Author: Justin Faulhaber

Berlin – A City of Memory?

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Berlin was a totally new city for me, with an unfamiliar layout and a totally foreign language. Nothing drives home what you read in books by being there. Last year, the maxims about the extremely mountainous landscape of Greece were driven home. This year, the lesson to see was that Berlin had been destroyed by the war. Completely different from London, Paris, or even Bayeux, there were very few older buildings. What older ones there were often showed visible exterior signs of wartime damage: pockmarked surfaces and stones that did not match. If the Reichstag, the Pergamon Museum, and the Neues Museum are any indication, many of the old-façade buildings are only shells – the interior is strikingly modern. The Neues Museum interior was once designed as a work of art in itself, with various rooms attempting to replicate the feel of the ancient civilization whence their contents came. All that remains are sad remnants in places and audioguide recordings that can only describe lost rooms. I can imagine that this is the case in buildings across the city. I certainly can understand the sentiment that modern Berlin lacks its own architectural character, something feels off about it. Perhaps it was the weather, perhaps it was because I got sick, or maybe because I had just come from the incomparable Paris, but I did not particularly love the city of Berlin. I did enjoy its museums however.

In each of the museums visited in Berlin, what happened during the war has been dealt with in a forthright and factual manner. What is more, it is difficult to find fault with the museums for having attempted to glaze-over or sugarcoat anything. Again, Germany has the greatest guilt to carry. In spite of or perhaps because of this, they have held nothing back. For example, in the German Historical Museum, the Nazi rise to power and the war is presented more through a cultural lens rather than a political or military one. There is a potentially dangerous line between explaining and excusing. The cultural approach allows the information to remain on the ‘explain side’ of that line.

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The holocaust and other oppressive actions of the Nazi State are given equally honest treatment. Many of the concentration camps are preserved, such as Sachsenhausen, and open to the public. There is also a specific museum about the totalitarian government standing on the site of the old Gestapo headquarters. Within this museum, all the hardship of living under the Nazi yoke in Germany is laid bare. Again, nothing is held back. Something notable that seems to be common throughout all museums here is that when people were executed by the state (not killed in a camp but tried and executed), is that it is always said that they were murdered, stressing the total illegality of the action. Utterly different from France, I was very pleased overall with the honest approach of their World War Two Museums, although I think the suffering of their civilians and soldiers is severely under-memorialized. This dearth of grief is also totally different from Britain and France, where it often seems like there is a monument on every corner.

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View of the Riechstag – Outside vs inside.

Napoleon and de Gaulle

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Paris has been so far my favorite city of this trip. Firstly, I loved getting a chance to practice my French language skills. I had also been there before so I was interested in seeing more than the usual tourist haunts. One of my favorite stops this time around was, as usual, Les Invalides with the Army Museum, the Charles de Gaulle exhibit and Napoleon’s Tomb.

I had never seen the World War II section of the museum and overall I thought it did justice to the war in Europe while also presenting things from a uniquely French perspective. What most struck me, however, were the portrayals of Napoleon Bonaparte and Charles de Gaulle. These men are two of the titans of French history, but the ways they are remembered are completely different.

Napoleon’s body lies in a giant marble sarcophagus. It would have been impressive on its own, but it was far from alone. It sat directly under the dome of a massive church in a giant circular depression, surrounded by a gallery. Within the gallery were reliefs describing his deeds, such as the legal code he created. He was always the central figure in these reliefs and always appeared to look like a Roman Emperor, or even a god, for the gallery was also surrounded by statues of angels. If one knew nothing about him and came upon these carvings, I couldn’t imagine how one could come away thinking that this was a mortal man.

 

 

On the other hand, the exhibit on Charles de Gaulle, while certainly very flattering, was nothing more than an exhibit. It was at least similar to Napoleon’s tomb in that it tried to give a somewhat heroic account of his deeds, but it was far from marble god-like reliefs. The main airport for Paris is named in his honor, as is a metro station, but he is certainly not alone in the latter distinction. There are statues of him to be found, such as one in Bayeux, but overall none of these things can compare with the majesty of Bonaparte’s repose. De Gaulle’s grave is humble and not even in Paris, neither interred in the same church as Napoleon along with the likes of Marshall Foch, France’s leader in the World War I, nor in the Pantheon, with Rousseau and Voltaire. The inscription on the Pantheon reads: “To great men, the grateful homeland.” De Gaulle would seem like a shoe-in.

These two different and unequal modes of remembrance did not seem to correspond with their legacy. De Gaulle is remembered as the leader of French resistance during World War II and a successful politician after the war – a liberator. Meanwhile Napoleon was an ambitious, power hungry conqueror who has been compared with Hitler; whatever glory he won for France, his wars caused the deaths of millions. For these reasons, it seems, that Napoleon is honored far too much while de Gaulle deserves more than he has been given. Ironically, this outcome is completely in keeping with the wishes of each. Napoleon wanted to be remembered in exactly the manner that he is: as a glorious leader. De Gaulle wished to be remembered simply, and so he is. Whatever his wishes, de Gaulle deserves more recognition – George Washington expressed the same desire, yet his accolades are not un-merited.

Caen Normandy Museum – Bayeux

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Unfortunately, this museum wound up being something of a disappointment to me, and to many others in the group. This feeling was especially acute since I had just visited the Normandy Museum in Bayeux the night before, which was wonderful. I think our time might have been better spent visiting the one in our home-base rather than making a separate trip. They had an impressive collection of large artifacts including tanks!

 

I was surprised to find a large colored statue of the famous kiss photograph from VJ day in the United States standing out front. I am not sure what it is doing there. On the plaque explaining it, it discussed mostly how there are those who think that it is a form of glorifying sexual assault in some way and there are many who some activists who hate it for this reason. I have never heard of or thought of this concern myself and, frankly, it astounds me. Although I do not personally care for the statue on an aesthetic level, I do not see the criticism as justified at all in this case. By the entrance, there was a wall of different memorial stones presented at the dedication of the museum, which proposes to be a site dedicated to peace. These were interesting for the slight differences in sentiment expressed by each nation. Some were simpler, while others were more nuanced; others expressed thoughts for the dead, while others looked to the future.

Most of my disappointment about the museum stems from bias, which also often carried over into the attendant film. The very first section, focusing on Germany in the interwar years, was very good. The exhibits were engaging and informative. Moving into France’s own World War II experience, however, things became much more problematic. It is no secret that there were many French during the war who collaborated with the German occupiers. The museum sought to present this collusion as only as small group of government figures, while completely avoiding the fact that there were many everyday people who collaborated in various ways. Perhaps the most heinous aspect of the French collaboration was also ignored. While the museum mentioned that many French Jews were deported, it did not mention at all that the French themselves helped the Germans to round up their Jewish countrymen. France seems ready to face neither of these unpleasant realities. I have heard that the Germans themselves have really owned up to much of what they did during the war and I am curious to see some of their museums. It is high time that France do the same. They also seem keen to even vilify the United States at times by portraying how the French people suffered during the pre-invasion bombing and the invasion itself. Additionally, they suggest that the United State’s use of the atomic bomb was unnecessary, which the most recent scholarship has shown to be increasingly false. As they avoided the nasty aspects of their own history, they were all too happy to highlight the Resistance. There was one placard that seemed to suggest that the French could have liberated themselves “with or without the Allies’ help.” This is patently ridiculous and grossly oversteps the boundary between national pride in the good aspects and pure invention. The former German command bunker at the site retained none of its original appearance and was frankly something of a letdown. At the very end of the ‘bunker’ was a seemingly out of place reference to Anne Frank.

Whatever my opinion is worth, I would not recommend this museum for next year and would suggest a substitution of the one in Bayeux itself.

Churchill War Rooms

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During World War Two, the offices of the British wartime cabinet secretly remained in central London in an inconspicuous basement. The rooms were shut up after the war and the most important rooms remained largely intact, such as this central planning room.

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This preservation seems to have been a deliberate act intended to memorialize Great Britain’s finest leaders during its finest hour. Both the guide and the audio tour stressed the danger of simply staying in this location; even with the protection of several feet of concrete and steel, the building was still vulnerable to bombs. It was in the middle of the city and German bombs had grown large enough to cause massive damage. Yet, the British leaders stayed. Churchill even ventured above frequently to show he was not afraid. It is not difficult to detect a desire to glorify the determination and resilience of British leaders, particularly Churchill. It is not difficult to detect feeling that perhaps the lack of any direct hits was a providential intervention. Overall, it was surreal to think that the men we have learned about in class, most notably, of course, Churchill himself, roamed these very halls and directed the whole of the war. I thought that the absolute preservation, audio tour, and occasional mannequins gave a good sense about what things must have been like during the war. However it felt very removed and I would have liked to see more ways to interact with the history, perhaps staff stationed in the areas to interact more directly with visitors rather than just the audio tour. The Churchill Museum was probably the highlight of the War Rooms for me. There were many interesting artifacts, as well as film and interactive portions.

After having been in Britain for only three days, it is becoming increasingly obvious that the British are immensely proud of their contribution to World War II. This remembrance seems to be strongest about the Battle of Britain, the Blitz, and the Battle of the Atlantic, when Britain stood more or less alone against the seemingly invincible juggernaut of Germany. There are many monuments about these topics all over the city. They are also necessarily very reverent towards the men of the Merchant Marine, who gave their lives trying to supply Britain with vital supplies, and the RAF pilots who defended the islands from the Luftwaffe assault. The one below is a list of names of all those who lost their lives at sea, similar to the Vietnam War Memorial in the United States.

IMG_3055The British people have taken to heart Winston Churchill’s famous quotation: “Never in the field of Human conflict has so much been owed by so many to so few.” No less immortalized is Churchill himself; even during the later years of his life, he became a legendary figure and remains so today. This statue of him stands gazing out at the parliament building in the heart of London, symbolizing the government and the nation that he devoted his life to serving and protecting.

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