2014

Welcome to the 2014 program website for The United States and World War II Europe:  Memory and Memorials!  Below are some links and photos taken recently during our Study Abroad program.

2014  Study Abroad Program Photos

Students at the D-Day Memorial Statue near Utah Beach in Normandy honoring all those who fought in Normandy. It is in the image of Major Richard Winters.


Michigan State University Alumni Memorial Chapel

 

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  achapgp214101 Stephen Aikin, Chapel Sexton, talks to the students about the chapel that was dedicated in 1951 originally as a memorial to MSU WWII students who died during the war.

22 May 2014

Amsterdam in the Netherlands 8-14 June 2014

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9 June 2014  Group Photo of Students in the Dam Square in Amsterdam, Netherlands

Comments and Photos of the First Week of the Program in the Netherlands

by Major Rob de Feber and his wife, Hermien de Feber,  are below:

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My wife Hermien and I joined the Michigan State students for the Dutch part of the US & WWII Europe study trip.
We really enjoyed their company and we hope they enjoyed their stay in The Netherlands.
We took some pictures not as much of the Memorials but more of the students.
Feel free to use and download them and if you have any problems contact me :robdefeber@gmail.com

Rob and Hermien de Feber

Day 1:
Arrival at the Poet hotel in Amsterdam
Canal tour
In front of Het Rijksmuseum
The ravensbruck Memorial

https://plus.google.com/photos/107737520747654201867/albums/602507547231835

Day 2:

Dr.Charnley explaning in front of The Poet Hotel

IAmsterdam in front of Het Rijksmuseum

Begijnhof

National Monument at De dam

Walking, trying Dutch food “kroketten” and lunch

Auschwitz Monument

https://plus.google.com/photos/107737520747654201867/albums/6025120499357184369

I hope the link will work. Maybe you have to copy and paste it into the browser’s window’s address bar !

Day 3:

Waalsdorpervlakte

International Court of Justice

Lunchbreak

Rotterdam Harbor Tour

https://plus.google.com/u/0/photos/107737520747654201867/albums/6025424302823551121
Day 4:

Hartenstein

Frost Bridge

https://plus.google.com/u/0/photos/107737520747654201867/albums/6025433179185631169
Day 5:

Anne Frank House

https://plus.google.com/photos/107737520747654201867/albums/6025441042207649441
Soccer game Netherlands - Spain
5 - 1 !!

https://plus.google.com/photos/107737520747654201867/albums/6025452688544060641

Day 6
Kinderdijk
https://plus.google.com/photos/107737520747654201867/albums/6025463449341459953
 

The Dutch Resistance Museum in Amsterdam

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The National Monument Commemorating WWII in the Dam Square in Amsterdam   9 June 2014

Day Trip to The Hague and Rotterdam  10 June 2014

The International Court of Justice in The Hague                                                                                                   

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  Peace Memorial Outside the ICJ

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International Court of Justice in The Hague, Netherlands Website for More Information

“Memorial in the Dunes”–the Waalsdorpervlakte near The Hague

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To view a video of the 4 May 2012 memorial ceremony in this place, click on this link.

Rotterdam Harbor Tour and the Legacy of the 14 May 1940 German Bombing of Rotterdam

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For a video of the city of Rotterdam before, during, and after the 14 May 1940 German bombing of the city center, click on this link.

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Operation Market Garden beginning on 17 September 1944 at Arnhem

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Students at the Arnhem bridge over the Rhine River, a “bridge too far.” The bridge has been renamed the “Frost Bridge” after British Airborne commander John Frost who led the local assault to capture and hold this strategic bridge over the Rhine River.

 

Here are more photos of students in Amsterdam enjoying some of the local activities this week.

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Enroute to the Anne Frank House Museum, students stop for a moment to view the Westerkirk in Amsterdam. Anne wrote of this church often in her diary.

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“Newest Spartans” Students sing the MSU Fight Song and the de Febers become “official Spartans!”

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Students supporting the Netherlands World Cup team in their victory over Spain 5-Null!

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Students at a statue of Anne Frank following their study at the Anne Frank House and Museum

Enroute to Bruges, Belgium we stopped at the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Kinderdijk to see the windmills there!

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Dr. Jeff Charnley, Major Rob de Feber and Hermien de Feber, Group Leaders at Kinderdijk in the Netherlands

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In Bruges!

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Students in Bruges, Belgium near the city hall.

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Students on a typical street with interesting architecture in Bruges. Notice the distinctive stepped gables on the front of these houses.


Normandy, France 16-20 June 2014

Pegasus Bridge  near Sword Beach

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Arromanches and Gold Beach

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Utah Beach

German Guns and Bunkers near Longues-sur-mer

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Hedgerows,  Carentan, St. Mere Eglise

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Utah Beach

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Students at the site of the Easy Company fight to take the German artillery guns at Brecourt Manor

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Pointe du Hoc 

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Omaha Beach

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Mont St. Michel in Normandy

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Students before their arrival at Mont St. Michel in Normandy. It is a medieval abbey and a place for pilgrims to worship.

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In Paris 20-22 June 2014

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Students upon arrival in Paris near the Arc de Triomphe–a war memorial from Napoleon’s victories!

 

 

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Students in front of Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris. Some attended Mass Sunday morning and we then went to lunch in the Jewish Quarter of Paris nearby and to see several memorials there.

 

 

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Students examine a memorial for a French Resistance fighter who died in the liberation of Paris in August 1944.


 

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Students enjoying lunch in Paris at a Jewish deli in the Quarter near Rue des Rosiers not far from Notre Dame Cathedral .

 

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In the Quarter, students studied the “Wall of the Just” in honor of those non-Jewish French men and women who helped save their Jewish friends, neighbors, and sometimes even strangers during WWII. This is a recent memorial dedicated first in 2006. Note the Star of David in the building’s architectural design above the wall.

 

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On the wall of a children’s school opposite the Shoah Memorial in Paris is a plaque in French that translates as: “Arrested by the Police of the Vichy Government in collaboration with the Nazi occupiers, more than 11,000 children were forcefully deported from France between 1942 to 1944 and assassinated in Auschwitz simply because they were Jews. More than 500 children lived in the 4th District of Paris. Many of them were students of this school. We should never forget. Dedicated 15 December 2001.” And then the students looked to their immediate left on the wall and they saw the bullet holes . . . !

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The trajectory of these bullet holes on the wall of the school curving upward in an arc to the right indicate automatic weapons fire–most likely a machine gun. While the students were there, many people just walked by not noticing these or considering what happened in this place during WWII.

 

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Later that evening, their last night in Paris, a group of students went to Monmartre to see Sacre Coeur and the view over Paris from one of its highest hills.

 

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Students at Sacre Coeur overlooking Paris center on a beautiful summer evening!

 

Source of US and WWII Europe Study Abroad Program–Glenn Charnley Photograph and WWI Letter “Somewhere in France” November 1918!

As we discussed before Memorial Day weekend during our on-campus phase of the program,  I mentioned some of my family members who had fought in previous wars.   As you recall, I discussed my  recollections of stories from World War I that my paternal grandfather , Glenn Charnley, told me about his service in the Allied Expeditionary Force as a U.S. soldier who fought in France during 1917 and 1918. He was born and raised in the tiny mid-Michigan town of Lakeview, Michigan (as I was as well) in Montcalm County about 75 miles northwest of the MSU campus.

Those stories and the motorcycle maps he gave me before he died in the 1970s provide the real basis of my own interest in both World War I and World War II battlefields and in my Study Abroad program in Europe each summer.

He fought in the trenches during several battles and then was among those injured in a German gas attack.  He was hospitalized for a time and then upon his recovery and return to his company, the Captain asked if anyone had ridden a motorcycle before.  My grandfather had driven a motorcycle from Michigan to work in Colorado the year before he went into the war.  He raised his hand and told his home-town buddy to do the same (even though his friend had never driven a motorcycle
before!) and for the rest of the war from the summer of 1918 through two years of occupation in Germany , he drove this 1916 fresh-out-of-the-crate Harley-Davidson motorcycle as a messenger.

Following the end of WWI in November 1918, he continued on in the army of occupation in Germany as a motorcycle messenger in a small town called Kyllburg, not far from the Luxembourg
border.
Below is a photo from that era of my Grandfather Charnley on his motorcycle:

 

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Glenn Charnley Somewhere in France during WWI in 1918

I like this photo of him on his motorcycle and thought you might as well as our own study abroad in Europe is ending soon.
Also, I’ve included a weblink below  to  a letter he wrote to his mother (my Great Grandmother Emma Charnley) just three days before WWI ended.

This letter was published during November 1918 in both a Grand Rapids newspaper as well as in the local weekly paper, the Lakeview 
Enterprise. You will note in the letter that he never told his mother that he had been gassed in the trenches and merely referred to it as "a slight attack of bronchitis!" Feel free to forward this photo link and the letter to anyone who might be interested,
 especially if you have anyone in your family who likes and rides motorcycles.

Glenn Charnley Letter Home to His Mother, 8 November 1918

Dr. Jeff Charnley
US and WWII Europe:  Memory and Memorials 2014 Study Abroad Program
Faculty Program Leader

Michigan State University

charnle2@msu.edu

 

Luxembourg  23-25 June 2014

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Group photo upon arrival in Luxembourg near the city center.

 

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Public art on a main street near the old city center in Luxembourg. Mary Poppins heaven, perhaps?

 

Bastogne and

Foy , Belgium 24 June 2014

 

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Students at the last KM marker on the “Route of Liberty” that runs from Utah Beach in Normandy at KM 00 to this monument KM 1147 just outside the city of Bastogne. This is just over 688 miles.

 

 

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Students at the General McAuliffe statue in the main market square in Bastogne. Famous as the acting commander of the 101st Airborne Division during the German siege of the city in the Battle of the Bulge, Gen. McAuliffe , in reponse to the German ultimatum for the surrounded Americans to surrender the city, replied famously, “Nuts!” , and they held on to this strategically important crossroads city. Each year, 70 years this upcoming December, the community of Bastogne hosts a week long “Nuts! Festival.”

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Fortified by a balanced lunch consisting mainly of handmade Belgian chocolates, these students continue enjoy their time in central Bastogne! In the background is the main US battle tank of WWII, the M4 Sherman Tank.

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La Gleize, Malmedy, and Ligneuville, Belgium  and Ettelbruck, Luxembourg  25 June 2014

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Luxembourg US Military Cemetery and Sandweiler German Military Cemetery

28 June 2014

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Nuremberg, Germany 28 June 2014

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Rothenburg, Germany  26-28 June 2014

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Weimar, Germany and Buchenwald Concentration Camp 29–30 June 2014

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Berlin, Germany 30 June-4 July 2014

 

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Closing Thoughts from Dr. Jeff Charnley

Happy 4th of July weekend to all!  I hope everyone’s return trip to the U.S. was (or will be) a safe and uneventful one!  I’m writing you on a Sunday morning from my cottage just south of Clare, Michigan about an hour north of campus.  Here is the scene as I’m typing this and getting ready to go fishing:

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It’s time for me now to “turn the page” after 8 summers of MSU’s Study Abroad program in Europe studying WWII with more than 220 students, 4 program assistants (Julie, Ben, Kelly and Rebecca), 16 motor coach drivers, 10,000 miles of travel on the bus, and countless reminders to students to:  “Mind the gap!”, “Watch the Bikes!” “Have you got your passport with you?””Bring your notes and camera with you!” “No, I don’t know where there is a bathroom, laundromat, ATM, or money exchange OR how long the bus ride will be today!” and finally “”  I never thought you could put Nutella on that!”    It’s been a great run and I’m looking forward to my retirement in May 2016 completing more than 30 years of teaching at MSU!  Thanks to all of you I have met and mentored on our studies abroad in Europe over the years.  I have learned  much from each of you as, I hope, you have learned from me.

 Dr. C.

16 Comments

16 Comments

  1. Thank you very much for making such an inspiring journey and learning experience possible for my son Jan. This is a very well thought out program taking a great group of students through a critical piece of history. The photos are very nice. I truly enjoyed them. Vielen Dank.

  2. Looks like a great trip so far. Please say hello to Raimee and Alex!

  3. My wife Hermien and I joined the Michigan students for the Dutch part of the US & WWII Europe study trip.
    We really enjoyed their company and we hope they enjoyed their stay in The Netherlands.
    We took some pictures not as much of the Memorials but more of the students.
    Feel free to use and download them and if you have any problems contact me : robdefeber@gmail.com

    Rob and Hermien de Feber

    Day 1:
    Arrival at the Poet hotel in Amsterdam
    Canal tour
    In front of Het Rijksmuseum
    The ravensbruck Memorial

    https://plus.google.com/photos/107737520747654201867/albums/6025075472318356033

  4. Day 2:

    Dr.Charnley explaning in front of The Poet Hotel

    IAmsterdam in front of Het Rijksmuseum

    Begijnhof

    National Monument at De dam

    Walking, trying Dutch food “kroketten” and lunch

    Auschwitz Monument

    https://plus.google.com/photos/107737520747654201867/albums/6025120499357184369

    I hope the link will work. Maybe you have to copy and paste it into the browser’s window’s adress bar !

  5. Day 3:

    Waalsdorpervlakte

    International Court of Justice

    Lunchbreak

    Rotterdam Harbor Tour

    https://plus.google.com/u/0/photos/107737520747654201867/albums/6025424302823551121

  6. Day 4:

    Hartenstein

    Frost Bridge

  7. Some extra pictures …..

    For questions you can always contact me at robdefeber@gmail.com

    Thanks again for your pleasant company and have a fine and save trip !!

    Rob and Hermien de Feber

    https://plus.google.com/photos/107737520747654201867/albums/6025474563120236513

  8. Mark Iacofano

    Looks great! You all should be incredibly touched and moved visiting the beaches, cemetery and all around Normandy. I was in 2006. Hello to Raimee and Alex! Thanks for all the updates and photos Dr. Charnley. What a great program you have created! Mark Iacofano

  9. Thanks so much for sharing the photos! I am glad you all seem to be having a great time. And what a treat to watch The Netherlands vs Spain right in Holland (we’re a big soccer fan family). Today is Germany vs Ghana and tomorrow, USA vs Portugal. Enjoy the rest of the trip and please keep posting pictures for us to enjoy it as well.
    Rocío Q.-A.

  10. Thanks very much again for all the great photos and insights provided during the program in Europe. This has been a marvelous experience for everyone. The students must have loved the journey. Thank you very much for sharing some of the experiences with us via the website.

  11. Kelly Myers Musset

    Dr. Charnley–what a beautiful view! And what great memories…. To read your posting here was quite touching. My time on the tour with you all those years changed my life and work immeasurably as many know… Please remember that as I sit here in Paris, France, I will forever cherish that time: just amazing memories, incalculable life and work experience and so much more knowledge than I ever would have had of The War had it not been for your tour, caring assistance and sincere friendship.
    My sincerest congratulations on such an impressive run at both MSU and MSU SA. With a touch of a sadness, I nevertheless wish you the best for your retirement; as well as a reminder that you should *never* forget that WE ALL *will never forget*–and in no small part because of your dedication, involvement and belief that history is who we are always already becoming.
    Thank you. Truly best to you and yours.

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