Throughout this trip we have encountered many WWII related items. The big ones include Corrie Ten Boom House, Anne Frank House, Luxembourg American Cemetery, Dachau Concentration Camp, Holocaust Museum and Market Garden Airborne Museum. Aside from these we visited churches and entire towns that were destroyed in the war and rebuilt and heard about how the war and Holocaust affected European culture from Joop.
All these experiences have allowed me to connect the books I’ve read and the stories I’ve heard about the Holocaust and WWII to an actual place and develop my own experience there. I now have the ability to re-read the diaries of Anne Frank and accurately picture the events in my head. Hiding in an apartment for two years (such as the Franks did) sounds difficult and scary in general, but now that I’ve been I can see that it was actually much worse than I was imagining it before and how much of a miracle it is that they lasted as long as they did.
The Holocaust museum gave me a similar experience. Prior to visiting I knew about the vastness of the tradgety but actually being there and reading quotes and the letters that kids wrote to parents in concentration camps gave me a whole new perspective. In addition, reading about how the lives of millions of people progressively got worse and worse from when antisemitic laws were put in place all the up to the eradication of entire families was gruesome but made it less historical/factual and more personal.
Throughout Germany we encountered another item that brought the Holocaust to life. Outside many homes are little plaques with names of people who lived there and were sent to concentration camps. These also helped bring to life how the Holocaust affected Europe in so many ways.
On a more positive note, it was incredible to see how Europe has rebuilt itself from the war and how they recognize the events that happened and honor the lives lost.
Chase Morris