Introduction

In the past three years of high school, I had never really enjoyed or liked my history classes. American History and World History were never interesting to me and wasn’t something I looked forward to everyday. So, as a junior when I was picking my classes for senior year, I was shocked that I ended up signing up for another history class for what should be the best year of our high school experience. I was completely persuaded by friends and others to sign up for the class because of its good reputation. I heard it was very good and worthwhile so I was hoping that I wouldn’t be let down. First semester of senior year I found myself getting more interested and excited to start taking Facing History and Ourselves because of the good things I had been hearing about it. Finally, when second semester came around I started the course. This class teaches you about history and makes you look deeper into the events of the Holocaust along with looking deeper into yourself. There are many things that I learned that I wasn’t aware of before taking this course. I also learned more about myself as I continued to attend and look forward to my period three class every day. There were all kinds of important lessons including discussions, readings, films, and lectures. During some classes, we were broken up into groups and shared our thoughts and feelings about certain films or readings that we went over as a class. Pretty much every time we were broken into groups, we were with new classmates which gave us new ideas and different perspectives. The course and overall lesson plans are set up very well and you can learn all of this stuff by taking Facing History and Ourselves for a semester.

What Facing History and Ourselves Meant to Me

          Taking Facing History and Ourselves has really enhanced my knowledge on major historical events and myself. I was able to learn more about who I am as a person and what I can do in the future to be a better person. Along with looking at myself more closely through this course, we also looked at the Holocaust more closely and really were exposed to the horrors of this awful period in history. Before this course, I honestly didn’t know much about the Holocaust. I feel like I knew basically what happened and how awful it was but I never knew why or how this happened. I didn’t know how Hitler came to power and how he was able to get the support of Germany while discriminating against Jewish people and others who weren’t German. I didn’t know exactly what the Nazis did and all of the horrific things done to the Jews. We learned about all of these things and all of it was very detailed. There were so many details that sometimes I was sitting in my seat completely horrified and disgusted. After taking this course I realized how much I didn’t know about the Holocaust before. Watching all of the movies, reading the documents, and listening to Mr. Gallagher’s passionate lectures has really showed me what actually happened during the Holocaust. When this course is finished, you have really been as close to experiencing the Holocaust as you can since we didn’t experience it first hand.

            All of the films that we watched during the semester of this course were extremely significant and meaningful. Each and every movie had an impact on me and who I am as a person. They also enhanced my knowledge in general and about the Holocaust. One of the first films we saw was “After The First” which had a meaning and stuck with me for a while. In the film, the boy went hunting with his father because his father loves it so much. The father put pressure on the boy to kill a bunny and this caused the boy to not enjoy hunting. The father said that it got easier after the first animal you kill. This film taught me about being pressured by others and how someone can be influenced to do something they are not sure of. Also, I learned how a person can become used to killing things (a hunter killing animals) and that it gets easier to do this after the first time. Another film that we watched that really had an impact on me was the “Boy in the Striped Pajamas”. This movie was incredibly sad and it showed the Holocaust from a different perspective. The German side (point of view) was shown which demonstrated how the Holocaust also affected people who weren’t Jewish. The German family in this movie was haunted by the events of the Holocaust because of the father who became a Nazi. In the end, they lost their son due to the gas chambers and the horrific death that many, many Jews faced. At the end of the movie I was completely shocked and thought it was a very sad, but important movie to watch. By watching this movie, I also learned things about myself because of the friendship between the little German boy and the Jewish boy. After watching the movie and the sad ending, I thought about whether or not I would have done the same thing in that situation and help the Jewish boy look for his dad. Through their friendship and the decisions that Bruno made regarding the Jewish boy (like not sticking up for him when he was eating the family’s food), I was able to see what kind of person I am and how important friendship is to me.

            Throughout this course I learned not to be a bystander. If I see something harmful being done to another person (bullying for example) I should do something and try and put a stop to it. I may not be able to fix things completely or even make that much of a difference, but putting that effort to try and help people is what counts. Standing there and doing nothing about it is wrong and I learned this through the readings, class discussions, and films. Another influential movie we watched during the course of the semester was “Freedom Writers”. This movie demonstrated discrimination and how people judge others based on physical appearances. The movie shows how this is wrong and the teacher does a wonderful job of uniting her class and creating close friendships. She decides that she will not just be a bystander and watch the violence and discrimination enfold. She wants to do something to try and change this and make everyone have a better, peaceful life.

            One of the readings that really had an impact on me was the packet about the medical experiments performed on Jewish people. I remember that we got this reading right after we finished watching the movie “The Grey Zone”. This movie was hard to watch because of the graphic images and insight into what really happened in the camps. I was disgusted and shocked at what was being done and I couldn’t believe how the Nazis could do this. This movie also pointed out clearly how there were Jewish people who worked for them and aided in leading other Jews into the gas chambers and crematorium. This is also something I didn’t know before watching the movie. The packet of medical experiments were cruel and torturous. The fact that these doctors and Nazis did this to a handful of picked Jewish prisoners is sickening.

            Overall, Mr. Gallagher and this course in general did an amazing job of teaching me new things about misinterpreted history and who I am as a person. This course puts us in the “shoes” of the Jewish people as we learn about the trauma and awful things that they were put through. I never fully understood this before taking this course. Facing History and Ourselves is a definitely a course that every student should take if they have the chance. I am glad to have experienced what this course has to offer.

Works Cited

Boy in the Striped Pajamas. Google images. Image. 17 May 2011.

The Grey Zone. Google images. Image. 17 May 2011.

Holocaust Mass Grave. Google images. Image. 17 May 2011.

Jewish Prisoners in line. Google images. Image. 17 May 2011.

Nazi Concentration Camp Pictures. Google images. Image. 17 May 2011.