World War II

During our trip to Europe we saw several sites that directly related to World War II and the occupation by the Germans. We began our Europe trip in London. While there we saw the Churchill War rooms and museum. This is the reinforced underground bunker from which the war was run. We saw the meeting rooms, map room, Churchill’s bedroom and kitchen. It was a fascinating look at where and how the English fought the war.

In Amsterdam we visited the Dutch Resistance Museum. Germany invaded the Netherlands and the queen and king fled the country. The males were sent to Germany to work in the factories. And, of course, the Jews were sent to concentration camps. We visited the Corrie Ten Boom museum in Haarlem. A non Jewish family made a small hiding place in the upstairs bedroom for up to 6 people. There wasn’t much room – they only hid in there for short periods of time. In Amsterdam we visited the Anne Frank House. Anne Frank died in a concentration camp in 1945.

Next we visited Dachow concentration camp in Germany. We saw a bunkhouse that had been rebuilt – as a sample of what they were like. We also saw the crematorium and the area where executions occurred. This is a very sobering place.

Rothenberg – the medieval city we visited was spared from bombing during the war because a U.S. general knew of the city from a poster he had in his home. He gave the Germans who had fled and occupied the city an opportunity to leave, so that it could be occupied by the Americans. Otherwise, it probably would have been bombed into ruins.

In Paris we visited the Deportation monument. This is a monument with 200,000 small lights representing the number of people from France who died because of being deported to concentration camps.

Our final WWII history stop came at the Imperial War museum in London. They had a very interesting display on the Holocaust.