WWII

French Sites and Insights

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The sites and museums we visited enhanced my understanding of liberated and occupied France from what I researched during my spring studies. The D-Day beaches we visited were the most helpful to me, especially Utah and Omaha. My comrades and I walked all the way down to the shoreline of the beach at Omaha and just turned around to look back up at the sand and at the cliffs. We stared and talked about what it must have been like to run up the beaches under fire and carry large equipment. The low tide provided us with a somewhat accurate image of how grand the beach was on that day. The breadth of the beach showed how easy it was for the Germans to spot American soldiers Allies coming up the beach. Standing there, I could better understand how fearful they must have felt knowing they were out in the open with enemies up on the cliffs ready to fire at them. From where we stood, you could not see far up the cliffs, especially on a dark and foggy day like D-Day. Yet the Germans could look down on them and fire without even being spotted. It is one thing to learn about the beaches in a classroom, and another to be there entirely.

The Liberation Museum in Paris supposedly is dedicated to the French Resistance.  As we learned in spring semester, we learned that only a small minority of French participated in the Resistance.  Yet the museum made it appear as though all the French were resisting in some way; resistance, the displays seem to suggest, was universal.  And yet Charles de Gaulle was the focus, and they made it appear like all the people in France rallied around him. After seeing the museum, I understand better how the French used universalism to bring pride back to the people after their occupation. All the French resistants in the museum were spoken of with such pride for fighting against their occupiers. Along the wall at the start of the museum were about 1000 members of the Resistance that they wanted to showcase. The French people needed to feel that collectiveness after their ignominious defeat. Yet one problem with universalism is that specific and minority groups are left out of specific recognition, despite also being important resistors. For example, my spring studies focused predominately on the Communist Resistance, which did not support de Gaulle, but the museum suggests that all resistors did support him. The Liberation Museum in Paris clarified the mindset and impacts of French universalism post-WWII.

Unrest in the Streets of France

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Unrest in the Streets of France

A Contemporary Blog of France

Meg Brosneck

An image of Karl Marx on a concrete wall. Below him are the words “En Marx!” In black ink. There is a railing in front of the image.

An image of Karl Marx found in Bayeux

There is political and civil unrest in France, and one does not have to be a French native to understand this: it’s visible everywhere you look. Within an hour of arriving in Bayeux, France, I’d already stumbled upon a graffitied image of Karl Marx. I kept an eye out for more of this sort of imagery for the rest of my time in France. While I was never able to see an actual protest in person, just looking at the walls of buildings around allowed me to see how else the French showed their displeasure. Most of the graffiti centered around President Macron recently raising the retirement age from 62 to 64. However, this was far from the only topic presented. I found countless stickers placed on various bridges and lampposts opposing France funding wars, French Minister of the Interior Gérald Darmanin’s laws, and several generalized “anticapitaliste” and “antisexiste” ones too. They were all leftist in belief.

A blue sticker on a guardrail with red text at the top which says “de l’argent pour les retraites et les salaires.” Below this text is a crowd of black figures. There is white text over them that says “pas pour l’armee ni pour la guerre”

“Money for pensions and salaries not for the army nor for the war”

Through merely observing these writings as I walked through the streets, I was able to learn much about the state of politics in France. The people, in general, are restless. I could not have ignored this anger even if I tried; it’s painted on the walls, streets, and everywhere you look. Even if I had managed to ignore all of that, I couldn’t get away from the people themselves. Walking home on my last night in France, a homeless woman stopped me and introduced herself. Though she first tried to speak in French, she switched to English when she learned I understood it better, and she began to recount her story, She fumed about police corruption and injustice and told me all about how people in charge ruined her family’s lives and took away their homes. She blamed them for her siblings’ suicides. She spent several minutes speaking about the importance of women standing up for themselves and encouraged me to tell others the same. It was a strange but telling interaction about the current state of French politics. There was less of a heavy public divide between the right and left wing. As far as I could tell, there is no French equivalent to the widespread Trumpism present in the United States. The outspoken majority of the French, old and young, lean towards the Left.

A green dumpster with white writing on it. The writing has “64 ans” crossed out with an arrow pointing towards “60 ans”

“64 years —> 60 years”

War Through Varied Lenses

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Walking through England, there are museums, monuments, and historical sites everywhere you look. When I visited the Imperial War Museum, the Churchill War Museum, and Bletchley Park I found them to represent history in completely different ways.
The Imperial War Museum was immense and it displayed a lot of items and descriptions for soldiers from England, soldiers from Germany, families at home, and so much more. I feel like every corner I turned, there was a new gas mask or uniform I was looking at. One room was built to look like the inside of a house. It’s wallpaper showed pictures of families wearing gas masks, pictures of kids playing, and pictures of soldiers. There was a fire flickering in the middle of the room, and a radio next to that. The radio was playing an old broadcast that was talking about the war, but it was hard to make out exactly what the voice was saying. As I was walking around it was insane to imagine that this was how people lived for six years. Leaving the house, there was an air raid shelter that I was able to squeeze inside. I wasn’t even able to stand up straight while I was in there. Right outside of the shelter was a display showing all of the bombs that might have been dropped on the fake home I was just in which was chilling to imagine. The Imperial War Museum explained so many different topics by trying to have them be as relatable to viewers as possible, and walking around really showed me a lot of different perspectives of the war. It it helped me understand just how many different perspectives there could have been during the war, whether that be that of a soldier, or that of families sheltering in place at home.
Opposing the broad perspective of the Imperial War Museum, the Churchill War Museum focused completely on Churchill and the behind-the-scenes of planning the war. In all of my history classes we have always talked about important people meeting in a room to discuss big plans for the war. I don’t think I completely understood the work that went into planning such complex things as war until I was able to walk through the war rooms and hear workers from this time talk about their jobs and experiences. There were maps that took up the entire wall that had lines and pins scattered all over them showing where troops from both sides were. There were statistics posted everywhere showing casualty rates of both friend and foe, and every wall that surrounded me was covered in paper. I can’t even comprehend the amount of work that went into keeping such accurate information and deciding which information was important enough to be posted. In addition to looking around, I was listening to an audio guide that was explaining what I was looking at. When first person accounts started playing of the people that worked there it showed me everything in a new perspective. So many of the rooms had typewriters and beds in the same space. Listening to a woman tell me how she would wake up, start working and continue working all day, only to go to bed and repeat the same process the next day told me exactly how dedicated everyone involved in the behind the scenes of the war was to this cause. This museum was a lot more specific to what kind of work these people were able to complete and how it helped the outcome of the war overall.
Bletchley Park was similar to the Churchill War Museums in how it focused primarily on one thing, which in this case was codebreaking, but it differed because it explained how the workers did their jobs. Bletchley Park focused on explaining the Enigma machine, and all over the park there were little interactive games that explained the process of codebreaking. The first thing I saw when I walked into the museum was what looked like a little gear. I found out that this “gear” was actually a ring of letters that made up a rotor. This rotor was then set to a certain order of letters (depending on which code was being used) and there was a plugboard that lined up each letter typed to what the coded letter would be. Despite seeing the enigma machine being taken apart in front of me, I still don’t completely understand how it works. This helped me to develop a deep respect for those that worked here and understood such a complex concept. This respect was only grew because there were pictures of young women all over the walls next to explanations about how they worked all day every day to break this code, yet they couldn’t let anyone know what they were doing. They were about my age, or even younger which completely blows my mind. This museum was different because it explained the process of how information was gathered and how workers did their jobs instead of simply explaining the overall effect this work had on the war.
These museums represent history in completely different ways, but I find this valuable as it shows how there are many ways to view a national war. Every single person has a different memory of WWII, and seeing so many different museums has let me start to understand that the collective memory of WWII is insanely varied. Depending on what your experiences were or what you’re focused on studying, you can view WWII completely differently than someone else which I has made me love learning about it even more.

A Contemporary Coronation

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The first week of my World War II Study Abroad experience was spent in London, England at a very exciting time in the country. This past Saturday, May 8th, the United Kingdom crowned King Charles III in the nation’s first coronation ceremony in seven decades. Filled with pageantry and spectators, London seemed to be brimming with national pride for the duration of our trip. Symbolizing this national pride, the Union Jack flew over many important streets and buildings throughout Central London, such as over Soho.

The wet weather on the day of the coronation did not keep large crowds from forming, with one watching the ceremony on a jumbotron in Hyde Park.
With his coronation, King Charles inherits the British sphere of influence, the Commonwealth, which is comprised of many former British colonies.  Former British colonies, such as Canada and Australia, had their flags displayed above the final stretch of the procession.
The coronation procession ended at Buckingham Palace. In many ways, the ceremony reminded me of a presidential inauguration in the United States, though with religious elements and comparatively miniscule political power. Overall, having the ability to be in London at this time was really incredible and I cannot wait to see what awaits me in the next countries our group travels to!

The People’s War as Seen Through the Eyes of the Women in the War Rooms

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The War Room’s conference room

By Cecelia Minard

The sites we visited while in the United Kingdom shared a common theme of solidarity and sacrifice. We had discussed the Brits’ sacrifices during the Second World War in our class on “Bombing the People,” but seeing these displays brought it to life. While the US Americans back home were peripherally affected by the war, the British were more directly affected, dealing with intense nights of German Luftwaffe bombings, known as the Blitz. The artifacts and historical records displayed at Bletchley Park, the Imperial War Museum, and the Churchill War Rooms demonstrated the British collective experience during the war. The British had to come together to survive.

The Squander Bug, used in England to discourage wasteful spending

During the Blitz, Londoners frequently hid in the underground railway system- known as the Tube- for protection. Government-issued Anderson shelters came in kits of six sheets of corrugated iron or steel to be constructed as bomb shelters in citizens’ backyards. Both the US and the UK rationed food but it was more severe in the UK than in the US, with sugar and meats being especially scarce. English families were even encouraged to send their kids to the countryside to protect them from the bombing raids. Nearly everyone participated in the war effort, leading the British to call the Second World War the “People’s War.”

The War Room's kitchen

The War Room’s kitchen

I saw this highlighted consistently. The Imperial War Museum included a reconstruction of a standard house as it would have been in London during the war. Complete with a dining room table that doubled as a bomb shelter, gas masks, examples of rationed meals, and even a full-sized Anderson shelter in the back.

Churchill’s War Room Office

The Churchill War Rooms also demonstrated the British collective memory of the war, though in a different way than the Imperial War Museum. While the latter focused on the citizen’s common experience, the Churchill War Rooms focused on politics. Yet to me, the most interesting part of the War Rooms museum focused on civilian life, specifically the women that worked there. There was one chef for the War Rooms, a woman who felt her contribution to the war was feeding the decision-makers. 

Another woman working in the War Rooms was Churchill’s secretary. Churchill’s brashness startled her at first, but she later got used to his direct communication style and was quoted saying she enjoyed working for him. She was kept busy almost constantly, writing down anything Churchill needed. These are a few examples of how British women contributed to the war effort.

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.

London: The People’s Pride

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While walking around London, there seemed to be a great deal of national pride. It was the coronation weekend, so it made sense that spirits were raised, and people were happy, but I do not think it was only that. The British flags hanging around every street and the shop windows with King Charles III were most likely because of the coronation, but the national monuments that are constantly around are a part of people’s lives every day. On our first day in London, we saw red guards marching down the street and everyone, even the British people, stopped and turned for them. We heard a few gasps and whispers as they walked by. I often wonder how the British people view the monarchy, and to be there for the coronation of a new king brought some light to that. I stood in the crowd and waited with people for the coronation. People brought champagne bottles, flew British flags, and cheered when the king was crowned.

Photo during the coronation of King Charles III

The patriotism made it surprising to see how much emphasis the British focus on the unity between the allies in the WWII museums. There was always mention of “The Big Three” and how Britain was able to win only after they had their allies fighting with them. It was not just at the museums when this came up. I was talking with one of my peers at Bletchley Park about the friendship between Churchill and Roosevelt specifically. We mentioned specifically the correspondence between them that we read and how Churchill was more open in their friendship. A British woman came up behind us and said, “Well, that’s not a surprise. We kind of needed you.” It was lighthearted, and we all had a nice laugh about it, but it was surprising to hear it said so bluntly.

Bletchley Park poster telling workers not to talk about the intelligence operations they were performing.

 

The Worms’ War: British Museums Make World War II about the People

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The Churchill War Rooms were the headquarters for the highest level of the wartime government. As a museum, it exhibits focus on the life and legacy of Churchill, punctuated by some very amusing quotations, such as the Prime Minister’s “We are all worms, but I do believe that I am a glow-worm.” But, the exhibits also highlighted the others who worked in the bunker and the conditions they put up with. People like his secretary, Elizabeth Nel, and his wife, Clementine, spoke during the audio tour devoted to sharing what life was like for them in the war. Early in the tour, we got a look at the “dock,” a cramped basement area where guards, secretaries, and others slept while having to deal with rats and other inconveniences. The British idea of the “People’s War” was front and center at the CWR: the idea that the war involved every citizen in some way.

At Bletchley Park, the exhibit also focused more on those who worked there than what was actually done. They introduce codebreakers and engineers like the Wrens (Women’s Royal Naval Service), intelligence officers, and mathematicians – explaining their contributions to Allied intelligence and the war effort. A bulletin listed every member of the Government Code and Cypher School at Bletchley in 1939. Speakerphones throughout the compound played recordings of actual Bletchley workers describing their experiences at this critical division. In addition to details about the codebreaking operation, these recordings also shared seemingly mundane information, like how the work bored them, how the compound food tasted, and the joy they felt when some American visitors brought pancakes with them. It became clear that although the museum was meant to educate people about Bletchley Park, it was also meant to celebrate the people behind its success, like Elizabeth Granger and Claude Henderson.

It was clear from these museums that England chooses not just to remember the soldiers who fought in battle, but also the thousands of citizens who were mobilized to support the war effort however they could. This national memory seems to have grown out of the solidarity of a nation ravaged by bombings designed to destroy the country’s morale, instead having the opposite effect. Winston Churchill may have been the head glow-worm, but perhaps during that war, the rest of the British people turned into glow-worms as well.

 

The Rare Presence of Objectivity in National Museums

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Since Great Britain functioned as a major power in World War II, the abundance of World War II museums throughout the nation came as no surprise. Throughout our stay in London, our group visited the Imperial War Museum and Bletchley Park. A common theme among the sites listed was their praise for the common Brit. Similar to museums around the world, Great Britain’s museums had one predictable characteristic: overt nationalism.

Anecdote about an artifact from the Imperial War Museum

National bias surged throughout the exhibits of Bletchley Park, which functioned as the center of British intelligence during the war. For example, one exhibit discussed the involvement of intelligence in turning of the tide of the Atlantic war. The texts examined how intelligence from Bletchley Park identified the location of German U-boat wo

Inside the headquarters at Bletchley Park

lf packs, which in turn affected the packs’ efficiency as the Allies zoned in on their coordinates. This exhibit praised the work of British intelligence but never mentioned the occurrences where intelligence from Bletchley remained indifferent in situational outcomes. As historical knowledge continued improving, museum exhibits included critical interpretations of national histories.

 

Although the museum never completely renounced injustices committed in the British colonies, the Imperial War Museum told an accurate narrative of Britain’s reliance on these colonies during the war. The exhibit centered on the concept that Britain was “never truly alone.” It discussed the importance of the colonies in resource generation and providing troops for wars in the Pacific, North Africa, and the Mediterranean. Although this was not critical of the atrocities committed by the British empire, it challenged the nationalistic notion that Britain survived the war on the strength of solely mainland citizens. 



Mansion at Bletchley Park used as headquarters for intelligence operations

Point of View

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Point of View

A Comparative Blog of English Sites

By Meg Brosneck

 

Our journey began in England with three central locations: the Imperial War Museum, the Churchill War Rooms, and Bletchley Park. Each of these covered WWII in unique ways, and visiting all three offered a chance to compare the different viewpoints of the war.

Continue reading Point of View →

Britain and the Monarchy During Coronation Week

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The atmosphere in London during King Charles’s coronation was not what I expected. To me, the British Royal family always seemed more like reality tv-esque celebrities than influential national figures. I knew that the Windsors were generally popular with older citizens but also assumed that the country’s younger and more progressive population cared little for the institution. Both assumptions were challenged on my first day in the British capital. 

Eager to see iconic London sights, many of my fellow WWII students and I walked through the area surrounding Westminster, Hyde Park, and Big Ben as soon as we landed a few days before the coronation. Countless tents filled with devoted older Londoners filled the sidewalks along the king’s planned path to Buckingham Palace. Local law enforcement corralled everyone walking through the area down tight corridors, while people of all ages, races, and ethnicities excitedly took photos of royal monuments from afar with their families and friends. I continued the walk with my program comrades towards Big Ben where a very different atmosphere was immediately palpable. A large protest of older citizens holding European Union flags and picket signs expressing anti-royal sentiment blocked oncoming traffic. Loud rock music emanated from the demonstration, drowning out the clock tower’s hourly ringing for those in close proximity.

 

Both pro and anti-royal sentiment was easy to spot in all corners of the city during the next few days in London. Posters reading taglines like “God Save the Nepo Baby” and “Pray Tell Sire, How Much Will This Coronation Be Costing?” lined the walls of London’s busiest neighborhoods. At the same time, people of all ages (although mostly white) dressed in lavish traditional wear to celebrate a national institution very dear to their sense of self and country I also saw young Londoners my age wearing t-shirts with anti-royalty slogans and others with stickers and signs expressing excitement for the coronation as a unifying, generational event. As a lifelong U.S. citizen, I know that American discourse is nuanced and complex. Now, after seeing the country with my own eyes, I see it in Britain as well.

Long Live the King

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Throughout London I noticed differences in views of the coronation of King Charles. Many shops advertised the coronation with promotions and celebrations in honor of the King. This helped to draw eyes to their doors and bring in more customers. I went with a group of students down to a park with a coronation screening area. We wanted to see the event but also people’s reactions to it. Prior to the coronation we saw people starting to wait by the palace even if that meant camping out in the rain. At the coronation screening, almost everyone had a small United Kingdom flag to wave, and some carried big flags draped around them. One person was dressed in a suit covered in UK flags from head to toe. The majority of the people that I saw expressed enthusiasm for the King in some manner.

Not everyone seemed as enthusiastic, however. One person whom we met in a Soho shop mentioned that she did not remember that the coronation was happening until she was reminded the day prior. It felt as if people were either super dedicated to the monarchy or paid very little attention to it. I also noticed many people from other nations celebrating as well. We saw Americans in the crowds celebrating at the screening, waving UK flags. There was also someone from Canada, who could have been alive when Canada was declared independent from the UK, waving a Canadian flag. This event brings in a lot of money into the British economy because of the appeal to particular people from other nations.

Memories of Resistance and Democracy in Postwar Germany

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Germany does not shirk from its collective responsibility for World War II and the Holocaust. The German Historical Museum, for example, does not sugarcoat popular support for the Nazi Party during the interwar period. Instead, historians ask how the Nazis obtained power and why they were able to keep it. By answering these difficult questions, the Federal Republic of Germany acknowledges and wrestles with its dark past, which proves that democracy is never guaranteed in our turbulent world but it can rise out of our darkest experiences.

The Topography of Terror Museum documents the rise and ruthlessness of the Nazi Party through propaganda, intimidation, and violence. The steel building stands where the Gestapo Headquarters and Reich Main Security Office once stood. It was here at Prinz-Albrecht-Strasse that Gleichschaltung (i.e. the totalitarian process of subjugating every element of society to Adolf Hitler) became a reality. To solidify their grip on power, Nazi brownshirts arrested political opponents in the Reichstag, paraded elected officials through the streets, terrorized German-Jews, and persecuted the professional classes. Under Heinrich Himmler and Reinhart Heydrich, the Reich Main Security Office fused police forces into the ranks of the SS. The Museum includes pictures of Nazi officials alongside walls of text that explain the roles of individuals in Nazi terrorism. The Nazis targeted the upper echelons of German civil society and removed safeguards that should prevent the acceptance of evil regimes and boundless war.

The Bendlerblock Memorial to German Resistance remembers the few with the courage to oppose the Nazi regime in its atmosphere of terror, especially those who sacrificed their lives in the July 20, 1944 attempt to assassinate Adolf Hitler. One could easily miss the unassuming courtyard where firings squads executed Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg and his fellow conspirators. The Memorial consists of a stone slab, two copper plaques, and a statue of a naked and bound man. It does not make excuses for the plot’s failure or conjecture about what might have been. In Eichmann in Jerusalem, Hannah Arendt noted that key leaders of Operation Valkyrie planned to ask for a separate peace as well as other terms to which the Allies would never have agreed. Instead, the Memorial humbly and factually reminds visitors that some paid the ultimate price in defiance of Hitler’s Germany. The Bendlerblock also contains a series of exhibits on resistance from individuals in many segments of German society, including the army, churches, schools, and governments. While resistance to Nazi Germany was anything but widespread, the Bendlerblock Memorial shows that the Nazis failed to eradicate civil society.

After World War II, Germany was realistic about its culpability for the Nazi regime. Unlike postwar France, there were no myths of a vast and powerful resistance. It was undeniable that many contributed to the collapse of the young Weimar Republic into the Third Reich. The Reich Chancellery and Reichstag lay in ruins, and rubble filled the streets of Berlin until 1950. The Führer Bunker where Hitler took his own life is now a parking lot. From ground zero, Germans participated in de-Nazification and formed a new government. After its reunification in 1990, the Federal Republic of Germany was – arguably – the most modern democracy in the world. The Bundestag, formerly the Reichstag, reflects postwar Germany’s dark history and impressive progress through its design. I interpreted its open glass top as indicative of the transparency necessary for parliamentary representation. There is preserved graffiti from Soviet soldiers on the walls. Germany is a product of its experiences, and it does not intend for the suffering of its people (esp. victims and resistors) to be in vain. With democracy in crisis across the West, perhaps the future lies in remembering the darkness of Germany’s past alongside the mirrors and light of the Bundestag spire.

The Memorial for the Murdered Jews of Europe and German growth after WWII

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When we think of Germany, we often think of them as the awful perpetrators in the Holocaust and of who’s to blame for World War II. But what is their identity today? This year will be 74 years since the end of WWII. From their laws against swastikas and SS symbols to the banning of the Nazi salute in public, Germany appears to be recognizing the past and taking steps to ensure it doesn’t repeat the same mistakes. Yet, there was still one thing that stood out to me as being nonprogressive towards ending Nazism: The Memorial for the Murdered Jews of Europe in Berlin.

Talks of building the Memorial for the Murdered Jews of Europe was in the works all the way back in the 1980s, but it wasn’t awarded funding by the German Federal Parliament until 1999 and construction didn’t begin until 2003. Finally, the Memorial was completed and opened to the public in 2005. The fact that it took nearly 25 years to get this memorial established in such a key place in Germany was really striking to me. Whether this was due to the fact that many perpetrators, collaborators, and bystanders of World War II and the Holocaust were still alive during that time period or if it was Germany’s unwillingness to take responsibility for their past, this seemed like a job that was well overdue.

The name of this memorial also stood out to me because it does not disclose who murdered the Jews of Europe, when or exactly where they were murdered, nor does it include any mention of the Holocaust or Nazism. In addition, the historical placement of this site is important because it in the city center where most of the deportations took place. The Memorial for the Murdered Jews of Europe is also located around the corner from the infamous Führerbunker where Hitler committed suicide. This could be seen as problematic in the fact that it takes the attention off of the Jewish memorial itself.

Since its opening in 2005, there have also been problems of tourists and locals alike, taking pictures, posing on top of and vandalizing the rows of Memorial stones. These acts of insensitivity are extremely dangerous and give the impression that people do not know or care about the genocide of the Jewish people. Like Hannah Arendt pointed out, these “nobodies” are the most dangerous of all when it comes to the Holocaust. This bears the question if the memorial had a stronger and more descriptive name, would people be more empathetic to it?

The only thing this memorial seems to have done right would be in the actual construction and design of the Memorial. It consists of various rows of gray rectangle blocks that vary in size, shape, and texture, with an unstable ground that changes in elevation. Visiting this memorial with my comrades only intensified the experience. Walking through the blocks I would see my friends one second and then they were gone the next. There was a sense of uncertainty with no set direction as to how to walk through the memorial and a feeling of instability and chaos in the precarious ground, where you are almost never able to properly catch your footing. The exposure you feel when standing by the short blocks and a sense of isolation you feel while standing by the tall blocks was also something I encountered while visiting. These were all feelings that the Jewish people experienced during the Holocaust. You leave the memorial feeling uncomfortable and unsure, only a minute part of what these victims felt every day of their lives during World War II. This memorial does seem to be a step up against Nazism, but as we can see in the lengthy timeline of construction, vagueness in the title of the memorial and in the insensitivity of visitors, there is still a long way to go for Germany.