WJU Students, Berlin, & its History: An Appraisal, Part VI

Gardens in Potsdam

The outgoing President of the History Club, Kayla Mason, class of '14, offers these observations on Germany and its engagement with its history.


Traveling offers visitors the opportunity to learn about the history and culture of other regions. For me, one of the most interesting aspects of this experience is examining how these countries choose to remember their past – including the good and the bad. German history is unique and through the exploration of the city of Berlin, visitors are directly confronted with every aspect of this nation’s past.

WJU Students, Berlin, & its History: An Appraisal, Part V

Our series on WJU students in Berlin  picks back up . . .

Jake Zirkle, class of '14, wrote the following assessment of Berlin and its engagement with German history.

Around every corner, one can find something of historical significance in Berlin. From the Imperial period to the fall of the Berlin Wall, Berlin’s history is just waiting to be explored. Germany has all of its history on display for everyone to see, some of which instills a great sense of pride for the German people, while other events bring shame. 

WJU Students' Photography on Display

Photographs taken by participants on the Classrooms without Borders' trip to Poland this past summer will be displayed in the Stifel Fine Arts Gallery from November 3 through November 6. The gallery is open from 9am to 5pm daily. Included in this exhibition are photos taken by two history majors from Wheeling Jesuit University: Jake Zirkle, class of '14, and Marque Marry, class of '15. The exhibition documents the group's travels throughout Poland, from Warsaw to Lublin and Krakow. Included in the group's itinerary were stops at the Treblinka, Majdanek, and Auschwitz extermination camps. All are welcome to visit this chronicle of Wheeling-area students and educators grappling with the history and memory of the Holocaust.

The White Rose Movement: an Exhibition at WJU

In conjunction with Classrooms without Borders, WJU is hosting an exhibition dedicated to the student resistance movement, the White Rose, which challenged the Nazi regime and called upon other Germans to resist National Socialism.

The exhibition is displayed in the Art Gallery (attached to Kirby Hall) and will remain there until November 14. It is open from 12-4 and by appointment. A special invitation is extended to all Wheeling-area middle and high school teachers who would like to visit it with their students.

Through the use of text and images, the exhibition details the growth of the White Rose movement, a group of students from the University of Munich, who struggled against the Nazi state and its demands that German society fight a genocidal war of aggression. While the movement ultimately failed and its main protagonists were either executed or arrested by the German state, it nonetheless demonstrated that even during a period of real violence and brutality, individuals possessing traditional notions of morality, ethics, and true heroism could emerge and challenge a criminal state.

The exhibition opened on November 2. Approximately 55 people attended the opening reception and listened to Associate Professor of History Jeff Rutherford give a talk on the White Rose movement and its place in the history of the German resistance to Nazism. For more information on the White Rose movement and the White Rose Foundation, please visit its website.