Author: fawbush.3

To rebuild a city: Berlin

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We are now in Berlin, our final destination. I first want to reflect on the immense amount of historical information I have received along this trip. From the British People’s War and France’s universal perception, to Poland’s unique experience as the Bloodlands on a different front, we have learned new narratives about a war we collectively find interesting to study. I have learned new ways of approaching and viewing events, agendas, and controversies. No two societies approached the war or its aftermath in similar fashions. Belonging to Fortress America can make this perception hard to understand, making trips like this that much more important. I am thankful beyond expression for having this opportunity.

The river Spree, running right through the heart of Berlin

Personally, Berlin has offered the most foreign theme of all our destinations. Not because they speak a different language. They actually speak good English. It also is not the culture. Berlin is a very young and international city. It is very inviting and safe. Instead, The German World War II theme departs the furthest from the American theme. In the aftermath of WWII, the Germans had multiple problems. First, they had lost the war. A defeated society loses agency over its historical narrative, and this is obvious across the city. We visited the Soviet War memorial, where the fallen Soviets are commemorated, and an entire walkway displays the united proletariat rising to defeat National Socialism (Nazism). The hammer and sickle is featured in every obelisk and stone structure. Likewise, the Soviet star follows you along the walkway toward the mass burial grave, which is topped with a Soviet man beheading a Swastika. Clearly the Germans had little say over this memorial.

a pure Sovietesque memorial

Germany also had to find its own narrative of the war. Germany had to recreate a national identity without bashing themselves. This is apparent in the Reichstag, or the parliament building. The original walls with Soviet transcriptions remain exposed in a handful of places. Architect Norman Foster believed exposing the writings, some of which say “Stalingrad to Berlin” and “Long Live Stalin,” would help remind and infuse a horrible chapter of German history into their modern version of democracy. The German government accepted this proposal, creating an exhibition on what happened in 1945 Berlin. Constant bombing from planes and artillery and street-by-street fighting destroyed large swaths of Berlin, and the Reichstag was not excluded. Including this painful reminder of the Battle of Berlin and subsequent partitioning. Germany was not united until 1990.

Red Army transcriptions on multiple walls in the Reichstag

They also had to accept their role in the Holocaust and other atrocities. They had to balance an accepting/analytical approach without denying/excusing their actions. Places like the Topography of Terror museum, which is located at Hitler’s SS police headquarters, described what happened in the cellblocks underneath the building. It explained the discriminate process SS officials used to lock up Jews. It explained how German civilians used the SS to remove rival shop owners, annoying neighbors, or unpopular colleagues. The museum held nothing back. It described a wave of terror without interjecting an excuse. It worked the SS into a story of shame and embarrassment. It also worked it into a story of right and wrong, and lessons learned. This created a narrative explaining the horrible facts of the Nazis while dictating the lessons Germany, and the world, had learned from the era.

Everywhere you look, you see the remnants of a terrible war. From the Soviet war memorials, to the Capitulation museum, to the language used at modern museums, Germany has taken a new tone to its past. Destruction of WWII Berlin allowed the city, along with the nation, to redesign its image. Germany has found a way to be proud of who they are, and apologize about their past.

painting depicting the bloody Battle of Berlin. In the background you can see the burning Reichstag

Finally, I cannot believe this trip is complete. It has been a wild ride. Our group of 23 Buckeye students came together, forging bonds that will last a lifetime. We truly are a band of brothers and sisters. I cannot wait to see how future groups enjoy their time abroad.
Prost!

A tranformative experience

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I am currently sitting in my hotel room, staring at the neon signs for American restaurants and shops. May I remind you, we are now in Poland. I have seen more KFCs and McDonalds within walking distance here than down High Street next to campus. I cannot name the closest KFC to my house. It is remarkable how universal the American culture is around the globe.

My beautiful attempt to capture “Americanized Krakow.”

Yet, Poland has really been a culture shock for me. Not in the usual sense of language and cultural norms, but in an historical perspective. We are now in the Eastern Front of the war. Particularly, we are in the bloodlands. The war washed over this area three times: the Nazi-Soviet joint invasion of Poland, then the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union, and finally the Soviet offensive toward Berlin. These factors created a different narrative than we are used to. We are used to the story of liberation and joy, or stories of independence and perseverance. While these stories are available in Poland, they are not the collective narrative of World War II.

This became visible in the Schindler museum. Upon entrance, you are introduced to pre-WWII Krakow. When Nazi-Soviet forces invaded in 1939, Poland had existed as an independent state for only 20 years. Yet they had a distinct culture and identity. There was an entire room dedicated to Krakow’s personality before the war. A carousel-like exhibition introduces you to snapshots of Krakow’s festivals, churches, and markets. I could have spent hours learning about Krakow’s unique culture, but there is only so much time. You then transition into a section dedicated to anti-Polish sentiment.

Not everyone believed the Poles were worthy of independence. Particularly, Adolf Hitler called the Poles sub-human and unfit for self-governing. Prior to the treaty of Versailles, Germany ruled over around half of Poland. To Hitler, the Poles remained second-class subjects of Deutschland. Poland belonged to Germans, and the Slavs needed to be relocated. This sentiment justified Hitler’s division and conquest of Poland.

Hitler’s view of Poles as sub-humans helped us transition into Wednesday, where we visited Auschwitz. Auschwitz is about an hour and a half outside of Krakow in southwest Poland. SS leader Heinrich Himmler was in charge of placing and running the concentration camps. Himmler chose Poland as the main hub of camps because of its central location and its high concentration of Jews. Before WWII, 3.5 million Jews lived in Poland. By 1945, 90% had been killed.

I am currently at a loss of words. I have so many emotions over our visit to Auschwitz, yet none give the visit justice. None explain the atrocities persecuted there 75 years ago. As we walked along, a coldfront moved in, bringing a huge raincloud toward Auschwitz-Birkenau, the killing center of the camp. As we approached, half of the sun remained visible, creating an eerie feeling around the installation. I created distance between myself and everyone else so I could begin to imagine Birkenau 85 years ago.

Auschwitz II-Birkenau (death camp) from the crows nest in the infamous death gates.

Pictures and books cannot describe the feeling of walking the grounds at Auschwitz. You get to view piles of shoes, pots, pans, and hair from the victims. You stand where prisoners, sometimes naked in sub-zero temperature, stood for several hours during roll call. You get to walk through the first crematorium and gas chamber at Auschwitz. You can imagine the Jews, Gypsies, Communists and other prisoners who were promised a shower after a long train ride piling into the chamber. After being stuffed into the chamber, the SS locked the room. Using special slots in the roof, SS men dropped Zyklon (Cyclone) B into the chamber. Zyklon B was hydrogen cyanide in gas form, and turned the Nazi terror machine into an industrial killer. Zyklon B was the Nazi’s fastest and most efficient killing technique. Some died immediately, while others choked to death. The last few died banging and clawing the walls. After 30 minutes, Sonderkommandos, or specially chosen prisoners, entered the room and piled up the bodies. Some of the larger crematoriums (2-5) had special elevators to carry the bodies to the furnaces. After collecting the bodies, the SK threw a few bodies into the furnace, which took around 30 minutes. The remaining ashes were used as fertilizer.

This experience was transforming. As Americans, we learn and read about the Holocaust, but most never interact with the tangible history. To us it is a written tragedy that occurred across an ocean. We swear to never forget, yet do not grasp the level and sadistic nature of the Holocaust. Seeing the locations of industrial sized genocide with the infamous “Arbeit Macht Frei” (work sets you free) gate expanded my understanding and perspective across borders, across fronts, and across languages.

View from the side of the barbed wire only a few lucky prisoners would ever get to see again.

Bayeux and Bloody Omaha

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Our arrival in Bayeux, France introduced many of us to a truly different culture. Where Londoners shared our love of the English language, most the people in Bayeux have a much smaller desire to speak and learn English. It really hit me that we were in unfamiliar territory. Yet, American and British flags line the streets. Entrepreneurs named their restaurants “Overlord Café” and “Omaha beach restaurant.” The marriage of Americanized establishments with ethnically and culturally different people gave me a truly shocking experience.

Unfamiliar territory was the theme of most World War II French museums. The Caen museum was our first encounter with the French version of WWII. While the museum itself is Americanesque (history is truly written by the victors), it has a strong French flair. As an American, we rarely come across histories of our nation from a universal narrative. Yet, this is exactly how most WWII French museums are designed. Every gallery focused on what brought Hitler to power. They point to Nationalism and failure of international powers to answer, including France and Britain. From here, the Caen museum focused on the scope of WWII. They narrated the North African campaign, the Eastern front, and then emphasized Operation Overlord, the invasion of Nazi occupied France.

Operation Overlord earns an entire exhibit wing. This was both surprising and unsurprising. It was unsurprising because the French Resistance played a crucial role in intelligence and disruption of German movement. Operation Overlord also brought the eventual end to Nazi occupation of France. Yet, I was surprised because the invasion fits unevenly into the French memory of the war. Americans love to believe every Frenchmen viewed them as liberators and saviors. Yet many French, particularly Normans, paid a high price for liberation. Allied pre-D-Day bombing decimated cities. Many faced the duality of liberation without a home. The Overlord museum covers the contentious nature of the bombings, but lightly. Anyone unaware of the French narrative would not notice the passive-aggressive language.

However, the most moving sites were not museums, but cemeteries. The German cemetery really moved me. Most of the men buried in Normandy were either younger than 20 or over 30. In fact, out of 30 randomly chosen graves, I found an average age of 32. Hitler, afraid of the Soviet steamroller, reinforced his Atlantic army with the old, the young, and the maimed. Many German defenders were Poles, Ukrainians, Czechs, or Soviet prisoners of war. They supplemented hardy veterans who transferred to France for recuperation. Despite this diverse fighting force, the German cemetery was homogenous. Every grave had the same tombstone, and every grave listed the same information. Not one listed nationality. Not one listed religion.

Picture of the German cemetery. Notice the uniformity and low-signature of the tombstones.

As an American and Marine, the American cemetery touched a nerve. At any angle, the graves are perfectly covered and aligned. The plots are the neatly assembled formations for the deceased, who await their final dismissal for Valhalla, heaven for combat heroes. These men were the true heroes of WWII, paying the ultimate price for a group of humans most had never met. A teary eyed salute to the fallen ended an emotional day abroad.

The most moving site was Omaha beach. My imagination immediately kicked in, and I saw young men as they approached the unknown. At low tide, these men crossed a gauntlet of obstacles and open terrain some 500-700 yards long. They were cold, tired, sick, and afraid. Hidden German machine guns took pot shots at the slow-moving landing crafts The Germans used the landing craft’s large steel ramps as practice for the Americans behind them. As the ramps dropped, many Americans were cut down before spotting their assailant. Several boats were annihilated before hitting sand. Those who disembarked successfully faced a wall of German fire crisscrossing the beach. These men were drenched, weighing around 60-100 pounds more with soaked gear. 29th Division’s Company A is a grim reminder of the sacrifices at Omaha. By the evening of June 6th, only 18 of 230 Company A men remained unharmed.

The Tide here is coming in. Imagine the beachhead extending another 500 yards.

For the American narrative, the Bayeux area is filled with historical artifacts and grim reminders of the sadistic and gruesome nature of war. For many of us, Bayeux became the first personal taste of WWII. The French theme of universalism helps give a scope of the massive scale of WWII, and has opened up my eyes for the remained of this trip.

Two Cultures separated by a common language

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As I sit in my hotel room watching BBC One, I immediately recognize multiple historical narratives that stick out to me. Coming from the United States, I had a different idea of national memory of World War II. Americans remember the war as the Good War, or a war against evil and anti-democratic ideas. The English remember World War II, or what they call the Second World War, as the People’s War.

The Churchill War Rooms articulated the People’s War well. One of the first exhibits explains why Winston Churchill remained above ground during the Blitz, or Germany’s bombing of London. Churchill wanted to portray a confident, united front against Hitler. Churchill’s visibility during the Blitz helped Londoners see him as an equal.

Even after retreating underground, Churchill remained committed to the People’s War. Churchill held himself to the same restrictions as the average Londoner. His rations were the same as everybody else. Among other things, his rations consisted of a very few eggs and a small ration of mincemeat. He also wore a very common bowler hat, smoked common and very recognizable cigars, and commonly used the v-for-victory sign in publicity stunts. All of these signs helped link the Prime Minister with the common folk and helped create the narrative of the People’s War.

Churchill’s attempts worked. One of the first Churchill posters in the War Room’s Churchill section is one captioned “Let Us Go Forward Together.” It does not mention the Nazis or any “Good War.” It simply calls to unite all Englishmen and women to drive forward toward victory. Our guest speaker on Tuesday helped materialize this sentiment during his speech. Our speaker lived through the Blitz, and later served in the British Royal Navy. He had the kindest remarks for Churchill, who he believes kept English support and morale behind the war. He believes Churchill’s ability to speak plainly and directly to the English people helped everyday Englishmen and women feel involved and apart of the war effort.

This People’s War theme helped me realize how different the U.K is to the U.S. Outside of driving on the left hand side, I felt as though London is a combination of New York, D.C, and Chicago. Familiar faces and familiar languages really helped ease me in to this trip. But the War Rooms helped me realize how much history truly defines who we are individually, locally, and nationally. In this beautiful city full of history, I began to understand how differently each nation on this trip views World War II. What a great beginning

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