Everyone is biased, and it's not just American being out of touch with European History. I'm Dutch, I do like history especially parts where changes of borders/nations have impact now.
I was born in 1986, so I don't have memories of the Cold War and such. In school we learn a lot about WWII, that 6 million jews died and such.
But halfway trough Germany started the wasteland. Our Reformed churches sends/sended/smuggled Bible translation to Moldavia, Ukraine, Russia. We donated money to help Hungarian Baptists, Ukrainian Jews and so on.. But that's it.
I've visited quite some 'Eastern European' countries, and when I do I always have to dive into the history. When visiting Krakow for a week I learned about Galicia (I thought it was weird to have a Jewish museum named after a Spanish region ;)).
So, in 2010 I decided to first visit all European countries, before flying somewhere else. I have rules, I have to have visited a bordering country before I'm allowed to visit a country. (E.g. can't go to Portugal I have to visit Spain first). And I have to stay in a country , so a train stop our toilet visit doesn't count for visiting Slovenia..
To know history to some extend, you have to be there. But, it's also around us. When being overwhelmed by the empty mezuzah spaces, I realized that my hometown only had a 'Synagoguestreet' without a synagogue. That we have Jewish cemeteries, but no burials, and that there almost no Jewish community in the Netherlands, while my late grandmother talked about Jewish shop owners ..
I was born in 1986, so I don't have memories of the Cold War and such. In school we learn a lot about WWII, that 6 million jews died and such.
But halfway trough Germany started the wasteland. Our Reformed churches sends/sended/smuggled Bible translation to Moldavia, Ukraine, Russia. We donated money to help Hungarian Baptists, Ukrainian Jews and so on.. But that's it.
I've visited quite some 'Eastern European' countries, and when I do I always have to dive into the history. When visiting Krakow for a week I learned about Galicia (I thought it was weird to have a Jewish museum named after a Spanish region ;)).
So, in 2010 I decided to first visit all European countries, before flying somewhere else. I have rules, I have to have visited a bordering country before I'm allowed to visit a country. (E.g. can't go to Portugal I have to visit Spain first). And I have to stay in a country , so a train stop our toilet visit doesn't count for visiting Slovenia..
To know history to some extend, you have to be there. But, it's also around us. When being overwhelmed by the empty mezuzah spaces, I realized that my hometown only had a 'Synagoguestreet' without a synagogue. That we have Jewish cemeteries, but no burials, and that there almost no Jewish community in the Netherlands, while my late grandmother talked about Jewish shop owners ..