Educational WW2 trip in Europe- itinerary ideas?

[Computadora]

My dc is studying gcse history, including a chunk on WW2. We’ve discussed a trip to various places in Europe to help this, but are unsure where to focus on.

at the moment we have Poland (mainly for the Auschwitz- type events), Berlin and Nuremberg. Also possibly Amsterdam for the Anne Frank museum, Jewish history museum etc.

we’re less interested in the battlefields.

any advice on where else we should include please?

Amsterdam also has the Dutch Resistance Museum:

https://www.verzetsmuseum.org/en/world-war-ii-in-the-netherlands

I took my DD to Berlin when she was in Y11 for the WW2 history links. It was amazing - she absolutely loved it. Try to fit in a visit to Sachsenhausen Concentration camp - it’s actually on A House Through Time on BBC2 right now

Berlin could cover all of that then. Obviously the rise to power (but I would also recommend Nuremberg. We came across the Party Rally grounds almost by accident this summer, and they were really really evocative). There's the Topography of Terror at the old SS headquarters, and there's an underground museum under the Jewish memorial which goes into great detail about the Holocaust. And of course the memorials to all the other murdered groups, and Sachsenhausen concentration camp on the outskirts. All these museums and memorials are free and have a great deal of detailed information in English- German museums really are wonderful.

The Party Rally grounds in Nuremberg. It wasn't even on our list to go and see- we'd done plenty of heavy history in Berlin, and were just in the area to visit an open air swimming pool (something else the Germans are very good at), since it was 35 degrees. I think it was so particularly evocative because it hadn't been done up with loads of information boards everywhere- but they are planning to do this.

It was a beautiful warm evening and the steps were covered with groups of kids, people were running on the track, there was a group of women having an outdoor Zumba class....I hope the Nazis would have hated it.

Sorry, I'm on a roll. A couple of examples of the excellent information boards everywhere...(brace yourselves, they are heart rending)

I agree with the majority - Berlin is a fascinating city to visit and would fit your needs well.
Just one thought though. Is your DC likely to go on to do A level history? If so, you might want to ask what trips your school offers. Poland & Berlin seems to be a popular 6th form trip in the area where I live. Obviously there's no harm in going twice but I was just thinking, were I in your shoes I might be a bit annoyed if I'd organised and funded a trip to those places in year 11 only to have DC asking to go on a school trip to the same places in year 12!

The History museum in Berlin certainly looks at the Nazi rise to power and the effects of the WW1 Treaty of Versailles and the effects of that and hyper-inflation.

We took my father in law to Vught in the Netherlands where he was a prisoner in WW2. It is now a museum and very interesting as a reminder of a smaller camp that still carried out terrible things. I found it incredibly moving and the staffs loved meeting someone who was actually there.

@Computadora I think “The Rise of the Nazis” is on BBC player. Essential viewing before you go anywhere.

Eastern Europe, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania all have very rich, interesting and often overlooked WW2 histories, particularly where it relates to switching between nazi regimes to the KGB etc.

You could combine that with the war cemetery at Madingley. Very sobering.

I Berlin the Plotzensee Prison memorial is interesting. It's small and out of the way but they have interesting material on political prisoners which would complement the rise to power aspect.

When in Normandy do not miss the Museum of Civil Life in Falaise, which details the impact of the Normandy campaign on the people living in the towns and villages near the end of the fighting.
You get to see William the Conqueror's Castle as a bonus.

Can I ask why you’re focussing on WW2 in particular rather than the other topics he’s studying?

The Normandy landing beaches.

We took our boys to Berlin and sachsenhausen pre GCSE. They loved Berlin and found the concentration camp incredibly moving. It’s about 30 mins on the train from Berlin. And a short walk from the station through a town. That’s what got to me… everyone would have known what was going on. Older son is now studying Hustiry and Politics at uni.

i second all the mentions of Normandy. We took them to Caen and surrounding area years ago. More recently to Ypres. The town is amazingly beautiful and you can stop briefly at a cemetery. There’s also a very well rated museum in the town but we didn’t have time to go.

And meant yo mention, in Berlin there’s a lot more to see about the Cold War, the Stasi, life in east Germany. Get your DC to watch Deutschland 83 part of which was filmed in the Stasi museum.

DD's school did Elizabethean England and history of medicine. Both was easy to cover by day trips at home.

She also did the US between 1920 and 1977 - a lot more difficult to do at the moment and a lot more expensive to visit.
Another school I knwo did America's West.

I love Deutschland 83! (albeit it's obviously Cold War era, rather than WW2). I never knew East Germans were all so chic and sexy in the 1980s 😆. I never knew it was shot in the Stasi museum though- which bits? There's also a Deutschland 86 and 89.

Yes, my interest was more in Cold War era Berlin and the wall, while DS1 was more into WW2. And there's stacks to keep everyone happy. Another couple of things I would recommend are the Berliner Unterwelt tours- they're a not for profit organisation and their tours are great. We went on one where we visited an original escape tunnel under the Wall, but there are also some that focus on more WW2 stuff, like flak towers.

Also, the Teufelsberg, out in the Grunewald. It's an artificial hill built from the rubble of WW2 Berlin, cleared by women, with a derelict American satellite listening station on top, now completely covered in street art- and yes, there is the inevitable excellent museum telling its story.

And some reading that might help re the rise to power is Travellers in the Third Reich and A Village in the Third Reich.

Yes, I agree. We went to Normandy last year, and have booked to go back again this summer. My sons loved it. I like that there are so many different museums, and you don't have to spend all day in one, as some are smaller. We went to one war cemetery, near Pegasus bridge, we couldn't believe it. Ds 11 was shocked. Seeing all the graves of such young men and boys really does put the war in to perspective. And most if them had died on the 1st day of the D Day landings.

Fantastic books. My grandparents holidayed in Germany in the 30s… after grandfather had spent 3 years on the western front. He was of the view we should never go to war again and was for appeasement. Until he joined up again in 39. The books helped me understand him.

There’s one scene with the Aunt in the Stasi museum. It’s so quintessentially 60s/70s decor that it stands out!

Having visited the East on a school trip in 1985 I really didn’t think the east was cool then… it was grey. The shops were empty. The people were drab. And by huge contrast west berliners were supercool!

As I said upthread, don't miss the museum of civil life in Falaise or William the Conqueror's Castle. Also well worth a visit nearby is Montormel, where brave Polish troops held out above the Falaise Gap until British, Canadian and American troops arrived to contain the remaining German soldiers and end the Normandy campaign.