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
Michigan State University Alumni Memorial Chapel
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
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:
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
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
Peace Memorial Outside the ICJ
International Court of Justice in The Hague, Netherlands Website for More Information
“Memorial in the Dunes”–the Waalsdorpervlakte near The Hague
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
Operation Market Garden beginning on 17 September 1944 at Arnhem
Here are more photos of students in Amsterdam enjoying some of the local activities this week.
Enroute to Bruges, Belgium we stopped at the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Kinderdijk to see the windmills there!
In Bruges!
Normandy, France 16-20 June 2014
Pegasus Bridge near Sword Beach
Arromanches and Gold Beach
Utah Beach
German Guns and Bunkers near Longues-sur-mer
Hedgerows, Carentan, St. Mere Eglise
Utah Beach
Pointe du Hoc
Omaha Beach
Mont St. Michel in Normandy
In Paris 20-22 June 2014
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:
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
Luxembourg 23-25 June 2014
Bastogne and
Foy , Belgium 24 June 2014
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.
La Gleize, Malmedy, and Ligneuville, Belgium and Ettelbruck, Luxembourg 25 June 2014
Luxembourg US Military Cemetery and Sandweiler German Military Cemetery
28 June 2014
Nuremberg, Germany 28 June 2014
Rothenburg, Germany 26-28 June 2014
Weimar, Germany and Buchenwald Concentration Camp 29–30 June 2014
Berlin, Germany 30 June-4 July 2014
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:
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.
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.
Looks like a great trip so far. Please say hello to Raimee and Alex!
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
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 !
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
Sorry, here is the link ….
https://plus.google.com/u/0/photos/107737520747654201867/albums/6025433179185631169
Dayb6:
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 7:
Kinderdijk
https://plus.google.com/photos/107737520747654201867/albums/6025463449341459953
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
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
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.
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.
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.