National World War II Museum - The Road to Berlin

We spent last week in New Orleans for both work and pleasure - okay, more for pleasure, enjoying the best music and food any US city has to offer.  This great city is still - ten years on - traumatized by Hurricane Katrina.  Every New Orleanian will tell you that this was a MAN-MADE disaster, and there are visible scars scattered throughout the city.  Besides the outstanding restaurant and incomparable jazz, there are plenty of other attractions and activities for any taste.  I had a couple of free hours and visited the National World War II Museum which is located just in the Central Business District. 

This is how the City of New Orleans describes the museum:

Since its opening day on D-Day – June 6, 2000 – nearly two million visitors have toured the National WWII Museum. A must-see for history lovers and all patriots, it has been designated by the U.S. Congress as America’s official WWII Museum. Powerful images and extraordinary artifacts bring to life the American Spirit, the courage, teamwork and sacrifice of the young men and women who won the war and changed the world. From the 1930s prelude to war, to the Normandy Invasion and the battles of the Pacific Islands, visitors trace America's role in the war and on the Home Front.

Visitors to the museum can choose between following a Pacific Theater track - "The Road to Tokyo"  - or a European/North Africa track - "The Road to Berlin".  I chose the Road to Berlin, which took me through a series of interactive exhibits from the preparations for war, the Pearl Harbor attack and Hitler's declaration of war, the setbacks in North Africa and invasion of Italy, Normandy Invasion and the aerial bombing of Germany.  Visitors are presented with a magnetic card  a "dog tag" - which is attached to an actual soldier, sailor or pilot which one can "follow" throughout the course of the war. 

Each exhibit is devoted to a particular battle or phase of the war and contains amazing footage, sound effects, artifacts, and oral histories.  I found the exhibits on the Merchant Marines, Normandy Invasion and Battle of the Bulge particularly effective.  The exhibits showed American troops in victory, but also defeats, retreats, friendly fire incidents, etc. I get it that this is the "National" - i.e. American - war museum, so the emphasis is on the American experience.  But I still think there could be more information on America's allies - especially the role of the Soviet Union - in defeating the Nazis.  Also, the exhibit on the the firebombing of Germany emphasized the targeting of military-industrial targets rather than the civilian population.  The section on the bombing of Dresden features Kurt Vonnegut (who was a POW in the city at the time of the bombing) and little about the firestorm that killed over 25,000 citizens in a city that had zero military-strategic value. 

Still, the National World War II Museum is an impressive effort and a must-see for any visitor to New Orleans.

There was one other - much happier - connection to Berlin during my stay in New Orleans:  we were able to listen to the amazing jazz pianist David Torkanowsky perform one evening.  "Tork" is a true New Orleans treasure and is the son of the Flamenco dancer Teresa Romera and the Berlin-born conductor and violinist Werner Torkanowsky.  Only in America could the son of a German Jew carry on the rich tradition of New Orleans jazz.

Comments

[Hattie]

That sounds like a fascinating museum. I was five when the war in the Pacific ended, really too young to know what was going on, even though my father was in the Army. Later on in college I studied the history of the Weimar Republic and the Third Reich.
I think all of us who look at things from the U.S. perspective don't know enough about the hideous sacrifices of the Soviet Union, who were the ones who stopped the Nazis.
Another "unknown" aspect is how WWII doomed the British Empire, as they lost their colonies in Asia. In a real sense, Great Britain lost WWII.

[David]

Hattie, my Dad is also a WWII veteran (still living), so I've always been fascinated by the war.

BTW, much of the museum collection has been digitized and can be accessed here: http://www.ww2online.org/

[Zyme]

It is a bit depressing to read that New Orleans still seems to be coined so greatly by the hurricane. I was in the city three years ago and assumed the aftermath would be done with shortly.

I recall a small town close to New Orleans where people had left statues in a church untouched which had been moved by the flood. People were more than willing to share their sad stories of the event which was already 8 years in the past then.

[David]

@Zyme,

I strongly recommend the HBO series "Treme" which is about post-Katrina New Orleans.

I believe it is available streaming on Amazon.de

https://www.werstreamt.es/serie/details/233906/treme/