Then this morning I was on CNN and found an article about a Polish photographer who goes around (mostly in Poland), finding abandoned or unused historical buildings and photographs them.

This made me think about when I visited Auschwitz a few summers ago on a research trip. We walked around the camp, where several million had walked. The buildings were in tip top condition, and the chill you received when you entered most of the buildings, and heard the stories of what took place there was as daunting as if you had been there during the years that Auschwitz was a mass murder site and not a museum detailing the atrocities. In my field of study I have had the opportunity to visit several of the notorious camps that Hitler opened in order to create his master race. Most still had most of their original buildings. A lot of important sites throughout Europe, not just from World War II, but from history tend to have the original buildings, or a least part of the building, still standing.

When you "cross the pond" and head to the United States in search of authentic historic landmarks, it seems that as the years go by it is harder and harder to find. There are places across the United States that bank on the historic value of their towns (Boston, New York, Washington D.C., and Williamsburg to name a few). However, it seems that many historical buildings and historical areas have been torn down over the years with no record of what once stood there. 

This rings true to Camp Algona. It was built in 1944 and by 1946 had been torn down and basically sold for parts. The researcher in me asks: Why? It is terribly sad when you read about another victorian house or historic drug store that had been around for a century being torn down, but why tear down things that represent our history? As the United States, are we embarrassed by that chapter of our history? It is understandable where we, as Americans, may be embarrassed and horrified by the way previous generations treated the Native Americans, those who participated in the Civil Rights Movement, or even the Japanese-Americans during World War II. 

If the German people feel it is important to keep the history and the message of what happened at places like Auschwitz alive to prevent such a thing from potentially happening again, why not keep places like Camp Algona alive to represent not only it's small role in our Nation's history, but also to represent that even in times of war, humanity is not lost. That you can treat your enemy with respect, because in actuality, that is what occurred at Camp Algona from 1944-1946. Two sides who were told to hate each other, without really knowing the other, were brought together under unusual circumstances. My Grandma used to say hospitality and respect went a long way, and it really did. The German prisoners at Camp Algona were met with respect, those working on local farms formed friendships, some that would last the rest of their lives, and when the war ended the Americans and Germans went their separate ways. There was no animosity towards treatment of the German POWs, and many continued correspondence with Lt. Col Lobdell for many years after the war.

So what am I getting at? Why can we not do what the Europeans do and respect the historical places? It makes for a more memorable visit when you can see it opposed to reading a plaque that had been placed in memorial. Though, I will say (and perhaps I am biased), if Camp Algona cannot physically be here, the museum does an excellent job still telling it's story.

Time to hop off my historian soapbox!

For more information on the abandoned Parisian Apartment Click Here
For more  information on the abandoned Polish landmarks Click Here

Louis Zamperini was not a Kossuth County native, nor was he even a resident of Iowa. However, he is an inspiration and his wartime story is incredible. He was an Olympian, who at one point in his career was able to run a mile in almost 4 minutes flat.  He competed in the 1936 Olympics in Berlin with fellow American Jesse Owens. 

When the United States entered World War II, he joined the Air Force and became a bombardier. On a rescue mission for a fellow flight crew that was reported missing, the plane that Louis was on crashed due to mechanical issues. He and the pilot, Russell Allan Phillips survived, along with new crew member Francis McNamara. They would spend forty-seven days at sea, McNamara would unfortunately not survive by the time the Japanese captured them.

He would be sent to several Japanese prisoner of war camps, being used as a propaganda tool. At one point in his captivity he was forced to race Japanese runners that were brought in to race Louis. The one race he decided he could win, his reward was a beating that left him unconscious. One sadistic guard known as 'The Bird' had it out for Louis. He made Louis' life hell and even singled him out for select punishments.

Louis would survive his captivity and return to the United States. He spent several years trying to process what he had been through, taking to alcohol as a place of solice. After several years as an alcoholic, he finally was able to pull himself out of the dark whole he felt he could never get out of. He spent the rest of his life trying to live every moment to the fullest and becoming an inspiration for those that had also lost their way. He passed away July 2, 2014 at the age of 97. A movie based on the book "Unbroken" will be released this Christmas season based about his life and war time experiences.

For the trailer for the movie "Unbroken", click Here.

Yes, Zamperini was not from Iowa, but I feel his story is an inspiration. Those from Kossuth that were prisoners of the Japanese have all passed away. Their experiences died with them. From the research I have done on the camps themselves, it is safe to say that Louis' experience was similar to what many faced. Such an inspirational story. Such an inspirational man.

     The atrocities of World War II have been making headlines throughout many world news sources due to Johann "Hans" Breyer. Mr. Breyer is an 89 year old man who currently resides in Philadelphia. He immigrated to the United States from Germany in 1952 and worked as a toolmaker. 
     He has been accused of being responsible for the deaths of over 215,000 people at Auschwitz while his 19 year old self was a guard. Breyer had admitted to being at Auschwitz, but claimed to have been stationed outside of the main camp. Either way, the United States attempted to remove his citizenship in 1992 but without much success. It's taken nearly 22 years, but once again, Mr. Breyer is making headlines.
     This time it was not the United States to attempt to bring Breyer to justice for his participation, but the German government. He was arrested in Philadelphia on June 17, 2014 after the district court in Weiden, Germany issued a warrant for his arrest charging him with 158 counts of complicity in the commission of murder. Each count was a trainload of prisoners killed between May 1944 and October 1944. Currently Germany is trying to work out extradition from the United States to bring Breyer before a court.
     Seeing as the Holocaust is one of the main reasons I initially pursued the field of history, I am very passionate about things of this nature. Every time an ex-perpetrator is discovered I follow the coverage like a hawk. Many times I have been asked if by this point (since many of the remaining perpetrators who have not been brought to justice are in their late 80s or 90s) if it is worth it at this point. Seeing as this is a museum blog I will not go into it too much, but in this humble intern's opinion, there is no real cut off for bringing people of this caliber to justice. My Dad used to ask me when I was about to do something I probably shouldn't if I was prepared to do the time for the crime? For the most part, running in the middle of the street or stealing that extra cookie was not normally worth it. The same concept applies to scenarios like this, in my opinion. 
     Many have claimed that they did not know what was happening in the camps, but in the case of Mr. Breyer, it is hard to justify that. He admitted to being at Auschwitz. Can it be justified if he was scared of confronting his superiors over what was going on? He never said he felt any remorse of what was occurring. I have always wondered how many guards and officers at the camps truly felt that way, after many at the war crimes trials after the war said they were only following orders and felt that their lives and their family's lives were in jeopardy if they did not continue working in the brutal way that the SS has become notorious for operating as in the camps.
     It is important to be reminded of how far humanity fell during the time of the Holocaust. As a historian, I sometimes feel it is my job to try and educate people as to all the faults of past generations so that things of this nature do not happen again. In my nerdiness I envision myself a super hero parallel with Captain America or Iron Man. I am History Girl, educating people's misunderstanding of the past one document or artifact at a time. As I had the opportunity to visit The Grout Museum last weekend and see their exhibit on The Bosnian genocide in Prijedor in 1992, I realize that I, and my fellow historians, have a lot of work cut out for us. George Santayana said it best when he said "Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it." With a quote like that it is hard to look past the participation (no matter how small one may claim it be) of people like Johann Breyer.
     I guess what should have been a short answer, once again turned into a long one with me. 
     There have been opportunity for me to meet a plethora of people throughout my lifetime that have had various opinions on the Nazi atrocities of the Holocaust during World War II. The one that sticks out greatly in my head is the schoolmate of mine who asked why it should matter to her since the Holocaust occurred in Europe and we live "not in Europe". Such eloquence she had. It may not have occurred in our backyards but Americans still faced the Holocaust in many ways. 350 soldiers captured in the Battle of the Bulge were sent to a sub-camp of Buchenwald in February 1945, by the time they were liberated after a death march in April 1945, less then half of them had survived.
      Those that lived in Algona or Kossuth County understood a little of what camp life was or what it should have been to any prisoner of war, whether for political\societal reasons or because they were soldiers of another country. Some men from Kossuth County were even participants in the liberation of some concentration camps. 
     Ralph Lindhorst was a combat MP in Europe. He fought on the beaches of Normandy, froze in the chilly tundra of Belgium during the Battle of the Bulge, and in the Spring of 1945, entered Nordhausen, which was a sub-camp of Dora-Mittelbau. There he took photographs that captured the horrors of what the Nazis did to those they felt were inferior to them.
     And I will remove myself from my Historian soapbox and go back to the archives.

                  ~The Intern~

     Today marks the 70th anniversary of the invasion of Normandy or as the history books call it ‘D-Day’. It does not seem possible that something that is still so widely talked about (even outside the nerd-i-verse of a historian) occurred so long ago. 
     I cannot help but think of what it could have been like for those men as they made their way across the English Channel not sure what they were getting into, but many making the realization that they probably would not be coming back. 
     A fleet of hundreds of Allied ships silently making their way through the glassy water, keeping watch for any U-boats that may hinder their surprise invasion. A fleet of hundreds of planes taking the Airborne divisions to Normandy a head of the invasion force to be dropped behind enemy lines. What it must have been like to not only jump out of an airplane at night, but the terror of uncertainty when the Germany artillery and anti-aircraft started shooting at them. The next morning as the Allies hit the beach, the Germans had the advantage of their many bunkers that had been set up along the coast.
     It was no easy battle, but it had to happen. There really wasn’t a ‘Plan B’ for if the invasion failed. After all, the British had tried a French invasion nearly 4 years to the date of D-Day when they had landed at Dunkirk, but ended up being pushed back across the Channel by the Germans.
     The success of D-Day did not happen overnight. Sure, the major battle of the initial invasion occurred on June 6, 1944, but Normandy would not be secure for the Allied force until mid July. The significance of the invasion showed that the German Army was no longer superior, and that with the Allies physically in Europe it was only a matter of time before they reached Berlin, capture Hitler, and end the war. Unfortunately it was not as simple as that since Hitler would (according to testimony and reports) take his own life in the bunker in Berlin at the end of April 1945.
     So if D-Day is pretty cut and dry in terms of the intention and the ultimate outcome why do we make such a large fuss over it today? Is the carnage? The loss of life? Or is it what it represented for the rest of the world? The rest of the world was finally able to get a stronghold on the (up until that point) relatively undefeated German Army.
     Sure, the invasion was one of (if not *the*) largest invasion force in history at over one million men. In comparison the Germans had less then 400,000 in Normandy by the end of July 1944. In my humble historian opinion, we remember D-Day because of the men who fought on both sides.
     When it comes down to it, isn’t that what war is about? Two sides fighting for what they believe in or, what they are told they are supposed to believe in? World domination was on the line as the Allied invasion force climbed aboard the ships that would take them into battle. Both sides had men who were practically boys fighting, losing their innocence forever. Survivors of D-Day still hear fallen comrades cry out “Mama” as they lay in the sand waiting for a medic to fix them. 
     Yes, the Allies would go on to “win” the battle over Normandy, but was there really a winner? By the end of the fighting on June 6th, nearly 4,500 Allied men were dead compared to the Germans whose death estimates range between 4,000-9,000 (D-Day Museum).
     Where is the connection to Camp Algona? I cannot say for sure. It is possible that some of the German POWs that would make their way through the Algona system fought in Normandy during the summer of 1944, but without their military records it is hard to say. The connection to Kossuth County is a little stronger. Over 2,000 men and women from Kossuth participated in World War II in various branches of the military. Many participated in the Normandy Invasion, but the ones that stick out the most in my mind are the ones that did not make it home.
     Paging through ‘Pass in Review’, the book put together in remembrance of the 113 from Kossuth who died during the war, I could not help but notice how many of those died in France during the campaign.

*Cpl. Urban Lentsch
*Sgt. James T. McMahaon 
*Pfc. Edmund Bell 
*Pvt. Albin Nelson
*1st Lt. Harry Montgomery
*Pfc. Harold Hammerstrom
*Pfc. Carl Knudsen
*Sgt. Arthur Ruhnke


     Many others from Kossuth participated in D-Day and the Normandy Invasion. Today is not only about remembering the events of that fateful day that changed the course of the war, but also the men who bravely fought their way onto the beaches. 

     To those that fell and to those that made it all the way to Germany, we must take a minute and think of them and their sacrifice. 

~The Intern~

          Working in a museum is always an adventure. You have your days when no one comes in and you spend your day going through various things in the archives or you have your days when so many people come in you can't get anything done on your to-do list. Either way it turns out to be a good day.
          My favorite part of my job is meeting different people. Sure, there are always the one or two who keep to themselves and just want to see the exhibits in solitude. Then there are those that have a connection to the museum and the exhibits in someway: a child of a veteran, a wife of a German POW, a German family understanding their American roots, or even the family or friend of a Holocaust survivor. Last summer I even got to meet several teachers from Germany who gave their perspective on World War II and what the strengths and weaknesses of the German Army was during the war. That was fascinating since you tend to get the perspective of America or Great Britain more. (That old saying about how the history books are written by the victor).
          As I have updated the front page of the museum website to show our updated hours we have had more people coming through. Today has already been an awesome day for people watching. However, the person that sticks out the most is the visitor who spent nearly an hour and half reading each and every panel of the exhibits. She came to find me and thank me personally and said how excellent the museum was. She had a tear in her eye and she said that she had visited Dachau when she went to Germany. She said that it was amazing how different the treatment was for those in Concentration Camps and Stalags compared to the POW Camps in America. They were all people who deserved to be treated humanely and with respect. Her Father had been a German POW in an American camp but had reluctantly joined the army since he had been a conscientious objector to the war.
         This made me stop and think. We tend to have a 'us' versus 'them' mentality when it comes to the Second World War and the German Army. The last seventy years has brought a plethora of stereotypes of who a German soldier was during the war. The ones that my generation has become accustom to is either the portrayal of Amon Goeth by Ralph Fiennes in 'Schindler's List'; a sadistic but fat and lazy man who ruthlessly murdered for sport or Colonel Hans Landa brilliantly portrayed by Christoph Waltz in 'Inglorious Basterds'; a cunning, sneaky, and semi-delusional German. In actuality there were plenty that did in fact rival these two characters throughout the SS and some Wehrmacht officers, but those that were brought to Camp Algona were mostly enlisted men. They were not fighting for Der Fuehrer or to necessarily contribute to 'The Final Solution', they were fighting to protect their families and their country. They were also fighting to survive in a country where if you did not submit to Hitler's rules in terms of conscription and participation in the war efforts both you and your family's lives were in jeopardy.
          Some may say that the POW system in the United States was too lax when it came to German prisoners because American soldiers faced disease, starvation, and death in many of the POW camps scattered throughout Germany and Austria. We have had many people come into the museum and actually ask that. I wish it was a simple answer of saying everyone who signed the Geneva Convention of 1929 upheld the terms and conditions, but they did not. The United States tried to. Camps in Germany varied in their dedication to the Geneva Convention. Their resources were depleted by the end of the war and it was hard to feed the people of Germany let alone the POWs held in their country. Is that an excuse? Not per say, but the conditions were vastly different then the United States.
          And there's my history ramble of the day!

                       ~The Intern~

Goodness it has already been quite the week! Part of my job description is updating the website this summer, and I have. Please take a look at all the fun new things like the research and archives page, which we will be adding more to as summer progresses. I never realized how difficult web design could be. Hard, but definitely rewarding. 

We also had a German reporter come visit the museum this week who was doing a story on German POWs in the United States during World War II for preparation of the 70th anniversary of the end of the war. It is interesting to see things from other perspectives. I enjoyed showing him around since he was fascinated with the museum and the history. (I'm sure Jerry (aka the Historian) enjoyed it as well!)

Better get back to work and look for another update Friday or so!

~The Intern~