Author: Peter Atma

On our final full day in Europe we visited the city of Arnhem which is a city situated in the Eastern part of the Netherlands. We explored and ate lunch in the city and then visited the nearby town of Oosterbeek where we visited the Hartenstein Airborne Museum. The Hartenstein Airborne Museum is dedicated to the Battle of Arnhem which was a battle that took place during World War II as a part of Operation Market Garden.

Operation Market Garden was an attempt by the allies cross the Rhine River, which was one of the biggest obstacles to gaining access to Germany during the later part of the war. The operation called for a monumental airborne assault in the Netherlands to capture 8 bridges between Eindhoven, Nijmegen, and Arnhem. The operation is considered a failure as it did not reach its main objective of securing the traffic bridge at Arnhem, even though all the other bridges had been captured. The failure of the operation is attributed to poor planning and and unforeseen delays.

During our visit, we were able to see the John Frost bridge (named after the British commander who held the bridge during the operation) where so many people had lost their lives either defending it or trying to capture it. It was interesting to see since it looked like any ordinary bridge with traffic streaming across it–perhaps unaware of its significance.

At the Hartenstein Airborne Museum, there were many interesting displays and information about Operation Market Garden. One of the things the museum emphasized was the loss of Dutch lives due to starvation after the operation failed, as much of the northern part of the Netherlands was still in German hands, but was cut off from the rest of German territory. Even though the allies caused so much devastation to the Dutch people (indirectly), the Dutch people did not seem to hold any grudge against the allied forces as they saw them as liberators. The museum also had an exhibit on the Dutch resistance and the role they played during Operation Market Garden as well as a cool walk-through experience with life-sized displays.

I thought what we experienced today was a great lesson since it showed that even with great odds and poor judgement, failure can still occur, as well as how much people are willing to sacrifice for their freedom.

Today we had our most sobering visit yet: the Dachau concentration camp. As we drove into the town of Dachau, I was expecting to see the camp as we got close; however, it was not very obvious. We parked in what looked like a very ordinary parking lot in the middle of a modern town, similar to all the other towns we had visited. Only after we walked a bit into the memorial site did I recognize that we must be getting close to the camp as we came upon high barbed wire fences and what appeared to be the main entrance to the camp.

We entered the camp through the main gates which read “Arbeit Macht Frei” which translates to English as “Work sets you free.” A horrible lie inmates where told as they entered the camp, as many did not ever leave the camp. As we walked around the grounds, nobody spoke. It was a very power moment as we comprehended what we were seeing. A barbed wire fence enclosing the camp with armed guard towers, barracks built to house 200 people but housed 2000, and furnaces build for the very specific purpose of concealing the evidence of the atrocities carried out in the camp.

While I have been to war memorials and museums before, this visit felt more real. Not only were there images displayed of what had happened, but we stood in the very room where those images were taken, allowing us to imagine quite vividly what it must have been like 80 years ago. When we boarded the bus and left, I was still shocked that all of this could have existed and happened in the middle of what seemed to be a very normal German town.

One of our stops during the last few days was a company visit to Dynajet. Dynajet is a small German company that specializes in manufacturing high pressure systems and tools. Such applications include cleaning graffiti off of walls and cleaning dirt off of surfaces. One of the more interesting applications is replacing concrete in concrete structures. This is useful so that you can get rid of the old concrete without damaging the rebar, whereas using a jackhammer would damage the rebar.

Dynajet started out as a brand within a larger company, Putzmeister, but was sold and became a full company. Our tour guide, Carsten, was instrumental in this transition as well as currently running the company. Recently, however, Dynajet has been bought by Uraca, since it was struggling to meet market demands as a small company.

Dynajet’s high pressure systems are built into a trailer so that they could be transported easily and quickly. Dynajet believes in creating a reliable product, therefore their machines are created in a modular fashion so that parts can be easily replaced if needed. They are also concerned with being up to date with EU regulations, so they had the most revised design on the shelf and ready to sell.

This was an interesting company visit since we have mostly visited larger companies on this trip. The size of the manufacturing facility was big enough to produce about four machines at any point in time. This is pretty small compared to the big distribution plants of the other companies we have visited thus far.

The “Yellow Vest” protests are demonstrations that have been ongoing in France since last year to protest the economic reforms enacted by President Emmanuel Macron. While the interim group was in Paris, we saw the effects of these protests first hand.

While we all kept a safe distance from the protesters, we were well away of what was going on. On the way into Paris, many Yellow Vest protestors deliberately stopped their vehicles in the middle of the freeway heading toward Charles de Gaulle Airport to block people from getting there. Luckily we were heading in the opposite direction and arrived at Versailles without hinderance.

During our second day in Paris, we were told that several demonstrations would be taking place throughout the city. Fortunately, they were not around Notre Dame or the Louvre, which were that day’s destinations. Throughout the day we heard police sirens every now and then as the demonstrations must have been taking place.

The group was generally unaffected by these protests but there was a large police presence in the city. For reasons I am still unsure of, two of us were searched by the police outside Notre Dame. Maybe we looked French enough to be protestors. After visiting the Louvre, a group of us started to head back to our hotel via the Metro. However, due to the protests, many of the stops had been closed; therefore, we had to backtrack and take another, longer, route back.

Under the current political climate, we are used to the many protests in the United States. However, it was an eye-opening experience to see what political unrest looks like in a different country and culture.

Peter Atma