mark on the Polish people, both those who lived through them and those who came after. Even in discussions of current events, allusions to the past were bound to come up. Most of these narratives portrayed the nation as a courageous yet tragic victim that reflected a desire to never let the slaughter of the past happen again.

     The Polish self-perception of victimhood is not surprising. Poland’s eastern and western neighbors have partitioned, occupied, and brutalized the country for centuries.

Despite this long history of foreign conquest, the Polish museums demonstrated that the country often fought until resistance became futile. Even in defeat, therefore, the Polish people were proud of their fight.

These patriotic feelings and actions continued during Poland’s World War II and Cold War occupations. During a tour of the Oskar Schindler Museum in Krakow, our tour guide told me that her father privately, and illegally, told her the true story of the 1940 Katyn Massacre—when the Soviets killed 22,000 Polish prisoners of war—when she was a schoolgirl despite the communist authorities’ false assertion that the Germans committed the crime. In this manner, history itself became a form of resistance.

     These memories provided the Polish people with a unique perspective on the current war in Ukraine. Throughout the visit, Polish, Ukrainian, and European Union flags adorned many public and private buildings and monuments.

These sights communicated a desire both to resist foreign aggression and, as opposed to the dual Soviet-German invasion in 1939, to do so with the help of allies. Finally, again at the Schindler Museum, our guide stated that the 2022 invasion did not surprise most Polish people, which suggested a lingering animosity towards Russia based on historical experiences. The past, therefore, remained at the forefront of most Polish people’s minds.

Vengeance and Remembrance: Monuments in France Relating to the Slapton Sands Disaster

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Vengeance and Remembrance: Monuments in France Relating to the Slapton Sands Disaster

Historian’s Blog

Erik Ehrenfeld

     On that night of April 28, 1944 off the coast of Slapton Sands England, German E-boat fast attack craft ambushed a convoy of American LST landing ships during Exercise Tiger—a simulated landing for the upcoming invasion of Utah beach on June 6, 1944. The Germans torpedoed three LSTs, sinking two. Overall, almost one thousand American soldiers and sailors lost their lives in the tragedy while the German raiders escaped unscathed.

     While in France, I discovered several monuments and displays relating to the Slapton Sands tragedy. Each site reflected the context of its location and highlighted emotions of either vengeance or remembrance. Most of the memorials to the participating units on Utah beach highlighted the invasion and the liberation of France.

Although many of these units also took part in Exercise Tiger, the Slapton Sands memorial consisted of a small plaque that did not mention the German attack and cited the incorrect date in the English section.

Nevertheless, these same honored units later captured the E-boat base at Cherbourg, which suggested that their landing at Utah beach led to a measure of revenge against their previous naval enemies.

     In contrast, the visitor center at the American cemetery of Colleville-sur-Mer focused on honoring those lost. The inclusion of a small display on Slapton Sands proved that the curators of the visitor center valued the lives of those lost during Exercise Tiger as much as those who fell during the battle of Normandy.

Finally, the display claimed that the loss of life on April 28th was not in vain, as the Americans learned hard lessons during the exercise that saved lives on D-Day. In short, the memorials in France presented the Slapton Sands tragedy as either a disaster that required vengeance or a somber reminder of the cost of war.

Beneath the Surface: The Subtle Presentation of the British “People’s War”

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Beneath the Surface: The Subtle Presentation of the British “People’s War”

Interpretive Blog

Erik Ehrenfeld

     Some of the museums that the World War II study abroad group visited in Britain were focused on a particular topic or person, such as code breaking at Bletchley Park and the Prime Minister’s wartime command from the Churchill War Rooms. Others attempted to present an all-encompassing narrative of the war, as seen at the Imperial War Museum. Nevertheless, these facilities told their stories through individual displays that portrayed WWII as a “People’s War.” The idea of the People’s War holds that the conflict erased Britain’s societal barriers through communal suffering and a shared determination for victory. Following days of site tours and reflection, I found that patterns emerged in the museums’ content and presentation that subtly implied a classless struggle against a common foe.

    Two artifacts in the Churchill War Rooms suggested this interpretation. The first was the Prime Minister’s Colt .45 pistol that he carried during World War I and owned thereafter.

While notable because of its ownership, the pistol was indistinguishable from others of the type and could have been issued to a common soldier rather than the future Prime Minister. This similarity suggested that Churchill and his soldiers used the same equipment and shared the dangers of the trenches. Another display contained sugar cubes that an RAF wing commander had hidden in his desk.

The officer probably stashed the cubes to prevent theft, as rationing limited the availability of sugar; however, another possibility is that he illegally acquired the cubes and concealed them in his desk. Wartime rationing and the black market, therefore, affected all Britons, from enlisted soldiers to wing commanders. Thus, while neither of these objects’ captions mentioned the concept, the People’s War narrative existed beneath the surface of the displays.