Europe Serves as Classroom for Military History Summer Course—See Video!

Sixteen students traveled to Europe in June, spending 10 days visiting historic World War II locations in four different countries for the field study designed by their teacher, Rocky Parker.
The Upper School’s military history summer course took students to Europe to immerse in one-of-a-kind on-site research projects that studied transformational events in World War II’s European theater. Students chose topics like the Battle of France, D-Day strategy, the U.S. efforts to support European allies, and the decoding of the Enigma Machine.

Sixteen students spent 10 days visiting historic World War II locations in four different countries for the field study designed by their teacher, Rocky Parker.

The ambitious itinerary included stops in England, France, Belgium and Germany, visiting sites like Winston Churchill’s manor in England, Omaha Beach and the Memorial de Caen in France, and the Nuremberg Palace of Justice and Dachau concentration camp in Germany. Along with documenting information that would assist with their final project, the students kept detailed journals reflecting on their trip. 

 “I was touched by the amount of emotions everyone felt when visiting these places,” Mr. Parker said. “It was impactful in how real everything was and how emotional everyone felt seeing these sites. It was a first-rate trip.”

The inspiration behind the topics the students chose for their projects varied. Junior Declan Landau wanted to explore the Fall of France based on his own curiosity on the six-week battle.

“I was just wondering, what could’ve prevented this, and why was it so fast?” he said. “Why did the army of France disappear so quickly compared to the German Reich?”

Junior Joey Westendorf studied the Final Solution of Nazi Germany, visiting several sites central to the Holocaust.

“Seeing these places and realizing that it’s not just a museum that’s set up but the actual grounds that people were standing on when they were faced with these untenable circumstances like in Dachau,” she said. “It’s so harrowing to see all of that. It makes an impression on you.”

Upon returning to St. Margaret’s, the students worked on finalizing their projects, a 15-minute multimedia presentation using videos, photos and text, based on the research and observations they recorded in Europe.

Mr. Parker said the trip led to more clear insights from the students based on the first-hand information they obtained.

“It had a real impact on the presentations,” Mr. Parker said. “The feedback from students was overwhelmingly positive, and the trip itself was unforgettable.”

Joey said the experience of visiting sites where transformational moments in world history took place left a lasting impact on her.

“There’s so much that I will remember,” she said. “Being able to see where the Nuremberg Trials happened and the precedent that it set. The way they impact our lives today and our international relations and law and the human moral code. It all traces back to this one place and literally this one room that we got to sit in. It was neat to see where these things actually happened.”
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