Students will be able to post their essays until 2:00 pm Thursday, May 22nd. I suggest you split your essay into two parts and make two (2) comments instead one given the character limitation. You'll want to post the last half first - then the top half of your essay.
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Part 4/4
Clearly, Adolf Hitler was seen as a dominant figure in the Holocaust. However, I started thinking less of Hitler and more of anybody and everybody in power as part of the massive, tragic murder scene that became the Holocaust. For example, in “Swing Kids,” Thomas and Peter join the Hitler Youth. Prior to being part of the Hitler Youth, they were part of the swing kids, a type of rebellious group that enjoyed life, music, and the company of one another. However, although the boys did exhibit behavior marking a positive change during some points in the movie, once Thomas and Peter were in uniform, their demeanor changed. Men and women in power felt it necessary and even rudimentary to impose brutality toward those considered lesser than them. Also, when we viewed “Freedom Writers” in class, it was evident that the racist people in charge of the school system thought very lowly of the students that attended the school. Without somebody like Mrs. Gruwell, the students would have suffered far longer than they already were suffering. From movies like these, I have learned that when somebody is in a position in power, they feel freely able to treat anybody “lower” than them as if they are less than human, and even like garbage.
Personally, through the dozens of films and documentaries that I had watched in this class, the one that stuck out the most and really defined the Holocaust to me was “The Boy in the Striped Pajamas.” I had seen this movie on multiple occasions beforehand, and I had also read the book. However, none of it stuck with me at all. I could blame the latter on the fact that I was young, but taking this course really made me come to the realization that I had a textbook definition of the Holocaust as an idea ingrained in my head. The only aspect of the movie that I could have recalled prior to watching it in class was that it was a melancholy movie, but I did not remember very many details. I did recall Bruno’s clothes laying on the ground, and I remembered him crossing over into the concentration camp, but I did not remember that the movie went more in-depth about the gassing of Bruno and Shmuel. I know for a fact that the first time I viewed this film, the individual events did not hit me as hard as they did when I watched it in class. It is safe to say that I did not even catch the part when Bruno’s mother internally dealt with whether or not she should have thanked Pavo for mending Bruno’s injured knee. Due to what I’ve been exposed to in the Facing History course, I can now perceive the pain, suffering, and mass loss of innocent human beings during such a difficult time. Through “The Boy in the Striped Pajamas,” I have come to learn that being “fair” was a nonexistent concept during the Holocaust. I also learned that evil always prevailed, and no matter the age, sex, gender, or nationality of a person, murder was almost always inevitable.
Facing History and Ourselves is a course that I will never forget taking. In this course, I have been exposed to multiple documents, films, and discussions that have taught me much more than any class in which I memorize and repeat information back in the form of assessments. This class combined a passionate teacher along with the exposure to the true evils embedded within mankind, documents explaining gruesome truths of humans in power, class discussions, the thought process of dominant figures, and a closer look into the true definition of the Holocaust to assist me in physically, emotionally and mentally maturing to a point where I can no longer be a bystander, but a person who can confront a perpetrator. I am beyond thankful that I had the opportunity to take this course, and I will encourage many others to do so in the future.
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In addition to the variety of films shown in the Facing History and Ourselves course, information sheets were often-times handed out as supplements of further information that had to do with the topic of the film that was being shown. One document in particular that caught my eye was the article entitled “Mengele’s Children: The Twins of Auschwitz.” This article caught my attention in particular because I had already found it difficult to comprehend why the Jews as a people were targeted, but to target subgroups within the larger group was beyond me, and I found this article’s content to be particularly ludicrous as well as cruel and inhumane. The article went into detail about the cruelties placed upon twins at the Auschwitz Death Camp, all because Dr. Mengele had an obsession with twins. Twins would be removed from their families and from the rest of the camp in order for experiments to be implemented upon them. In most cases, one or both twins would end up deceased. Some “experiments” included injections into the spine and spinal taps without the use of an anesthetic. From this article as well as other documents handed out in class, I learned a great deal of information in addition to what I was watching. In-class discussions also added to the depth of my understanding of the concepts within the course, furthering my knowledge on how to become an individual that can stand up for myself as well as for others.
Discussions during class-time before, after, and during films were a very insightful part of the class that enabled me to learn a great deal through other’s opinions and perspectives on certain issues. Especially during the very beginning of the course, I was able to listen to others’ opinions regarding certain topics. I can recall a specific conversation in which the class was divided into groups and we had to discuss instances in everyday life in which racism was prevalent. From this particular conversation, I came to realize that hatred exists for various reasons, whether it be from inherited prejudice or from a specific incident. I also learned that everybody is capable of hatred, they just may not portray it on the outside. In addition, although the class was left silent at the conclusion of most of the films watched during class in order to fully absorb the information, I learned a vast amount of information from the comments and questions put forth after a film was shown. Often times, an individual would comment on something I had not previously picked up on, so I greatly appreciated instances such as those. An additional aspect within the Facing History and Ourselves course that enabled me to transform from a bystander to an individual who can confront issues at-hand was an exposure to the thought process of dominant figures.
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I believe that the content of a given course plays an vital role in a students’ achievement in the course, but the passion and determination of a teacher to get a message across paves an even larger path to success. Mr. Gallagher is an individual who has been teaching the Facing History and Ourselves course for five years. In doing so, he has seen and heard all of the stories a plethora of times. However, I felt as though he has been able to give thorough and extensive explanations as to what was being seen, heard, read and discussed, and that has greatly helped me to strive in this course. From day one, I was aware of the words “bystander,” “victim,” and “perpetrator,” three words hung high in Mr. Gallagher’s room. I was taught that depending on how I perceived the course, that I would most likely change titles from one word to another. I am one hundred percent confident in the fact that Mr. Gallagher’s passion about teaching has been a large factor in my success in the Facing History course, and my overall transformation from a bystander to a confident individual who is able to confront worrisome issues and situations before they get out of hand. Another aspect of the Facing History course that has enhanced my knowledge regarding me as an individual and what I stand for is the exposure to the true evils embedded within mankind.
In Facing History and Ourselves, this exposure existed in forms including documents and films. Even in microcosms of mankind such as The Bear that Wasn’t, I have come to learn that somebody in power will willingly and effortlessly do everything in their power to rid themselves and of the community of that different person, or in this case, bear. This story overall serves as a pictorial of what hatred can do, and what the explosion of hatred can do in instances such as the Holocaust. An example of the true evils embedded within mankind that will never leave my memory exists in “The Pianist.” Although there were many events from this film that will stick with me because of their grotesque nature, I will infinitely be able to recall the scene where the man in the wheelchair is flung off of the balcony because he does not stand when the Nazis tell him to do so. I feel as if this scene in particular depicts the true evils of mankind because clearly the man was physically incapable of standing up, and that alone, without him being from Jewish descent would most likely have ended in his death because he was considered crippled. The fact that this man was of Jewish descent did nothing but increase the Nazi’s level of hatred for him, resulting in the man’s instantaneous murder after he did not stand up when the Nazi’s barged in and told his entire family to do as such. In addition, in “The Pianist,” there was a scene in which the Polish Jews were being lined up and taken away. When one woman innocently asked a soldier, “Where are you taking us?” they soldier proceeded to shoot her right through her skull. This woman had legitimately done nothing wrong, but because of the times and because she was a Jew, the soldier felt inclined to shoot her. I felt as if this example portrayed the true evils of mankind because the soldier treated the woman as if she were not a woman, but a worthless object that nobody would miss or love as he shot her in front of others. Seeing these scenes portrayed before my eyes that depicted the true evils of mankind is when I was hit with the revelation that the only way for people to receive justice of any kind is to stand up, or at least attempt to stand up, against the dominant, evil figure, much like Mrs. Gruwell did in order to let her students succeed. Along with exposure to the true evils possessed within mankind, I also acquired a great deal of knowledge through the many documents I was handed throughout the course.
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What Facing History and Ourselves Meant to Me
During course selection for my freshman year at Westborough High School, I hadn’t an inkling of an idea as to the courses in which I wanted to partake, and it was quite the stressful endeavor. So, undoubtedly, I asked others for advice as to which courses to request, and an astounding amount responded with the following: “It’s too bad you’re not an upperclassman because I would suggest Facing History!” As unfortunate as it was, the wait was entirely worth it and I was ecstatic when I saw that Facing History and Ourselves was included on my schedule two years later for my junior year. I knew coming into the course that it involved a vast amount of deeper-level discussions than those of my other classes, but I knew that I was able to handle it and that I really wanted to be a part of a class that was not about memorizing information and repeating it back on tests and quizzes, but rather about acquiring important knowledge about myself as a person. Multiple sources as well as people in my Facing History class have provided me with knowledge and insight from a majority of perspectives, and that has guided me down a path of self-realization and maturity. Through the passion of Mr. Gallagher, exposure to the true evils of mankind, documents explaining gruesome truths of humans in power, class discussions, the thought process of dominant figures, and a closer look into the true definition of the Holocaust, Facing History and Ourselves has transformed me from a naïve bystander to an individual who can confront perpetrators and help those in need.
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Another big concept I have learned throughout this class is the idea that how you see yourself is much more important than how others see you. The first time this issue was brought up in class was with the story “The Bear That Wasn’t”. The bear was repeatedly told that he wasn’t actually a bear, so then he started to believe it. I began to think about all of the ways that I had identified myself and asked, ‘is this really how I see myself? Or is this just how I am viewed by others?’. It really made me question who I was as a person and if I was ever just doing certain things or acting in certain ways because that was just what was expected of me. Another time I saw this topic brought up was when we talked about “race science”. Many white men in the 1800’s had “proven” that whites were biologically superior to all other races. These ideas had continued into the civil rights movement. What I found to be very inspiring was the fact that even though African Americans were told over and over again that they weren’t good enough and that they were lesser than whites, they continued to protest and fight for the rights that they knew they deserved. If I had been in their position, I feel like I might have started to believe that I was not a good enough person because of my race. When someone is being constantly told something about themselves that isn’t true, it seems like after a while it would be hard not to start to believe it. I have learned that I need to remain focused on who I really am as a person and stay true to myself (that sounds cliché, but it’s true).
The part of this class that had the biggest impact on me was seeing the overall way that the Jews were treated. I had known coming into this class some of the things that they had gone through, but that was when I was thinking like a teenager from the 2000’s. This course really allowed me to put myself into that time period and really get a better understanding of what went on. They were real people with real families and real lives waiting to be lived. Seeing all of that being taken away from them all because of an overpowering hatred for their religion was unreal. They were not at all treated like people, but rather trash that was waiting to be taken out. I will never understand how so many people can take part in events as horrendous as that. The most important change I have seen in myself after seeing all of this would be how I view people on a daily basis. It has really helped me to see everyone as equals and realize that no matter who they are, they should be treated with the same amount of respect that you would treat anyone else with. Each day, I try my hardest to be less and less judgmental of others because you never really know what someone is going through or what could possibly be going through their head. It has now become a major goal in my life to do my best to treat every person I come in contact with equally. Before taking this class, it is sad to say that if I were walking by a person who was being treated unfairly in any way, I most likely would have just walked passed it. But now, I honestly believe that I am no longer just a bystander letting things around me happen.
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Something I saw that stood out to me related to doing what is right and not being a bystander was the destructiveness of deceit and misinformation. Over and over again in many videos, something that really upset me was when people who were involved with or close to the Nazis were being fed misinformation about what they were doing and what was happening at concentration camps. It was harmful for everyone because many people who worked for Hitler were not being honest with their country. This deemed to be the biggest problem in The Boy in the Striped Pajamas. In this movie, the boy had believed the entire time that the camp was a harmless farm. He didn’t realize at all what was going on. Even when his mother had realized what her husband was doing, she did not inform the children. The fact that they thought he was old enough to live next to a Jewish concentration camp but not old enough to know what was happening is crazy to me. Their son ended up dying because he wasn’t aware exactly what the camp was, and this all could have been prevented if his mother or father told him the truth or had not exposed him to such an environment in the first place. In the film the soldiers were watching at one point in the movie, it showed the camps as being pleasant and safe, happy places where the Jews were being held. It was shown to people all over who were supporting Hitler, making it seem like he was almost just “taking care” of them. There were so many people who knew exactly what was really going on, yet they didn’t feel the need to expose the camps, despite the fact that it could have helped them. Here more than ever is where I see the importance of doing the right thing because so many things could have been prevented. Another main piece of this that really bothered me was with the Hitler Youth. Children spent numerous hours in a class room being taught that the sole purpose of their lives was to obey and worship Hitler. 97% of teachers were feeding their students toxic information about how they needed to dedicate their lives and be willing to sacrifice themselves to their country. The fact that teachers just went along with this and taught them all of these things that would completely turn their lives around is unbelievable. They played such a big role in what those children thought and had a huge influence over them. There were so many teachers feeding them this poisonous information that it is horrible to see that there weren’t more who rebelled and wanted them to know what the truth was. This had a lasting effect on me because it made me see how easily people’s minds can be influenced and what people can be turned into. There needs to be more people who are willing to tell the truth and be real about situations, because ignorance is not always bliss.
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One of the main things I have learned and adapted into my own life from this course is the significance of standing up for what is right and what you believe in in order to make a change. One of the films we watched that had one of the bigger impacts on me was Freedom Writers. In this movie, a teacher went into a school where the students were very different than what she was used to. They were disrespectful and, at first, didn’t care at all about learning. She went into this job with that knowledge and was told by other teachers and staff members that she was crazy for doing what she did. No one had believed in those kids, which was why they didn’t believe in themselves. Every day she would go into work with a positive attitude and hope for the students. She stood up for them and didn’t give up. When they began to see that she actually cared and was doing what no one else had for them, that was when they began to show changes. That movie really inspired me because I tried to put myself in her position and the results she had with the kids seemed so rewarding. She had done what no one else had thought was possible and achieved success, even though no one else had believed in her. This made me think about all of the times that I had shied away from opportunities to stand up for a person or idea that was being knocked down because of fear of what others might think of me. When I see what this woman did, it helps me to understand the effect that just one person can have. The thought of being able to have that kind of impact on even just one person really excites me and makes me want to strive to do things like this. I now fully agree with the fact that the outcome of standing up for what is right completely outweighs what anyone might think of you, and that lesson has been extremely rewarding. Another example of this was with what Martin Luther King Jr. did for the Civil Rights Movement. I found what he had done to be especially inspiring. He was perfectly aware that there would be consequences to his actions, but he chose to move forward with his speech anyways. He inspired people all over the nation, both blacks and whites. Looking at both of these examples together really shows me that no matter who you are or where you come from, if you do what is right, positive things will come out of it and many people will be rewarded; that gives me hope and assurance that I can be a better person.
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My name is Mari Mespelli and I am currently a junior at Westborough High School. I was first introduced to the topic of the Holocaust when I was in the fifth grade, and have been interested ever since. The reason I had signed up for the Facing History and Ourselves course was because I had heard so many good things from other students about this class and I was very interested in going deeper into the topics surrounding the Holocaust and how that could affect me personally. Also, the fact that there were no tests and quizzes really appealed to me because it really proved that the class was more about the experience and actually learning, rather than just getting good grades and trying to memorize seemingly useless information. This course really explores the way people were thinking during certain time periods and how that lead to the outcomes that it did. One of the main things that stood out to me throughout this class was the idea of how important it is not to be a bystander and the importance of doing what is right, rather than doing what everyone else is doing. Before taking this, I found myself constantly having my mindset on just blending in with everyone else and doing what everybody else was doing, and I now realize that that is really not the kind of person I want to be; I don’t want to just “let” things happen. If you are always so concerned with what people think of you, it will hold you back and you will go nowhere. Something that I have seen repeatedly throughout these films and documentaries is what can happen if no one stands up, and what happens when people do stand up and the negative and positive outcomes of each. This course has really affected me in the way that I now see situations differently. I have a sudden urge to be better and fight against destructive behavior and thinking. It has helped me realize that everyone on this planet was born equal and should be able to live in a world where that concept is a reality, and that is something I strongly believe in. Everyone should be given the chance to reach their full potential in life despite their race, gender, or religion.
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Following the movie, we watched something very different, and unrelated to the Holocaust. We watched the film documenting the Milgram Experiment. This experiment was a psychological study performed by a doctor at Stanford during the 1960’s. In it, there were two groups of men, some would be teachers and the others would be learners. The teachers were told that they were supposed to test the memory of the learners by reading a set of words. After every incorrect repetition by the learner, the teacher was supposed to supply an incrementally-increased shock. Though they were not actually shocking the learners, the teachers truly believed that they were, which makes the results all the more shocking. What surprised me the most about the results was that as soon as the teachers shifted the blame off themselves and onto someone else, they barely hesitated before administering painful and potentially deadly shocks. I think it was very clever of Milgram to shock the teacher with 45 volts before they began, because it gave them a perspective as to how much current they were dealing with. Most of the teachers said the shock was painful, yet when they were not culpable for their actions, most didn't mind shocking a stranger with ten times that voltage. The experiment helped shed light on the dark side that lurks in every human, not just the “evil Nazis” during the ‘30’s and ‘40’s. This experiment was performed twenty years later in America, and yet the results were borderline sadistic.
After the documentary we switched back to WWII oriented stuff, in this case another Hollywood movie called “The Pianist”. Though we did not watch all of the movie, the chunk we did see depicted life in the Warsaw ghetto following the Nazi takeover. It was horrific. What really stood out to me about the film were little details here and there. Though never discussed or really focused on, the main character walks by dozens of starving people, as well as physically stepping over a few dead ones, some of whom were children. Also, there was a scene where the SS raided an apartment building, threw an old man off the balcony, and shot all the other Jews as they fled. That scene will probably haunt my mind forever.
The final personally significant work we watched was a documentary called “America and the Holocaust”. This movie was at times difficult to watch. It outlined the actions or inaction of the American government during the atrocities being committed in Europe. The Roosevelt administration and the US as a whole are portrayed in such a negative light it was almost painful for me to watch it. Our country is the greatest on Earth, however we make mistakes, and not being more sympathetic to the Jews was certainly one of them. At one point the federal government received and confirmed intelligence stating the existence of the death camps. From that point on they should have eradicated the camps with a few well-placed air strikes. Especially after popular support was swayed to supporting the Jews, there was no reason for the administration not to help support the enemies of our enemies during the war. This period in our history is very important to remember, so that we can never prevent such a blunder and such a tragedy from happening again.
I am tremendously glad I took this course. Without it I would not have vital knowledge and a new perspective on history. As a result of this class, I understand more now the ramifications of my decisions. Especially as a military officer, a complete understanding of what orders I am following, and what ones I give out is extremely important. Overall, this class is important to take for anyone, because through moral, intellectual, and emotional development, it makes you a better person. Or at least it did for me.
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One particular facet of the course stuck with me, a documentary called “The Longest Hatred”. It provided insight into the history of anti-Semitism. I honestly had no idea that the prejudices against the Jews were so prevalent in most cultures in almost every time period in the past two thousand years. I have been raised following the Catholic faith, and I was appalled by the actions of the Pope during WWII. To declare a state of neutrality and recognize the Nazi party as a legitimate entity was not only foolish, it was downright idiotic. It reinforced my belief that it is important for every person to be aware of these offensive and malignant stereotypes, because recognizing them is the first step in eradicating them.
Continuing on in the study of the Nazi regime, we later watched a film speaking about the Gestapo, the legendary police force of the Nazis. I thought the information on the Gestapo was very interesting, because it is one of the most feared police forces in history, and yet there isn't much public knowledge about it. I also thought it was interesting that a very organized force like the Gestapo could exist under the apparently chaotic Nazi administration. The information provided to us regarding this force was very meaningful to me, because the Gestapo were key in establish the totalitarian reign in Germany at the time. For those who were not entirely vested in the fascist cause, the Gestapo either eliminated or motivated them through fear to quickly toe the line. Knowledge such as this is important for providing a perspective when studying modern police and intelligence forces.
The next significant work we watched was different than those before it, because this work was actually a Hollywood film titled “The Swing Kids”. The movie was a dramatization of the lives of teenage boys in the late ‘30’s. The boys began as a vibrant representation of those who refused to believe the mantra of the Nazis, and instead focused on their appreciation for American swing music. However under external pressures, some of the teenagers began to believe more and more of the Nazi propaganda, and by the end of the film a few were loyal Hitler Youth members. Their original passion and integrity was inspiring, and it was very interesting to see their degradation and eventual demise. The transformation of most of the characters seemed very realistic, due to all of the pressures they were under. The film stuck with me because it affected me personally. Most of the characters in the movie were my age or a little older, and to see them live through the Nazis made me reflect on how I would have acted during that time. The movie was also important because it showed that many of those following the Nazis were originally normal, healthy people. So for those who now question how anything like the Holocaust could have ever happened, or how Hitler could really have been so popular, this movie explained it. It provided a glimpse of the life of a German in 1940. After watching that movie, I really began to question whether I would have been able to sift through the propaganda, and resist the culture of the Nazis.
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By the end of my junior year, I had heard many of my friends discussing Facing History. They all spoke about how different the class was, how the teacher didn’t mince words, and how life-changing the class could be. As a big history buff, to say the least I was intrigued. I had just finished my AP US History course, and I was looking for something entirely different yet still focused on history. I was not disappointed.
The course was designed to emphasize civic agency, which consists of emotional, intellectual, and moral intelligence. The hope was that the curriculum of the class would educate and guide those who needed it, so they would reach the ultimate goal of understanding a public issue emotionally, intellectually, and morally. The class truly helped me develop as a person, and I know that I will be a better man, a better leader, and a better military officer thanks to this class.
But what was the class really about? Well, the main event we focused on was the Holocaust, where a world either partook or watched as millions of Jews and others were systematically exterminated. According to the curriculum, the general population is divided into five categories during an event like this: Bystanders, Victims, Bullies, Rescuers, and Resistance.
The focus of the class is to reach those who can be reached and change them, from bystanders to rescuers or resistance. If there were more people who resisted the Nazis at any point during their reign, then the genocide of the Jews would not have been allowed to occur, or at least not as long as it did. To educate and enlighten us, we were shown a variety of works displaying various genocides throughout modern history. As previously mentioned, we focused mainly on the Holocaust, however we also did study the Rwandan genocide for several classes.
The movie that I would have to say that had the biggest affect on me was the Pianist. We only watched about two thirds of the movie but what we did see will stick with me for a long time. We saw how some Jewish women were picked at random out of line to be sexually assaulted and raped all because the guards could. The most disturbing aspect/ scene in the film was how the German soldiers raided apartments within the ghettos for no apparent reason in the middle of the night. The disturbing scene involved many german soldiers going through a Jewish ghetto apartment building and go through each apartment and then it one on the top floor. The german soldiers asked for all the Jews at the dinner table to stand and “Hail Hitler”. But one of the Jewish men was in a wheelchair and couldn’t stand up on his own will. The German guards proceeded to forcefully life the man out of his wheelchair and throw his body over the railing down six stories to his death. This act caused a domino effect of pandemonium through the building with the Jews. They all started running and trying to escape the prison walls but the German soldiers did not want any part of it. They shot down all of the feeling Jews leaving none alive, showing no mercy. Through a very tough movie I felt this is the scene that will stick with me for the longest time. The complete and utter ruthlessness and disregard for human life, a precious thin, as shown by the Nazi’s is something that I will not forget.
With all of the films we have watched through the semester and a half of Facing History, the darkest one I felt was The Grey Zone. This movie showed what it was like to be a working Jew during the holocaust in death camps. What your job was to do, how you ate, showered, lived. This movie did a great job of showing what it was like to live as a Jewish worker in the death camps, as well as a Jew coming to the death camps for the first time. You see how the condition in which they live are far from ideal, proving to be worse than any prison at that time. What was the most shocking part about the entire four month cycle of workers was that you had to keep up with whatever was given to you as someone was always there behind you, fresh and eager to take your spot if you did not want it.
Overall the things I have learned from this class I truly believe I will have with me for a long time. I had doubts about big affected through this class like everyone else before me but I have no doubts now. This is a special class that everyone should be made to take through high school because it is something the kids of America today need to know. The only regret I have is not taking this class sooner in my Junior year so I could have and half semester that I’m missing with my senior year. This is a great class, it has affected me greatly and I recommend it to anyone who might be interested.
Afterwards Ms. Elliot had a talk with her students and asked what it was like being considered the “better being”. Every child said that they liked it, but couldn’t explain why they acted so entitled. What I ultimately learned from this is if you believe something for long enough and get enough people to believe you, you end up feeling like the superior being even when that isn’t the case. The moral intelligence of the students was altered when they were told they were the greater than everyone else and it is exactly what happened to Nazi Germany in the mid 1900’s under Adolf Hitler.
In class we also recently watched The boy in the Striped Pajamas. This was a movie that I saw before so going into it I felt like I didn’t necessarily need to pay all that much attention. I was wrong. After going through a semester and a half of Facing History as I watched the movie it made me angrier and angrier. You can see throughout the movie How Bruno is such an innocent boy caught up in the middle of the holocaust as his father is a high up german officer. As the movie progresses you start seeing changes with Brunos twelve year old sister. She was still very into her dolls when they moved and was pretty oblivious to all that was happening around her to with the Nazi work camps. But she suddenly starts to become very into the German Nai power and what it is doing to the Jews through the German soldiers living at her home as well as the influence of the children's tutor. Bruno on the other hand is so innocent and not knowledgeable the situation makes friends with a Jewish camp inmate. What makes this movie so gripping and eye opening from another perspective is that Bruno makes friends with this boy named smule and they get along even though they shouldn’t. Bruno can’t see anything different about him because he isn’t told to yet, he isn’t made to believe that smule is a lower life being than he. The movie really stood out to me this time as one that shows the ignorance of the Nazi’s and Brunos father. I learned that judging someone before you get to meet them is ridiculous, and judging an entire religious race on reasoning that still is not 100% confirmed is shocking.
Another film we watched in class was called The Swing Kids, a movie about the Hitler youth. What surprised me the most about this movie was how kids in the resistance would join the Hitler youth, only as cover to continue on their resistance belief at night. Something that I thought was very clever. Also, what shocked me about the movie was that the Nazi men training the Hitler youth, convinced them to turn in their own parents if they were thought to be against their very own parents. See with one character in the film, some of the resistance who joined the Hitler youth were converted into full time Hitler youth and forgotten their ways of being apart of the resistance completely. What I learned most about this movie is that you have to stand up for what you believe in or else no one else will. Do not be a bystander in life when things are going against the crowd and may not be the popular opinion. Kids of the resistance to the Hitler youth and really all of Nazi Germany are an inspiration to doing what is right. This was probably one of my favorite movies to watch in this class because the courage displayed by the kids in the resistance was that of a very strong person and one that should be very proud of their action and for believing in what is right.
Facing History is class that I heard a lot about through different kids at school especially my Sophomore and Junior years. Everyone who I talked to who had taken the course had positive feedback about it, and nothing but great thing to say. I personally love History, it has always been my favorite class in school. To me seeing how the past sculpted the future and how one different event could have changed everything is an aspect that fascinates me. I have learned about the holocaust here and there throughout High School reading some great books like Night and others. Although I touched upon it, I wanted to get into great depth into the darkest time in human history to try and understand how someone could have the power to do this. This class definitely makes you wonder about how someone ended up having so much power, and how so many people could just stand by and do nothing. If you learn nothing from this class, take from it a way to assess yourself as a person. Are you going to be a bystander, or someone who resists, as my Gallagher always says. If people had stood up for themselves and the Jews, things might have been different.
Facing history is a course that shows you what and why the holocaust happened, and the people who were involved. Facing History is a class that doesn’t involve much work outside of class, but not doing it will reflect negatively on your grade. My classes this year had a wide range of grades from A’s to F’s. If you care, you will do well. The various ways of interacting in the class through readings, discussions, documentaries, and films provide a great way of incorporating a various amount of learning styles into the course. There are certain teachers you remember after high school and Mr. Gallagher is one of those types of teachers. His clear interest and affect from the topic makes his teachings intense and that much more meaningful. He has been teaching this class for years and still gets affected everyday and passes that on to his students where they too, are affected.
One of the first things we saw in the class was about Ms. Elliotts third grade class in Iowa. She did an experiment with her students regarding eye color and wanted to see how it would affect her class. The first day she gave privileges to kids with the blue eyes, giving them a cloth collar to wear. Longer recess, more attention, called them smarter, so the kids with the blue eye actually started to believe they were superior the the children with the brown eyes. In comparison, the kids with the brown eyes started to believe they weren’t as good as the children with blue eyes. The blue eyed children would taunt the brown eye children because they felt they could and that they were the superior being. The very next day Ms. Elliott stitched up who wore the cloth collar, and gave it to the children with the brown eyes. The effects were essentially the same, only now the brown eyed children were the ones who felt superior. Afterwards Ms. Elliot had a talk with her students and asked what it was like being considered
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My name is Zachary Chason. I am currently a junior at Westborough High School and this will be my final blog post for the class, Facing History and Ourselves. Facing History probably the class that I have most wanted to take since I started high school. Before I had been a student in the class, I had heard great things about it. I knew many people that had taken the class and spoke very highly of it. My sister told me when I got to Westborough High School that Facing History and Ourselves was the class that she most regretted not taking and that I should definitely enroll in it. Most importantly, I chose to take this course because of the personal effect it had on so many students. As a jewish person, I thought I knew a lot about the Holocaust. I had learned about it in Hebrew School, as well as my grandparents had good friends who actually escaped from a Nazi concentration camp. Though I thought I had known a lot about the Holocaust, and prejudice as a whole, it wasn’t until this class that my eyes really opened. Facing History and Ourselves is a half year history elective that focuses on prejudice and genocide from throughout history. Topics including civil rights in the Jim Crow south and the Rwandan genocide are discussed, but the primary area of study is the Holocaust. In Facing History, we look at events before, during, and after the Holocaust that show how and why everything happened the way it did. In the course, you will see and hear first hand testimonials to the tragedy that was the mass murder of the Jews. We see pictures and video that actually show the horrors inside concentration camps. Though the workload is extremely light, the class itself has great impact. Facing History makes you think. It puts you into the pre-World War II Germany and makes you wonder what you would have done differently in that position. Aside from history, Facing History and Ourselves teaches students on the mindset they should keep throughout their lives. To not be a bystander, but instead take action. To be the person who stands up for himself and those who need others to stand up for them. Facing History uses historical context to teach students the evils of prejudice and the dangers of being a bystander.
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The first thing from Facing History and Ourselves that really stuck with me was a children’s book titled, The Bear That Wasn’t. This book told the story of a bear, who woke up in the middle of hibernation and found himself amongst humans in a factory. Because they have never seen a bear in the work place before, he humans refuse to believe he is a bear. Throughout the book, he goes to person after person and they all tell him that he is not a bear. Rather they say he is just a large man who is wearing a fur coat and needs a shave. At first, the bear fought this presumption, but after constantly being told he was a human, the bear started to think he was a man. He doubted himself and questioned his own identity. The bear story showed how prejudice and the power of majority can put down a minority group. If people are constantly being told that they are something, eventually they are going to believe it. This goes for a group of people as well. If a majority group is constantly telling a minority group that the majority is superior and the minority is inferior, eventually the both groups will believe this to be true. This was the case with the bear. This story showed the importance of knowing and trusting your own identity and not what others tell you you are. Another facet of the class that involved identity was an experiment performed by an elementary school teacher. This teacher, Jane Elliott, spent two days with her class divided by eye color. On one day she said the brown eyed people were better, and on another day she told her students that blue eyed people were better. The children’s reaction to this was amazing. When in the superior group, the children were hurtful and nasty two their classmates. Even those who felt what it was like on the other side the day before were just as bad when told that they were better. The children in the minority group acted like they were inferior. When Mrs. Elliott performed a test, the group labeled “inferior” posted lower scores on nearly every occasion. Similarly to The Bear That Wasn’t, this experiment showed how people can change their identity based on what other people are telling them they should be. In both cases the subjects conform to being what they are told to be like. The children, when told told they were inferior or superior, instantly changed who they were and behaved as such. Mrs. Elliott’s experiment was done in the wake of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s death. She used this as a lesson to her students about the effects of racism and prejudice. For the first and maybe only time in their lives, these white students experienced what it was like to be on the inferior side of the prejudice and racism that was going on throughout the United States of America at the time.
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One movie that we watched in class that I personally found to be moving was called Hotel Rwanda. It was the true story of a hotel manager who’s hotel was basically turned into a refugee camp during the Rwandan Genocide. More than the kindness and passion of Paul, the main character of the film, the parts that really stuck with me were the gruesome scenes of murder and brutality in the film. The movie did a good job depicting the sheer chaos that pervaded the country of Rwanda. The genocide was especially violent, with rebels attacking innocent civilians with machetes. They constantly referred to innocent people as “cockroaches” and violently murdered as many as they could. The gravity and inhumanity of the Rwandan Genocide is what stuck out to me. How people could be so disgustingly violent just because and how they could kill hundreds of thousands of innocent people just because of their heritage. Furthermore, the film showed me that genocide was a global issue. Not just that more than one country is involved, but before seeing this film, the only genocide I had really known of was the Holocaust. Aside from that, I didn’t really think that mass killings like the Holocaust happened in other places in the world. This film proved that thought to be wrong and showed me that genocide is a global issue. Moreover, it is proven to be repeatable, that is why it is important to learn from these tragedies in history and fight prejudice and racism. With that in mind genocides and mass killings like the Rwandan Genocide are much less likely to happen.
By far, the most studied subject throughout the Facing History and Ourselves course is the Holocaust. We look at numerous accounts, both real and fictionalized, that give significant insight into Nazi Germany. One of the best films we watched was a multi part documentary about the Nazi regime. It was entitled, The Nazis: A Warning From History. The Nazis: A Warning From History gave great detail and insight to the Nazi party. Before World War II, it showed the rise of the party and how it influenced the German people. The film did a good job of explaining the reasoning behind a person joining the Nazi party. Another film we watched called The Swing Kids, also showed the influence of the Nazi Party on Germans. In the Swing Kids, two German boys join the Hitler youth, but take different paths as far as their passion for being Nazis. Between the two films, I learned that joining the Nazi party was nearly the only rational thing to do as a young man in Germany. The Hitler Youth had such an extremely heavy influence on the children of Germany that people grew up “brainwashed” into truly believing Nazi ideals. Furthermore, because the expression of an opposing viewpoint could land you in deep trouble, the only move was to become a Nazi. The influence that the Nazi’s had in shaping the mindset of the German people can be seen in the Warning From History Documentary. In this film, many former Nazis still stand by their actions and hold nazi ideals. Naturally, before this class I assumed that every member of the Nazi party was born anti semitic. That they were innately terrible people who had always been viciously evil. This class, and particularly these films, opened my eyes a little more. It helped put me in the shoes of a young German man growing up in the glory days of the Nazi Party. In this position, there were very limited options. Men had basically no other choice but to join the Nazi party. Even if they didn’t believe in the ideals themselves, they had to join. These films helped give me “civic agency” and a better understanding of what it was like to live in Berlin during the heyday of the Nazi party.
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I can think of very few sights in my life that were as terrible as the images from the Nazi death camps. At the end of the Facing History and Ourselves course. We were showed both pictures and video of the tragedy that took place in the death camps. When the Nazis installed the final solution, the Holocaust really began. The gruesome images that we were shown deeply affected me. I was disgusted by how inhumanely human beings could treat each other. How SS troops and other members of the Nazi party could see other human beings, some of whom were once neighbors, friends, and distinguished German citizens, and treat those people like garbage. I was amazed by the terrible conditions of the camps, and yet they were able to fool people into thinking it wasn’t that bad. The prisoners of the camp looked like literally human skeletons. The were starved, beaten and left ill to die. Maybe the most disturbing thing that I learned was that the Nazis forced other Jews to to lead newcomers to the showers and tell them that everything was going to be all right. This was the most appalling thing of all. The only people the Jews should be able to trust and count on was other Jews. Knowing this the Nazis forced Jews to intentionally mislead their fellow Jewish people to their deaths. The videos were some of the most disturbing sights that I have ever seen in my life. The tons of dead jewish bodies, just laying on the floor like trash. Looking at the deathly thin survivors, with open wounds and great injury, it is amazing to think that even they could even survive. The amount of dead bodies was so vast that bulldozers would blow bodies into a mass grave. This type of inhumanity really struck a chord with me. These images were intensely disturbing, but necessary to fully understand the severity of the Holocaust and the evilness of the Nazis.
The Facing History and Ourselves course was truly an eye opener for me. I had heard such great things about it that I never thought it would live up to my expectations. However, it certainly did. I wouldn’t say it was a “fun” class, but I looked forward to going every day. I learned a lot about the nature of prejudice and the evils it can produce. Furthermore, I learned a lot about myself. I learned how I would act in certain situations and how that may or may not differ from how I should act. I also learned the key skill of civic agency. With civic agency I am able to put myself in certain moments in history with a solid understanding of what it is like. This class taught me to not pass judgement, because situations can often make decisions for us. This is seen with many German men who may not have believed in the ideals of the Nazi party, yet still joined and were involved in the extermination of 6 million Jews. Lastly, this class taught me to not be a bystander. That it is important to stand up for what’s right because a lot of people don’t have the courage to do so even when they know they should. Facing History is a tremendously valuable class, not academically but as a person. I would recommend it to any student that is interested.
Part 1
What Facing History and Ourselves Meant to Me
When I was much younger than I am today, I had been very frightened of the Holocaust. I remember in 5th grade telling my friends that I was so scared of the Holocaust that had happened in Germany in the 1940s. I told them that it gave me nightmares. They didn’t know what the Holocaust was. I had seen many World War II films with my father as a kid, many of them surrounding the conflicts in Europe at the time. I believe that I was in 4th grade when I saw the movie Schindler’s List. My parents thought it would be too graphic and scary for someone my age, but I persisted and made them let me watch it. I only remember bits and pieces of the film as I saw it so many years ago. As a kid, I remember that what confused me most was why the Germans tattooed and shaved all the Jewish people. I didn’t understand what it meant or how significant it was. I just knew that it made me very uncomfortable. When I found out that a course was offered in the high school that would allow me to dig deeper into the history of the Holocaust, I didn’t hesitate to sign up for it. I knew it would be scary and I knew I’d leave the class feeling sick to my stomach, but I knew I needed to take it. I wanted to know why a Holocaust was possible and how people could be immune to killing and torturing other human beings. It didn’t ever make sense to me, and I’m not entirely convinced that it ever really will.
In Facing History and Ourselves, I believe that our ultimate goal was to learn why a Holocaust could happen and to try to picture our self in situations such as the ones portrayed in the various films that we watched. We need to understand how the Nazis were thinking and how they felt in order to understand why they did this. If I were in Germany in the 1940s and I happened to be of Aryan race, I’d probably be feeling like a needed a scapegoat for my problems and the idea of blaming others would seem promising. The idea I can’t wrap my head around is the extermination of almost an entire race of people just because they were thought to be the source of all issues surrounding Germany. Killing is no way to solve problems especially if their only crime was being Jewish, gypsy, homosexual, mentally disabled, mentally ill, physically disabled, etc. This class will change you and change the way you see things. You will not be the same person after you leave if you go into it willing to learn and grow.
Part 2
Our class mainly consisted of films and documents that allowed us to see various perspectives of Nazism and the Jewish question. We’ve seen everything from the perspective of Nazis to Jewish inmates, each of whom had very influential decisions to make that would affect their futures and how we as viewers saw them. There were definitely a few that struck me in ways that I cannot explain. Many days I found myself leaving class having cried halfway through it. One film that I found particularly inspirational was Uprising. This movie documented the story of many Jews of the Warsaw ghetto fighting back in retaliation against the Nazis that were confining them to the small, overpopulated area. This film showed just how strong and independent the Jewish population could be. I’ve never seen a film about the Holocaust that has shown the Jews as a people that were actively fighting back against their oppression. They created an underground society in which they stocked up smuggled weapons and ammunition and learned how to defend themselves with weapons despite their constant abuse and confinement by Nazi troops and officials. They showed that some Jews could pass for Aryans and that if the Nazis were just separating people based on appearance, many “Aryans” would be in ghettos and concentration camps. It showed the bravery of a variety of Jews that risked their lives disguised as Aryans in order to help save and prolong the lives of many of their people. It was also so important to me that this was based off of a true story. I found it so empowering to know that not everyone backed down to the Nazis and that some Aryan people were willing to help the Jews even if they were risking their lives too. It showed the strength of these people in their multi-month battle against the Nazis from inside the ghetto. I remember seeing men and women throwing grenades and firing shots from windows. At one point in the film, they were distributing weapons and a man with glasses came up to ask for ammunition for his gun and he received a couple of bullets but not as many as he wanted and claimed he wouldn’t miss a shot. He kept true to his word and shocked many people and was rewarded with more ammunition the next time they surprised the Nazi troops. The instance when the Nazis found multiple women around a pile of rubble and ordered them to strip was particularly empowering. As they began to remove their clothes, they ambushed the Nazis with weapons and guns and began to fire upon them. Not only did they show the power of the Jews but also the power of women during an era where they were still discriminated against. This film, although very sad and at times horrifying, left me feeling more content than any of the other films because their was a sense of wholesomeness to the film in general and a sense of community built on the retaliation of the Jewish people.
Part 3
Another influential film that we watched in FHAO was called Swing Kids. This was one of the first feature films that we had seen in the class. This film was from the perspective of a German Aryan boy who was being forced to join the Hitler Youth after participating in illicit activities in Nazi Germany. He was a swing kid that enjoyed American/Western pop culture including swing music and dancing, which was heavily discouraged in Nazi Germany. It was highly encouraged to be listening to government approved musical styles that proclaimed Germany’s greatness and political power. These kids tried to defy the rules that tried to tie them down. One by one, these kids were taken in by the HJ and forced to conform to the Nazis standards. At first many of them resisted, but eventually they essentially became brainwashed by the Nazi officials and were coerced into believing everything that the HJ was teaching them was true. The main character was resisting conformity as much as he could without drawing too much attention to himself. It was difficult watching some of his friends adapt to the Nazi ideals and turning into monsters themselves. They went from fun spirited teenagers to turning their parents into the SS. The transformation was very frightening and also very quick for some. I was surprised at how quickly some of them ended up conforming to the Nazi prospect. This film really portrayed the power of persuasion and how it can influence people in different ways. It showed how the Nazis affected Aryan German society and the influences they had over Germany’s youth. If you are taught to believe something at a young age, you are bound to continue believing in it up until adulthood. As the main character tried to convince his other HJ friend that what they were learning was wrong, he began to question it himself. He couldn’t tell whether what he was doing was right or wrong anymore. This confliction was probably very common among teens in Nazi Germany yet probably little known because of the potential consequences of questioning the government during this totalitarian era.
Part 4
While watching The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, it got me in touch with my youthfulness more than I had been in a very long time. In watching this film, you experience the Nazis solution to the Jewish question through the eyes of an eight-year-old Aryan boy whose father was a high-ranking Nazi official. It portrayed innocence in the most precious of ways. Bruno was a young boy living in Berlin under the care of a nanny and his parents who were both part of the Nazi Party. Eventually as his father is stationed at Auschwitz, he and his 12-year-old sister must move to a house that is in an area that surrounds the concentration camp and start new lives and make new friends. Bruno aspires to be an adventurer, yet when he is told not to venture out into the backyard, he manages to stumble upon some farmers in striped pajamas, who turn out to be male Jewish prisoners at Auschwitz concentration camp. All while being subjected to the Nazi propaganda in his own home from his own father, Bruno befriends a boy on the other side of the fence named Schmuel. He is unable to make new friends near Auschwitz because he is homeschooled and becomes Schmuel’s best friend although the two cannot play together because of the electric fence made of barbed wire that separates the two of them. Bruno doesn’t understand how such a nice boy like Schmuel is stuck in a place for bad people. He has been conviced that the Jews have gone to a camp that allow them to live in peace and prosperity, but the reality is far from that when Bruno and Schmuel both end up inside the confines of the camp as the two look for Schmuel’s father who’s been missing for a few days (This implies that he has been killed). As the boys venture into the camp to try to find Schmuel’s dad, they are rounded up into a group of men that are being led to the gas chambers and are most surely destined for death. Bruno and Schmuel are forced to underdress and are told they are being given a shower. Bruno believes that this is harmless and makes his way into the shower with Schmuel and the two hold hands as the men realize what is going to happen to them and the room goes dark. The boys are obviously killed and it shows Bruno’s parents mourning his death as they realize that it happens. This film was so powerful to me because it just proved that nobody is born evil with hate in their heart and that no matter how different people are, they can learn to work together and be tolerant and friendly toward one another. Bruno treated Schmuel like every other friend he had even once he learned that Schmuel was Jewish. Bruno knew that he and Schmuel were supposed to be enemies but was hesitant to let that influence him and his friendship with him. They found hope in each other and allowed each other to be happy even in times of misery. Bruno found escape from his Nazi parents in Schmuel and Schmuel was able to see light in the world as Bruno, a German bred Aryan saw good in him and treated him like a human being. The two boys were able to coexist and become like brothers by the end of the film. Although Bruno was hesitant to enter the concentration camp after he began to see its conditions, he still persevered on with Schmuel despite these dangers. I’d like to think that Bruno would’ve still chosen to help Schmuel whether he knew what was coming or not. This boy’s actions spoke so loudly within me because he was able to see through the Nazi propaganda that held so many people back during this era. He did not know the extent to which his actions were virtuous. He was a kind soul among many that were corrupted in this era of Nazi rule.
Part 5
Facelessness was such a peculiar film to watch and experience. It was a curious display of the horrors faced by so many in the concentration camps. It had a ghostly and haunting tone to it. It followed the time in a camp of a young teenage boy. The film was shown in small influential segments. Each was significant in its own way. They were specific moments of the boy’s life in the camp. The story was fragmented in that way. It made sense to chop up the footage as they did because it showed just how hopeless and segmented the live of Jewish inmates were. They didn’t know what the next day held in store for them, whether they would live or die, or how they would be treated. This boy’s deterioration was captured so vividly that this film gave me chills. It showed him toward the beginning as being somewhat strong and later at the end showed him lying bare on a cart being hauled off to an infirmary after the camp was liberated. Those few powerful scenes that we were shown made the experience of watching the film even more powerful. This boy would’ve been around my age and to see how he went through this makes me wonder if I were to ever be as strong and willful as he was. I honestly don’t think that I would make it as far as many of the characters in these films did. I tend to think of myself as very optimistic and open-minded, but after seeing the trauma, horror, and torture that many of these people endured for years, I don’t have a doubt in my mind that I would’ve been dead. The horrors that were so expertly depicted were enough to make my skin crawl and my stomach weak. These people were forever changed because of this terrifying event. They will never have been the same.
Part 7
I believe what’s scared me the most out of the entire class was watching the aftermath footage shot by the American and British troops after liberating many of the more western concentration camps. I can’t erase the images that I’ve seen. They won’t leave my mind and I can’t really tell whether that’s a good thing or a bad thing. Watching the bodies pile up and seeing bulldozers push bodies into mass graves was one of the most gruesome and horrible things that I’ve ever witnessed. The only time that I’ve ever seen a dead body was at my uncle’s funeral two years ago because it was an open casket. I cried at the sight of it. I’d never seen someone go from living and animated to stone cold and immobile. When I first saw him it was from afar and I did not want to get any closer. I couldn’t bear to see the sight of my uncle’s lifeless body and watching the thousands upon thousands of bodies being stacked and tossed aside made me want to vomit. I felt physically ill after watching this. I never ended up eating lunch that day. The mangled physique of most of the victims of these camps is too horrible to forget. They no longer looked like humans and I believe it was because they weren’t treated as such. The wounds, punctures, scars, and other marks left upon the victims were indescribable. The ones who survived were so malnourished that you could see every bone and muscle in their body. Most of them seemed to have lost the life in their eyes. They are living witnesses of the mass murder of 13 million people. They know what happened and they know exactly what was done to them. They will never forget what happened. I will never forget what happened.
Part 8
This essay has been very difficult for me to write. I have been thinking back to everything that we have done in this class, everything that we have learned, and everything that we have seen and I can honestly say that I have never had a class quite like this. No class has ever made me think so much and made me want to cry more than this one. I know that I will never forget all that I’ve seen. It was very hard for me to finish this essay because I didn’t want to think about this anymore because it’s so painful. I couldn’t stop myself from crying every single time I thought about the footage from the camps. I hear the young Hungarian girl’s voice as I think back to The Grey Zone. I sympathize with the boy from Facelessness as he steals food from his dying bunkmate. I understand the urge to conform that the boys from Swing Kids have. I understand the innocence of Bruno and Schmuel’s friendship in The Boy in the Striped Pajamas. As much as I’d like to forget and un-see everything that I’ve witnessed, it’s important that I did and that I always remember. It’s important that everyone remembers. I’m not the same person as I was when I first entered the classroom that first day. I believe that I am truly learning to face our world’s history.
The part of the class that had the largest impact on me was the last half when it got into the Concentration Camps and actual footage of how the Jews were treated. Reflecting on this is very hard because the footage was so heartbreaking and disturbing. I didn’t know that the Nazi’s kept up the act that they were not going to be killed and played happy music in the background when they were entering the gas chambers. The Nazi’s told the Jews they were taking showers and then loaded them into a room that looked like a big shower but instead of water gas came out and they were all killed. The gas chambers were horrific and there would be blood, vomit and organs on the floor after all the Jews died so the Nazi’s hosed down the chamber then let in the next group. The idea of making a killing factory seems absolutely crazy and words cannot describe the awful, horrific scenes we watched in class. The piles of bodies being pushed into ditches and thrown into pits was awful and will never leave my mind. The saddest part for me is that The Holocaust could have been prevented if one person stood up and questioned Hitler’s authority and did what was right. Watching “The Boy in the Striped Pajamas” was another film that really made me think about the anti semitic attitudes. Looking back on that movie I realized that Bruno got along perfectly with Shmoop which proves that you are not born with racist thoughts or hatred towards any other group its all taught. There was no difference between Bruno or Schmoop and if only his parents could see that then maybe they could have stood up and helped Schmoop and his family.
Facing History has taught me a lot about The Holocaust but more about myself. Facing History taught me what happens when you become a bystander and what happens when you don’t stand up for what is right. However it also taught me what it means to be a good person. Before taking this class I had a pretty good moral compass but Facing History has taken it to the next level. Treating other people how you want to be treated isn’t an option its a priority. Regardless of race, gender, sexuality, religion, hair color, eye color- we are all the same and everyone is equal. The moment that one group or person tried to tell you otherwise is the moment you need to stand up and set them straight. Humans are humans and you always need to help others and do what is right. Within Westborough High School there are many cliques and tons of pointless drama that nobody will remember within a year but, your clique and the stereotypes associated with that clique do not define you. The only thing that defines you is you and your choices. On one of the first days of class you played a song for us “Human” by the Killers. “Are we human or are we dancers?” At first I really didn’t understand what you meant when you played this. But looking back on this song It was really a creative way of previewing the class and easing us into the journey we were about to take. Are we human? Or our we pawns of someone else’s game? Are we making good choices? Or are we following someone else’s orders. When I go off to college next fall and look back at my high school career, Facing History will definitely be one of the classes I remember and will be thankful for. As many times as this class made me cry or want to scream or nauseous I am very thankful for this class. Not only did I get to learn about major World History events I had no knowledge about, I also learned a lot about myself and what it really means to be a good person.
Another part of the course I found particularly interesting was the Civil Rights Movement in America and particularly The Children’s March. I connected to this unit more than any other one because I am half black so I felt like the people in the film were my ancestors. The film we watched about The Children’s March was so inspiring and uplifting despite the subject matter because it showed the blacks coming together and standing up for equal rights. The black children of Birmingham were so brave and inspiring and used peace to fight for their rights. I also thought it was very cool how they sang African American Folk Songs and jail and really used music to stay strong in the worst of times. One image from the film that stuck with me was when the white police officers were spraying the little children with firetruck hoses. It looked so painful and the children looked absolutely terrified. I really enjoyed this unit because it really showed how persistent and strong the blacks were.
“The Bear That Wasn’t” was a great book we read in class. The One thing I love about this book was the strong message its leaves the reader with: always be true to yourself. We live in a world where authority, media, peers and friends strongly influence our decisions and choices. As a result, we do anything to fit in and try to fit into the mold of a “normal” person. However the story illustrates the damage that this can do. My musical theatre career has made me realize that being an individual is very important and if you don't know who you are and aren’t comfortable in your own body it is very hard to be successful. I believe that the root of making good decisions and being a good human being is being yourself and having a strong sense of your own identity. Through mistakes, failures, and tough situations you find yourself and come out as a better person.
As the course progress we started talking about the Holocaust and I had always wondered what America was doing and how they let the Holocaust happen. My questions were all answered when we watched “America and The Holocaust.” I was horrified by the lack of involvement that the U.S. had in the Holocaust and really embarrassed to be American. One fact I remembered from that movie was that 53% of Americans believed that Jews should be restricted against and segregated. The immigration laws American legislatures wrote were just another way to stop Jews from coming to America and it's really sad. The Jews just needed someone to help them out and Americans did not do that at all. America was a bystander and looking back on that it is very embarrassing and heartbreaking.
The class started off with many class discussions and this was my favorite part of the course. Each day we would get into different groups read different passages and discuss. There was one time where we were in random groups and I was with four juniors who I had never talked to before and we had to make a list of similarities between us. At first,I thought that it would be really awkward and we would have nothing in common because we were all from different cliques and wouldn’t normally associate together, however we ended up having so much in common. At first this really didn’t mean much but looking back on that moment, it showed me how even though you may think you have nothing in common with someone you really do. If the Nazi’s thought about this in Auschuetz and realized that Jewish people and German people were the same on the inside and Jewish people had emotions and were humans then Holocaust would have never happened. Regardless of your clique, religion, gender, or sexuality at the end of the day we are all humans and really all the same. Every small group discussion I would have I would bond and talk with new people. This gave me the chance to get to know other students in a new environment and on a different level, outside of the Westborough High School cliques. I wish we did more small group discussions after the films and readings because I really enjoyed them and I wish that continued throughout the course.
One specific lesson that I really enjoyed was the Miss Elliot segment from “A Class Divided.” This short film showed a two day experiment a kindergarten teacher performed on one of her classes. The first day Mrs Elliot divided the class by eye color: the brown eyes and the blue eyes. She told the eight year olds that the blue eyed students were better, smarter and prettier than the brown eyed students and gave the blue eyed students special privileges like a longer lunch period. The brown eyed students had to wear collars and were treated very poorly. After only one day of this the blue eyed students truly transformed into little monsters. They did not talk to the brown eyed students, and didn’t defend them when Mrs Elliot told them they were stupid and would never be as smart as the blue eyed students. However, the next day the roles were reversed and the blue eyed students had to wear the collar and the brown eyed students were the elites. It was crazy how quickly the brown eyed student turned on the blue eye students and treated them poorly after just being in their position. Mrs. Elliot did not tell them that they were supposed to be mean to the other students however the students were very mean and took the rules to a whole new level. Although this experiment was very controversial I believe that the ends really justified the means because through one two day experiment we learned what humans will do to each other when there are no punishments for their behavior and they do not question authority. I was really surprised that the brown eyed students passed their collars to the blue eyed students the second day when they all knew how awful it was have a collar. Even if the brown eyed students had friends who were blue eyed students they didn’t care as long as they didn’t have a collar. Mrs Elliot really taught those kids a life long lesson, not only treat others how you want to be treated but also stand up and say something when people are being mean and doing something that isnt right.
What Facing History and Ourselves Meant To Me”
What does Facing History and Ourselves mean to me? To answer this question, first I must explain why I took this class. Westborough High School has such an amazing history wing and after taking Mr O'brien's History class junior year I knew I wanted to take as many history classes as I could senior year. I signed up for Legal Studies, Sociology, Psychology, and Facing History and ended up getting into all expect Sociology. I heard many things about Facing History from around Westborough High School but the most important thing I heard was that it was a “must take” class. Facing History will make you think about all your decisions and really think about what it means to be a good human and train you to make good decisions and choices. Through passages, class discussions, specific lessons, films and documentaries you travel through history and study horrific, inhumane events so that you can understand the past and learn from it, so it doesn’t repeat itself. This class benefitted me as as a student and as a person because it taught me how to make good decisions, really think about what I'm doing and to always question authority. One lesson I learned as a little girl was to always treat others how you want to be treated and this class really supported this idea and shows you what can happen when you don’t.
What Facing History and Ourselves Meant To Me”
What does Facing History and Ourselves mean to me? To answer this question, first I must explain why I took this class. Westborough High School has such an amazing history wing and after taking Mr O'brien's History class junior year I knew I wanted to take as many history classes as I could senior year. I signed up for Legal Studies, Sociology, Psychology, and Facing History and ended up getting into all expect Sociology. I heard many things about Facing History from around Westborough High School but the most important thing I heard was that it was a “must take” class. Facing History will make you think about all your decisions and really think about what it means to be a good human and train you to make good decisions and choices. Through passages, class discussions, specific lessons, films and documentaries you travel through history and study horrific, inhumane events so that you can understand the past and learn from it, so it doesn’t repeat itself. This class benefitted me as as a student and as a person because it taught me how to make good decisions, really think about what I'm doing and to always question authority. One lesson I learned as a little girl was to always treat others how you want to be treated and this class really supported this idea and shows you what can happen when you don’t.
What Facing History and Ourselves Meant To Me”
What does Facing History and Ourselves mean to me? To answer this question, first I must explain why I took this class. Westborough High School has such an amazing history wing and after taking Mr O'brien's History class junior year I knew I wanted to take as many history classes as I could senior year. I signed up for Legal Studies, Sociology, Psychology, and Facing History and ended up getting into all expect Sociology. I heard many things about Facing History from around Westborough High School but the most important thing I heard was that it was a “must take” class. Facing History will make you think about all your decisions and really think about what it means to be a good human and train you to make good decisions and choices. Through passages, class discussions, specific lessons, films and documentaries you travel through history and study horrific, inhumane events so that you can understand the past and learn from it, so it doesn’t repeat itself. This class benefitted me as as a student and as a person because it taught me how to make good decisions, really think about what I'm doing and to always question authority. One lesson I learned as a little girl was to always treat others how you want to be treated and this class really supported this idea and shows you what can happen when you don’t.
I’m going over here, but I also really wanted to talk about The Boy in the Striped Pajamas. This definitely affected me the most and was really telling of the times. I never knew that there were Germans who didn’t know what was happening at the Nazi Concentration Camps. It is very naïve for me to think this way but I was legitimately clueless. It was poignant that the boy upon exploration of the new home made friends with a boy that worked in a
concentration camp. I thought it was brave for him to help the boy find is dad, but it shows that people that had access to the camp didn’t know exactly what was happening. My mother also displayed that she didn’t know what her own husband was doing and why they moved. I wish that the boy didn’t die at the end but it was very important to show the utter lack of knowledge that people have. People were oblivious and I always thought “why didn’t anyone ever do anything about it?” Now, after this class I understand that only people that were in charge and were actually in the camps were able to know what was going on.
In conclusion the Facing History and Ourselves Course has affected me in many ways. I am no longer a bystander or a victim and there is really no better way to learn to change. This class has also opened my eyes to the real events of the Holocaust and German cruelty.
The next film that hit home for me was Hotel Rwanda. I thought hotel Rwanda was a fantastic movie. It really spoke to the social issues of violence. I think it was interesting that the
main character appealed to the humanity of the aggressors which worked greatly in his favor. This comes to show that that there is power in everyone to fight back and retaliate on what you believe is the right thing to too. Something else I thought was interesting was the fact that persistence helps to win battles. If you are not persistent, then nothing is going to be done about a certain situation.
Another film that was inspiring and motivational was the Freedom Writers. I really liked this movie because it showed such a different kind of classroom experience that we are not used to as students. I thought what Mrs. G was doing was so inspirational and incredibly brave. Even though the board of education wasn't supporting her, she knew what she had to do, and she really enjoyed making a difference in the lives of others. The fact that she ended up choosing her work over her husband showed just how dedicated she was, along with all of the other jobs she had. She put aside any personal struggles she may have had, all to make sure that her class knew who they were and knew that she was there for them. I think a constant message seen throughout this movie is the importance of doing what is right. That was something she had learned in her life, and it was something she passed down and taught to her students. It’s also inspirational in a sense that the kids who were in the class and weren’t used to people that really genuinely cared about their education. The odds most definitely weren’t in their favor and it was good that when the students started to make an effort, they got results.
The third film that stuck with me goes along with the message that the Bear that Wasn’t conveyed as well as the topic mentioned above. This film was the experiment Mrs. Elliot did to show young white kids the influence of authority. I thought what Mrs. Elliot did was truly amazing. The thought she would even think of something like dividing people based on eye color is very creative. It also surprises me that people would actually believe that a person with different eye color is better than people with a different eye color. What I found amazing was that the adults changed on others faster than the third graders did! I can't believe the speed of such a rapid change. It was also sad watching the kids be mean to eachother. The adults on the other hand was very hard to watch. Mrs. Elliot did a great job providing people that have never experienced being part of a minority the opportunity to feel what it is like to be discriminated against. The people that were discriminated against were put in a very unusual position and all of them were very uncomfortable and eventually changed by the experience. Being part of the minority helped them realize that judging people for possessing a different quality is completely unfair and immoral. Mrs. Elliot taught both the 3rd graders and the adults a lesson that they will keep with them for the rest of their lives.
The next film I would like to talk about is the Swing Kids. I thought it was interesting seeing a perspective other than the Jews that were victims. It was truly inspiring to me because the kids that revolted were closer in age to us than adults or super young kids. It also motivated me to try and make a difference in my community by standing up for people who are being mistreated by kids and people in society today. The Swing Kids really gave the feel to what life was like for all different types of people in Nazi Germany in the beginning of World War two. I still can't imagine what I would do in the same situation. I just had a question, did all the kids who opposed the Nazis like swing music? I also think it was interesting how quick regular people turned into Nazis and how easy it was also. It makes you question humans psyche. I thought it was funny how the main character loved swing music but couldn't dance, that added humor in a time (the time period of the movie) was much needed. I also didn't expect the crippled kid to kill himself; that was a big surprise to me. I feel that when we have learned about the violence of the Nazis in past years it has mostly been about the harm that they did to the Jews. We never went into detail as to what people who lived in Germany who rejected the Nazis went through. I learned more about the pressure that the kids had to go through if they wanted to suppress the Nazis and even what they adults had to go through. It further magnified the danger of resisting the Nazis and the how brave the people who did resist were. They risked their lives and were tormented and suffered so much. Their families were torn apart and their friendships were ruined. It was devastating. I feel like the most important message from the film is that no matter what pressures you are under you have to find the strength to overcome them, to stay true to yourself, and to do the right thing.
An example of a minor situation was in “The Bear that Wasn’t”. Everyone he encountered said that he wasn’t a bear but a man that needed a good shave. I'm going to be honest, it was really frustrating to read the story because we as readers knew the main character was a bear and everyone he spoke to said no you're a man that needs a good shave. It's interesting how much this book makes you think about yourself and how you act in groups or just in different environments all together. It brings to light that everyone does it, but you have the power to develop your own personality. It also mentions that you could either go with what everyone is saying or fight back and say "No, I am a bear." unfortunately the bear started strong and his strength deteriorated completely and started to believe the lie. This also helps me to understand why so many people, in a short amount of time truly believed that the Jews were the cause for the Great Depression and many other shortcomings in Germany.
Another film that stuck with me was Sophie’s choice. This little clip from the movie showed that the Nazis were unnecessarily brutal. A polish mother was told that she had to give up one of her children whether it was the boy or the girl that looked very young. This was an incredibly cruel decision for someone to make, especially a mother. It also made me think of the Nazis as machines rather than real people that breathed and had a heart. Again, this brings me
back to the “Bear that Wasn’t” because the Nazis were easily influenced by an authoritative leader. I think it’s an interesting point that when a person of importance in society, like Adolf Hitler or even anyone, that calls upon a person to carry out a duty that is viewed as important, those people feel like a part of something. It is human nature to want to feel welcomed and included. Especially because of the struggles in Europe at the time, it was easy to cling on to an idea that is supposedly going to lift Germany from the Great Depression as well as economic crisis.
The Facing History and Ourselves course has affected me as a student and a person. Before taking this course, I thought of myself as a victim. I was weak and didn’t stand up for what was right as often as I should’ve been. After, I thought that people who don’t deserve to be treated badly are and that there needs to be someone that stands up for them. I became that person. Not on a big scale, but on a small scale where all problems start and there is potential for those situations to escalate when there is nothing being done early on. I also learned that if you do encounter difficulties in any aspect of life, whether it be school or something that happens at
home, there is always a solution, but only acting upon those difficulties will solve the problem and prevent other disputes later on. I also had a little bit of background information even before this year and before I read that book over the summer. Although I had background, I still didn’t know exactly what the event, the Holocaust, entailed. I saw the memorial in Boston and knew only of the gassing. I was not aware of the events that occurred in the death camps or the torture the Germans practiced on Jews. Through this class, I transformed from a naïve bystander to an informed member of society.
Abby Chuma
Mr. Gallagher
Facing History and Ourselves period 4
May 18, 2014
What Facing History and Ourselves Meant to Me
I’m Abby Chuma and I took the Facing History and Ourselves course at Westborough High School with Mr. Gallagher as a teacher. I took this course for many reasons. I’m going to be honest, I did take it because I thought it was an easy A, but I don’t have that for a grade so there are other reasons I took it. Another is because World War Two is very fascinating to me as a student and I love learning of the events of the war. It was also perfect timing because in my history class we were simultaneously learning of the events of the war therefore, I had background knowledge. My interest starts with the basic fact of the hatred of the Jews by the whole world, most importantly including the Germans. It would be interesting to look at this through psychology and also through different perspectives, which the class did offer. I also heard that there were very interesting documentaries and movie films that I would see through the course. All of the documentaries mainly focused on the German perspective and showed how awfully they treated the Jews. The films looked and both perspectives (Jew and Germans). Both were obviously very different. Some things about myself are that as mentioned above, history, specifically war periods, fascinate me. My favorite genre of reading is historical fiction because of this. I’ve read books on many different time periods for history and enjoyment. My interest in World War Two started with a book I read over the summer called “The Storyteller” by Jodi Picoult. It was a really good book that was historical fiction and was a fantastic story. It was about a girl who worked at a bakery with a scar on her face. She and her grandmother were Jewish, but her grandmother was a prisoner at Auschwitz. This girl met a Nazi at the camp and
met with a Nazi hunter to prove that this man truly was a Nazi. The plot of the story was a bunch of stories told by the grandmother and the Nazi. Both told awful stories that were very hard to read at times. Honestly, I cried many times while reading the book, so I was nervous to see things that I would see taking Facing History. Something else about myself is that I’m part of two loving families. I live with both equally (the schedule is very confusing). I have a stepmom, a stepdad, a mother and father, and 3 siblings: a twin, a bother who’s a senior, and a seven year old sister. My family, as a result, is very large and I enjoy spending time with each family member. Family functions are very interesting. My stepmom, last February break, was diagnosed with leukemia, so that was very hard to deal with. For a month, we lived with our mom while my father traveled back and forth between Boston and Westborough to be able to see us once a week. One last thing about myself is that I’m a people person and I love animals. I’ve never had a problem talking to people and that has helped me a lot throughout my life, such as being able to make friends easily and it helps with having really close relationships especially with my family. I probably love animals because I’ve never not had a pet. I’ve had 3 of the same breed of dog, a Samoyed, and I’ve had three cats. It’s strange going to my dad’s house because he doesn’t have any pets and they’re (my pets) so much fun!
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Holocaust and my hatred and disgust for violence and injustice kept growing and growing. We watched a movie called the Warsaw Uprising which was about the Jewish uprising against the Nazis in the Warsaw ghetto. What surprised me most about this film was the Jewish resistance. All my life I thought that the Jews succumbed to the Nazis and did not revolt at all. I was surprised to learn that they did indeed rise up against the Nazis in any way they could and most never gave up and fought until death. We also watched the film The Boy in the Striped Pajamas. This film was about a German family where the husband was a high ranking official in the army. The family moved from Berlin to another area of Germany. They lived not too far from a concentration camp were Jews were performing forced labor and being gassed to death. The movie ends with the army generals son sneaking into the camp to help a friend that he made there find his father. The army generals son ends up being taken into the gas chamber and is gassed to death along with the rest of the Jews. This movie really struck me because it really shows how no one is different than anyone and it puts the Germans in the place of the Jews and shows them how the Jews felt. A few days ago, we were shown actual raw footage of the Nazi death camps that were liberated by the allies. These videos made me sick to my stomach and really fueled my anger. Seeing the vast amount of dead bodies being moved around like trash really made my blood boil. This raw footage, along with all of the other documentaries and films we watched throughout the course, made me develop a hatred for these people unlike any hatred I have had before. I am really thrown back and cannot believe how a group of powerful people could kill so many innocent victims with the support of an entire nation and not have any remorse about it. I also cannot believe that even though they knew exactly what they were supporting and the extent it was being carried out at, they still continued to fuel this death machine known as the Nazi government.
Although this course really made me develop a better understanding of the Holocaust and a deep hatred for the Nazis and anyone who supported them, it also made me realize that events like the Holocaust are still occurring in our world today. The crimes that the Israelis commit against the Palestinians are in no way different than what the Nazis did to the Jews in the Holocaust. Israelis continue to use illegal chemical weapons, like white phosphorus, on innocent Palestinians in attempts to completely eliminate the Palestinian people so they can continue to occupy the land they stole from them. The Israelis also use other tactics similar to what the Nazis used against the Jews, like cutting off water and gas supplies to the Gaza Strip, the most densely populated area in the entire world. The actions that the Israelis are committing against the Palestinians are in no way justifiable and I am truly disgusted that given past world events, like the Holocaust, something like this is still occurring. This course really opened up my eyes to current events like the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and made me realize that even though the Holocaust was stopped and is over, we as humans still have not changed.
I feel like by the end of this course, I truly am a completely different person. I am cautious about what I say to others and always think twice about everything. I always look at both sides to every story, even when I am confident with my opinion. I am less judgmental now and will never judge a single person until I am completely perfect myself. I also realized that in order to change anything in society, you must start off by changing yourself first. This course had a huge impact on my life and I can only wish that everyone in the world could experience it so that we can see true change and put an end to the tragedies and wars occurring today. This is how the course Facing History and Ourselves truly changed me as a human being and impacted my life in many ways.
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do not really like assigned seating and I was seated in the middle row which is my least favorite seat in the class. I remember after that Mr. Gallagher began speaking about the course and what it was all about. Mr. Gallagher kept mentioning how every single one of us would walk out of that class with a completely different mindset than when we first started out. One thing that struck me most was how seriously Mr. Gallagher took the course. Mr. Gallagher’s seriousness and dedication really inspired me, especially since Mr. Gallagher did not have to be there but instead chose to be there. I also remember that a lot of former students would mention the Holocaust when they talked about this course. I was a little surprised when we first started off this course that we did not immediately learn about the Holocaust. Instead, we learned about other tragic events that occurred before or after the Holocaust and how they were similar in certain ways. An example of one of these events is the civil rights movement and the treatments of blacks in the United States of America. Mr. Gallagher would always compare these events and the people behind them to the Nazis. Mr. Gallagher made me see many of these events in a whole different light.
In the course, Facing History and Ourselves, we watch many documentaries in order to learn about various events and topics. One of the videos that struck me most was ‘A Class Divided.’ I remember being amazed at how quickly you could convince someone that they were better than someone else. I was also amazed at how it is in human nature to crave belonging to a certain group and being a part of something. The documentary, ‘A Class Divided,’ did a really good job at showing this part of human nature. It also showed how the reason racism existed in America is because Americans were taught from a young age that they were superior to the blacks and that the blacks were no better than trash. This documentary proves that if any real change wants to be achieved in any society, you must begin with the youth. The documentary makes it evident that the youth has the most power in changing the way things are. I remember directly after watching this documentary, Mr. Gallagher began speaking about bullying. There was one quote that really struck me and stuck with me. Although not his exact words, he said something along the lines of people in today’s society who gossip and bully others are really no different than the Nazis because they are judging people for the sole reason of the being different than them. When Mr. Gallagher said this, it really put things into perspective for me and made me reevaluate a lot of my actions in life.
After learning about many other events that were similar to the Holocaust in some ways, we finally began learning about Germany, Nazis, World War II, and the Holocaust. Mr. Gallagher introduced this section to us by showing us many Nazi propaganda films. We were also shown videos of how the Jews were treated in Germany during the time of the Nazis and what the general attitude of the German people towards Jews was at the time. These videos really struck me as interesting. I found it absolutely amazing how group of people could be this hateful and disgusting and think of themselves as superior than another group of people. I have always known about the Holocaust before taking the course but watching these videos gave me a completely different look and opinion on the Holocaust. What I really enjoyed most about Mr. Gallagher’s style of teaching was that he did not give us a biased opinion on anything. Mr. Gallagher taught us to always look at both sides of the story and always showed us both sides when it came to the Nazis and the Holocaust. Mr. Gallagher showed us both videos from the German and Jewish point of view. I really enjoyed this because it not only helps us better understand the situation and what was going on but also gives you a better idea of who the criminals and who the victims were in this situation. We continued watching videos about the
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What Facing History and Ourselves Meant to Me
My name is Mohamad Alnaal. I moved to Westborough in fourth grade and am currently a senior at Westborough High School. As a senior at Westborough High School, you get a lot more freedom in the courses you choose to take. With my future plans of hopefully becoming a doctor, I chose to take all of my required math and science courses and make them my priority. After doing this, I was left with a wide range of options to fill in the rest of my schedule. While fulfilling all of my required courses, like English and Gym, I was also allowed to choose from a wide variety of options for. I chose to take Sociology and Psychology because those were two subjects I took interest in. Originally, I wanted to take the Current Events course because that is a something that I take interest in. I was pretty certain that this would be the history course I would take for one semester but then remembered Facing History and Ourselves. I remember Mr. Cullen talking about the course all the time in my junior year history class. He didn’t get into too much of the details about the course but gave a quick overview. He mentioned that the class teaches you about the Holocaust and all the events that led up to it. He, as well as many seniors from that year, really recommended this course to me. I never got a single bad review about this course. All of the positive reviews really influenced my decision and I finally decided to take the Facing History and Ourselves course.
As many people know, senior year in high school is known as a year that is pretty relaxed and laid back. Keeping my work load at a minimum was something I really kept in mind when choosing my courses for my senior year. When former seniors would talk about this course, they would always mention the workload. Former students of this class would always tell me that it was a great course because there were no quizzes or tests, no homework was assigned, and all you had to do was listen carefully, watch the movies, and post on the blog. They also mentioned that the majority of learning was done through watching movies. This really attracted me to the course because I am a very visual learner and watching movies really helps me understand the topic I am learning about much better. With a laid back yet productive senior year in mind, I decided to sign up for the course and make Facing History and Ourselves one of my electives for the year.
When I got my schedule for my senior year, Facing History and Ourselves was my fourth period class in my second semester. Facing History and Ourselves replaced my Virtual High School class that I took fourth period in my first semester of the year. I thought this was perfect because based on everyone’s review on this course, this class seemed to be pretty laid back and most people know that ‘senioritis’ really kicks in second semester of senior year. I remember the first day of the class and how it was pretty much like any other first day of any other class. I was happy to know that I had a lot of people I knew in that class and so I proceeded to seating myself near all of them. We then got assigned our seats and I remember being a little bothered because I
bet they wouldn’t of guessed that they would have been rounded up and killed if they wore the star, so they just put it on.
During the course, we saw actual footage of the death camps. The footage showed what was in the death camps that the Americans, British and French liberated. The footage that we saw was shown during the trials of the head Nazis after the war. The footage was shocking to see. In my opinion, it was really weird too see all the dead bodies. In movies you will see a bunch of dead bodies lying around, but you always think that it’s fake and you don’t think anything of it. But to see actual real footage of it, it is really shocking to see. There were piles and piles of dead bodies, and people that were still alive were so skinny they literally looked like skeletons. It was really powerful to actual see what was going on in the death camps. At one camp, the Nazis made a lamp shade out of human skin. They also took sheets of human skin and drew pictures on it. I knew that the Nazis killed Jews and buried them, but to do that is just on another level. To me, that is like a serial killer, psycho, type of killing.
This course had an impact on me that I feel will last with me for the rest of my life. I hear people make holocaust jokes and Jew jokes, and I never really stopped people from saying it, or thought anything of it, because it’s just a joke. But after taking this course, it really opened my eyes. For example, I was watching a TV show called Family Guy, and one of the kids was going down the hallway and saying peoples’ names. He goes to this one kid and says “Nazi guy” as if the ‘Nazi guy’ was cool. Before taking this class, I never really though anything of that joke. I knew it was a little mean, but it was whatever at the same time. After taking this course, I saw that episode and when that joke was said I just cringed. It wasn’t cool at all to say that the ‘Nazi guy’ was cool. I feel that is the problem with people now-a-days. They know that the holocaust was bad, yet they make a joke about it because they don’t know exactly how bad it was. I don’t think people realize that six million Jews were killed in the holocaust. Even after taking this course, it is hard to put that number in my head, just because of the fact that it is so many people. But I think that is the point of this course. To make people realize that the holocaust is no laughing matter. And now that I have taken this course I have educated myself on how bad it actually was and I have no tolerance for anyone that takes the holocaust as a joke. If they want to joke about the holocaust, first take this course and then actually learn about it before they make that joke. Because I’m sure that most people, not all, will not make that joke after.
but some, and most, just ended up torturing the Jews. An example of that was an experiment where they would put a Jew outside in freezing weather naked and see how long it takes them to die. It was pretty much a pointless experiment.
In the class we watched The Boy in the Striped Pajamas. I felt that was a very powerful movie. It was about a little boy who became friends with another little boy who was in the death camps. It made me really think what it would have been like to be a little kid during that time. The kids were eight in that movie, and when I was eight I never thought about death or something like that happening. I always had a feeling of security. I couldn’t imagine losing family members and having to go to a death camp. They must have been so scared and confused. The non-Jewish boy in the movie goes into the camp to help the Jewish boy find his father. While in the camp the boys end up getting stuck with the rest of the Jews that were getting gassed. The two boys ended up getting gassed and died. It was really powerful to see though because you saw the whole process of them getting undressed, showered, and then gassed. Once put in the gas chamber the lights went dark and you see them put the powder in that turns to a gas to kill them. While watching it you can just feel how scary it would be. It was interesting to see how innocent the non-Jewish kid was; because he thought that the death camp was a farm. It showed that he was still innocent and clueless what was going on. He wasn’t affected from the propaganda. It was also interesting to see because I feel that could have happened in real life. A little kid could have become friends with another Jewish kid and then one could have snuck in, not knowing what would actually happen. It was also very interesting to compare the two kids. The non-Jewish kid had plenty of food, treated right, had a nice home, compared to the Jewish kid who was hungry all the time, was beaten and had to over work and lived at the death camps. When the Jewish kid got food from the non-Jewish kid and got caught, he ended up getting beaten hard for it, even though he was only eight. I thought that was very powerful. Also the non-Jewish kid’s dad was part of the SS, the Nazi army, and he said that the Jews were not people, which was powerful to hear, because it shows how they thought of the Jews. It was also very disturbing to see the smoke come out of the chimney, because those were the dead bodies that they were burning. The non-Jewish kid kept saying that it smelled really bad. He was unaware that they were burning Jews there.
I felt The Pianist was a powerful movie because it was the first movie that we saw that really showed the holocaust and what it was doing. After all the Jews got into the ghettos, Nazis would go and randomly shoot people, and that was really messed up. I thought it was also powerful to see the man that was in a wheelchair getting thrown out of the window. It is hard to imagine what it would have been like to live in the ghettos at the time. The Jews were literally treated like they were worth nothing. During the chores, we talked about how the Jews were treated like they were nothing, but we never really saw that. This movie was the first movie that we saw that really showed how cruelly the Jews were treated. The class never ended up finishing the movie, which really disappointed me. We ended up leaving off at the point where the main family was going to the concentration camp. All we saw was the process on how they got there. I try to imagine myself in the situation they were in and what I would have done. I felt, knowing myself, I would have went along with what I was told, because I would be unaware of what was going on. At the begging of the movie, the Jews had to wear the Star of David on their arm, indicating that they are Jewish. I can just imagine how confused they must have been, and I
What Facing History and Ourselves Meant to Me
This course can have a huge impact on a person. I took this course because it has been recommended to me by a few people and I thought I’d check it out. I’ve also had the teacher before so I was like ‘I might as well check it out’. I also heard that you can learn a lot in that class, and naturally I will sign up for an elective where I can actually learn something useful in life, and not take a class where I forget all the information after the semester. I have heard that it was a powerful class, and some of the things that we discussed it class were powerful. Before taking the class, I didn’t know too much about World War II. I knew about Hitler and the holocaust, but I didn’t know details about it. After taking the class, I learned a lot more about how Hitler got so many followers with propaganda. I live in a middle class suburbia, nothing too special. I do track and play bass. This class is made to help educate people on what happened in the past and what is happening now, to help prevent things like that happening in the future. As John Lennon says, “history doesn’t repeat itself, but it does rhyme.” That is saying that problems similar will happen again. I feel the goal of this class is to help prevent problems such as the holocaust from happening again is by educating the youth. The holocaust is already starting to be forgotten, and people are saying that it never happened. That is a sign that it may happen again. In this class we see primary and secondary sources of the holocaust and other events going on such as the genocide in Rwanda and then we reflect on it on a blog. This class helps benefit me as a student because it helps me reflect on what I learn in the classroom but it also benefits me as a person because I am more educated on what happened and it may help me not be a bystander in a situation, but instead help someone in need.
I felt learning about Dr. Mengele was very powerful. I can’t believe that he and other doctors would do such experiments on Jews. When the Jews lined up to enter Auschwitz, Dr. Mengele would pick out twins to go with him for the experiments. It was really messed up though because the kids were treated well at the place that they stayed, and the twins liked him. But, little did they know that they were going to have to undergo experiments that would be very painful and cost them their lives. While looking for twins some parents would say that they have twins, others would not. The ones that didn’t ended up just walking into a gas chamber anyways. While the twins lived with Dr. Mengele, he would give them candy and chocolates, and they would not fear him. They would even sometimes call him ‘Uncle Mengele’. The twins never had to do hard work like the rest of the people that had to go to the camp. The experiments were horrible though. Every day the kids had to get blood drawn. The twins had to go to get an experiment done on them if their number was called. If it was they would have to undress and undo measurements. Blood would be transfused from one twin to another. Because the Nazis wanted people to have blue eyes, they would do experiments with added chemicals to the eyes to try to change the color to blue. This would cause severe pain, infections, and temporary or permanent blindness. One twin would be given a shot of a disease, such as typhus or tuberculosis, and after one twin died they would kill the other and then examine the difference. These injections would go into the spine and spinal taps which would cause severe pain with no anesthesia. They would also do surgeries without anesthesia which included organ removal, castration, and amputations. It’s just crazy to me how Dr. Mengele did this to Jews. He wasn’t the only doctor that did experiments on Jews. Dr. Sigmund Rascher and Dr. Miklos Nyiszli also did experiments on the Jews. Some experiments were for science,
Part 5/5
Prior to taking this class, I was one of the bystanders. Not willing to say anything or do anything that didn't concern me directly. I would even go so far as to make certain jokes without thinking of the weight it held. I now have the images of the mass body dumps and the cruel nature of the Nazis imprinted onto my mind. Their eyes follow me and make me rethink about what I might say instinctively or what I might do in response. Facing History and Ourselves is an in depth class that touches on each students civic agency through Civil rights, Racism, fascism, and the Holocaust. Civic Agency consists of Moral, Emotional and Mental understanding of history. It is no longer just some old bland story from long ago. You place yourself in the shoes of the people who lived during the time, whether it be the perpetrator, bystander or the victim. This was done through the viewing of several movies and through readings. I won't lie, the course is very heavy and forces you to look headon into the tragedies that occurred. They might even pick away at your soul as you wrestle with who you are and who you will/can be. Facing History and Ourselves really opened my eyes to what's going on even now in the present. Our idleness in the matter of Russia trying to take Ukraine and succeeding with taking Crimea. The tragedies that occur everyday in North Korea, the death camps that they run still today. This course doesn't just dump irrelevant facts onto you, it allows you to become an active member in todays society so that we can speak for ourselves. No longer is authority the sole dictator of our actions. We cannot hide behind the fact that ‘we were merely following orders’. each one of us can think for ourselves and decide what is right, what is just.
Part 4/5
I learned about the idleness of the American government during several times of need. Once during the Holocaust and another during the events of the Rwandan massacres. This of course is only a small portion of history in which we stood idle. Millions of people died because of the thought that it wasn't our problem, that maybe things would work themselves out. Even if we had stepped in when 1,000,000 had died, it'd be too late. America should have allowed in the emigrating Jews safe haven instead of blocking them out. I learned that we made roadblocks to stop the Jewish people from escaping a death sentence. This policy of isolationism seemed so backwards especially now. In the present where America steps in to promote democracy, of course this is done with the incentive of oil or other ways that benefit us greatly.Taking in refugees would have helped us greatly (After all, WW2 was a big factor in dragging us out of the depression). I'm sure many of the refugees would have participated in the war to free others, they’d be given the ability to fight back. The factors that prevented the government from helping the Jewish refugees were anti-semitism, the Depression, the general feeling of apathy in the government. The Milgram Experiment was one of the videos i had actually seen before in my Psychology class. I had never made the connection between this experiment with the power of authority that the Nazi government had over its people. How children could turn in their parents or how couples could turn on each other boggled my mind. Something as sacred as the bond of a family so easily broken by the whims of a twisted government was mind blowing. All because of the prospect of a higher authority. It made me wonder if I would have so easily turned in my family for not loving the Reich enough or would I perhaps have been like Peter from the Swing Kids and see through the propaganda and lies. I was glad to see that most people stopped to look at the professor when the other tester cried out in pain. This hope in humanity was dashed when several people continued to give the shock treatment and even laughed at the cries of another human being.
Part 3/5
Over the course of Facing History and Ourselves, I remember Mr. Gallagher would often bring up the subject of civic agency and the holocaust. That we'd be walking down the ruined streets of a once proud city, Nuremberg. That we'd find ourselves in the horror that is in the Concentration camps and wonder 'how could this happen?'. All during middle school and during the early years of High School I was aware of the holocaust, a human tragedy that would forever change the world. At least that's what the textbooks would read. Watching Sophie's Choice, The Boy in the Striped Pajamas and The Pianist broke me on the inside. It was hard to watch as the SS captain of a camp forced Sophie to choose between two of her children. The brutality of the guard and the matter of fact attitude in which he spoke was so disconcerting. Such a choice is something a parent should never have to go through. No doubt giving up one of her children tore away a huge piece of Sophie. This allowed me to have an emotional understanding of The Holocaust. Being asked to theoretically choose myself, I found myself twiddling with my pencil grimacing over the thought of having to choose. Yet i had something Sophie didn't, which was time. The Boy in the Striped Pajamas was especially painful to view. the innocence of a child placed into the harsh violent world at the time was jarring. Watching Bruno, the son of a Camp Director befriend Schmuel, the child of a Jewish prisoner was heart wrenching. All this time, Bruno kept asking questions naively about the conditions of the camp and why their people hated each other, I found myself answering each one. Having prior knowledge really helped me to identify the events unbeknownst to Bruno in the movie. The Pianist gave insight as to the conditions of the Ghettos that were hastily constructed. The Jewish people were moved out of their rightful homes and into cramped dirty apartments which were fitted with the bare minimum. The first step to eradicating a group of people, centralizing and storing them elsewhere like vermin. I had always wondered why they never fought back, in documentaries, they looked so passive and accepting of their unfair fate. Then I saw the rebellion at the ghettos, the uprising of the polish natives, the destruction of the Camp furnaces. It was easier said then done. Organizing could carry huge consequences and getting people to volunteer could be hard due to the human nature to survive. One of the more confusing parts ...Then the handouts of Dr. Mengele were handed out. The fact that a doctor, someone who had taken a Hippocratic Oath, could design and enjoy such cruel experiments still boggles me. As Mr Gallagher said, he was a man who could protect and heal, yet he used his knowledge for the advancement of twisted science. I found myself strangely interested as I read over the destructive surgeries and tests he would perform. This strange interest turned into a sense of disgust and horror as it went into detail of how no anesthetics were used. There was such a lack of care for even the children. Finally, the first hand documentary of the discover of these death camps was shown. I found it extremely hard to continue watching certain parts. The mangled and emaciated bodies, lifeless eyes behind an ever starving human, chunks of flesh and body parts missing from tortured survivors all added to a burning hatred and anger I felt. Seeing the nearby citizens of these death camps angered me further. They thought it was all just a joke/scare tactic. Then they saw the camps and I found myself sharing their sense of guilt, shame and horror. I too was once a bystander, a passive person who felt it pertinent to keep to himself. All throughout the documentary I felt a deep sadness and a sense of wanting to do something.
Part 2/5
The course had many topics that really had a lasting impression. One of these being the more recent events that occurred in Rwanda. The sheer number of times that empty promises were made enraged me. Not only this, the blatant disregard for human life over such a meaningless issue such as skin color was also saddening. At a certain point in the movie, a UN peacekeeping colonel blatantly states that there will be no rescue for the blacks simply because of who they are. Instead a force of Belgian troops come specifically to take the whites to safety leaving thousands of refugees to die at the hands of bloodlust thugs. The fact that the Rwandans were so ruthless to each other over being a tutsi was so inexplicable. They were equals, only the history behind them positioned one over the other. this feud could have ended had the U.N. made a decisive decision to aid humans. however, they proved to be once again a group of high minded rhetoric making empty promises for world peace. The time mark on the massacre in Rwanda was the scariest part. These killings were allowed to take place in 1994 and the belief at the time was still that of racial hierarchy. This led me to think if anything was different today. Under the guise of political correctness there is still much to be done about equality. This recent event horrifically resembles the arguments and papers of an overzealous nation that pushed through an idea, Racial Purity. The German Government prior to World war 2 began pushing through strong antisemitic propaganda, perpetuated through "facts". Racial purity was a strong topic that swayed a nation to believe that Jews were inferior. The length, width, size of the nose, eye color, hair color all supposingly pointing to the fact that aryans were the master race. An excuse to snuff out a certain group of humans without having to deal with the fact that they are indeed equals.This showed how such a simple yet ridiculous ideology could spawn such a wanton event, the Holocaust.
What Facing History and Ourselves Meant to Me
Part 1/5
My name is Josh Lee. I am a senior at the Westborough High School and this is my final Blog for
the course. I initially took this course because I had heard from many seniors about how this
course changed their lives. Their change in demeanor really stuck out to me, I wanted to see for
myself. Facing History and Ourselves is an in depth class that touches on each students civic
agency through Civil rights, Racism, fascism, and the Holocaust. Civic Agency consists of
Moral, Emotional and Mental understanding of history. It is no longer just some old bland story from long ago. You place yourself in the shoes of the people who lived during the time, whether it be the perpetrator, bystander or the victim.The course does not require that you study or complete worksheets outside of class as there are no quizzes or tests. Rather, it requires that you care, that you have a genuine interest in learning who you are. The movies shown will often leave the room in a sobered state of silence. The material is so tangible, the material that is human nature and how we confront it individually. They make you think about what you would have done, better yet, they make you question your actions now. I was no longer an outsider. To have such a class is rare and it is no surprise Mr. Gallagher chose to teach it. It's hard to find a teacher so passionate about what they teach. He takes the time to stop in between lessons or movies in order to clarify whatever might be confusing. The class is treated as a group of adults, we take the responsibility for asking questions and completing our blogs. Facing History has so much weight to it, I find myself leaving each class lingering on what was shown or talked about that day.
Part 4/4
The footage of the real concentration camps left me in shock. I was disgusted by the number of dead bodies that had been just left in piles and the condition the survivors were in. To an extent I almost felt ashamed that I hadn’t done anything to stop what happened in the concentration camps, even though there is nothing I can do since the Holocaust was long before I was born. I was even more shocked when some of the Nazis officials were proud of what happened at the concentration camps, and saw nothing vile or immoral about having thousands upon thousands of bodies just lying on the ground. To see the survivors was painful, because they were barely more than skeletons. For me it was heartbreaking to recognize that many of these men and women had been beautiful at one point, held jobs and had families; now they were little more than skin and bone. When the liberators forced German citizens to tour the camps and see what their government did, I was glad when people left looking horrified. I wasn’t glad in a vengeful way, but just glad to see that some people recognized the tragedy and atrocity of what was done to the Jews. When the footage depicted the piles of dead bodies just rotting, I was disgusted. Most of the bodies barely looked human other than their faces, and all of them showed signs of violence and abuse. When they had to bulldoze the bodies into graves I wasn’t even sure how to react because you don’t expect to see bodies being moved and pushed around by construction equipment. Part of me wanted to cry because of how awful the footage was, and parts of it made me feel sick, but I forced myself to look at everything; the victims deserved that much. The victims deserve to be remembered, because if people don’t remember the horrors of what happened, no one will prevent the next genocide.
The films we’ve watched In Facing History have been both depressing and inspiring, but they were all moving. I signed up for this class because I was told it would change my life, and I honestly believe the course has changed me. While I don’t feel as though I’ve become something I wasn’t before, I do feel like parts of me are stronger now. I’m a little more courageous and a little less afraid of being rejected if I stand up for someone. I am definitely much more aware of what the Holocaust was, and I am able to understand it better. At the end of this course, I feel like I will be a better contribution to the world than I was before because I understand the dangers of being a bystander. The Holocaust happened because bystanders allowed it to happen, and I do not intend to be a bystander if something like that should try to happen again.
Part 3: First off, I feel like your chance of survival wasn’t based on whether you were a boy or girl and I honestly thought it was ridiculous that the thought of carrying the family name would even matter in a situation like this. In the end I agreed that I probably would’ve chosen to save the boy but only because he was older and would be able to take care of himself better than a younger child.
After looking at pictures, Mr. Gallagher started another class discussion that forced us to think about and answer a difficult question. The question was what we would do if we were in a situation in which we were being shot into a ditch of bodies. After thinking about it, I realized once again that what I would say I would do might not be what I would actually do in a situation like this because I have never experienced it. First I thought that I would try to fight back or run away, but then I realized that this would do nothing for me and that it wouldn’t affect that person shooting me. I would just end up being shot at while running or before I could even attempt to attack the guard. Although it probably wouldn’t have been possible, I would want the person shooting me to look me straight in the eye so that he can really see what he is doing. I feel like was cowardly and inhumane to shoot the prisoners while they knelt and from the back of the neck. If this wouldn’t be possible I would like to think that I would have held the hand of the person kneeling next to me. It might not seem like a big deal, but I would think that the person next to me is just as terrified as me; therefore to know that someone is there might just help a little bit.
I feel like the toughest thing we’ve had to watch this year was the actual video footage from the trails. This was our last stop in the class. It was what we had been working up to for the past few months and even though we had watched countless films and learned all about the horrors, it didn’t compare to actually seeing the real life version of the death camps. It is something I don’t think I will ever be able to forget. I was speechless. Nothing can really prepare you emotionally to seeing how the Nazis treated the Jews in the camps. The images of the piles or bodies, the tortured, starving, bone-thin people, you can never take that back. I felt frozen in class, I couldn’t move. I was horrified and disgusted that this was able to happen and that it wasn’t stopped sooner. The fact that I now know why and how it was able to happen just makes it feel even worse. It was difficult to see what horrid things people are capable of doing and to still refer to them as human, but at the same time I understood their actions because of what we had learned in class. As much as they tried to dehumanize the Jews, they dehumanized themselves even more. I see the Nazis who did all these horrible things as less human than the Jews who were treated worse than animals because the Nazis were the ones in charge of it and they did it willingly.
I hope that what I learned in this class will stay with me always. This class has been one of the most difficult classes I’ve taken because of what topics it covers. It forces us to answer questions that we never thought we would have to and to try to picture ourselves in horrid situations. It also forces you to realize that in order to judge a situation, you must have a sense of civil agency in order to not wrongly misjudge people’s actions and why they did what they did. I hope that all the lessons we’ve learned this semester will stay with me past my years in Westborough High School. I am so thankful to have been able to take this class and to have been able to have it taught by Mr. Gallagher.
Part 2: Mrs. Elliot’s experiment completely compelled me when we watched and learned about it in class. She was an amazing woman and was really able to open people’s eyes that lived during the years of discrimination. The fact that she was able to do this with a class of third graders was even more impressive. She was able to get the third graders in one day to turn against each other by allowing them to discriminate against certain eyes colors. She led them to believe that there was a superior eye color and they students bought it. Although it was sad to see how easily the students had accepted that their classmates were better or worse than them, it was an experience that affected them for the rest of their lives in a positive way. It taught them to see the discrimination from both ends and to realize how horrible it felt to be discriminated against. The fact that this lesson stuck with them until they were all grown up and is something that they passed on to their children is pretty amazing.
Freedom Writers was one of my favorite movies we watched in class this year. I had watched it when I was younger, but watching it during class reminded me of how great of a movie it really is and I was able to watch it with knowing more about the situation and history of the time period it takes place in. Mrs. Gruwell was a relentless teacher and she really inspired me. Although I don’t know what I want to do when I’m older, being a teacher is one of my options. I think it’s really amazing for one person to be able to make such a big difference in other people’s lives just by caring and by listening and by taking action and standing up to them. Mrs. Gruwell changed the lives of every single kid in her class. I feel like one of the most important messages in the movie is that it doesn’t matter where you came from or what you start off with, you can achieve anything if you set your mind to it. Mrs. Gruwell was able to get these kids to believe in themselves and they all were able to turn their lives around.
After watching a part of “Sophie’s Choice” in class, we were then asked to answer one question: “What would you have done if you were in Sophie’s situation?” This was probably one of the hardest questions that I had been asked in the class. The fact that I have never been in a situation like hers makes it even more difficult to answer. To me it seemed obvious that if I had the chance to save one of my children, I would take it in a heartbeat. The harder part was being able to answer which child I would give away. I knew that it was a decision that I couldn’t put a lot of rational thought into because Sophie had only seconds to make her decision. To put the question in a format that I might be able to understand more, I thought about having to choose one of my two cousins to save. Honestly, I had to stop thinking about it because I felt as if my whole world was being torn apart. The more I thought about it, the more impossible it seemed to make a decision and I had to stop because I felt as though I was going to have a break down in the middle of class. After listening to a few of my classmates talk about what they would do I was surprised and a little worried. I was baffled that one student would rather not make a decision and have both his kids killed rather than having to make a choice and save one of his kids. I disagreed with two students who said they would choose the boy because of the reasons they used to back up their decisions. They said they would choose the boy because he was older and therefore would know more than the younger girl (which I agreed with), but they also said that they would choose the boy because since he was a male he would have a better chance of surviving the camp and he would be able to carry on his family name.
Part 3/4
While films like A Class Divided and the film on the Milgram Experiment were shocking and unsettling because they revealed a cruel side of humanity, films like Uprising inspired me. I was inspired by the bravery and courage of the people in the Ghetto to revolt against the Nazis. I hardly would’ve been able to imagine the conditions of the ghettos had we not watched The Pianist which enlightened me on that subject. Now knowing how terrifying the ghettos were and how powerful the Nazis were, to see that some people were courageous enough to stand up against what was happening to them was remarkable. Seeing the dedication of those people to trying to resist touched me deeply. While I can’t know how I would act in a situation like theirs, I’d like to think that I would respond similarly and not accept being mistreated passively. After watching Uprising I feel more confident that I could be one of those people. That sort of growth is a large part of what facing History means to me; I feel like I am a stronger, more courageous person, and I’m less likely to be a bystander because of films like Uprising.
I had a similar reaction after watching The Grey Zone. While many of my classmates left feeling depressed at the end of the film, for some reason I did not. While I was very moved by the tragedy of the young girl’s death, and Dr. Nyiszli’s being forced to continue work, I saw what the Sonderkomando did as something to be proud of. It was a conflicting experience, because on one hand I was horrified by how heartless the Nazis were, but on the other hand I was awestruck by how brave the people who coordinated the demolition of the crematoriums were. As much as I was amazed by just how far people are willing to go to survive, I was even more impressed by the strength the Sonderkomando found to destroy the crematoriums and at least try to save the little girl. During one part of the film, one of the men of the Sonderkomando is talking to the girl and talks about how you can’t know what you’re willing to do to survive until you’re in a situation like theirs and how most of them would do anything to live one more day. Therefore, to me, the sacrifice they made to destroy the crematoriums is even greater because they had to struggle against their own will to live. I don’t know what I’d be willing to do to survive, or if I’d be able to do what they did, but at least now I have greater understanding of their decisions. I also am better able to recognize that the men of the Sonderkomando are not the perpetrators, but are also victims. For even though they made the choice to help the Nazis in the slaughter of the Jews, it was an extreme situation and it was not something they would’ve done if there was another alternative. As much as Facing History less afraid to stand up for what is right, I have learned even more that there is great evil in the world, but not everyone will let evil be. People will do something to try and make things better, and it the fact they tried that makes them admirable, regardless of their success.
Part 1: Introduction:
In Westborough High School the most famous course among students that can be taken is, without a doubt, Facing History with Mr. Gallagher. When I was a freshman I heard about this course and continued to hear about it for all the years I’ve been here. My name is Lara Makhlouf and I am a senior and I finally got the chance to experience one of the most eye-opening, meaningful courses I have had the honor to take at my high school. The course is about really opening up students to the holocaust by watching movies and documentaries about it and about similar situations in order to really understand fully what happened and why it happened. The course doesn’t start off right off with the Holocaust, but rather it discussed issues of race inequality in the U.S. during the segregation era and when people were very racist. We learned about the types of laws and attitudes people had at this time and how some people embraced it or fought against it. We also learned about human behavior in that how different people react when they are under orders. We then learned about the time era before the holocaust. We were enlightened on the propaganda used to turn people against the Jews and how Hitler was even able to come into power. We learned about Hitler’s influence on his people and about his life before the Nazis. Then we got into the actual Holocaust and watched many movies and documentaries. The year was ended with the film, Boy in the Striped Pajamas, the beginning of Saving Privet Ryan, and finally the real live footage from the death camps. This course allowed me to not only see these events in history in an intellectual way, but also in a moral and emotional view. It helped me to create a sense of civil agency when leaning about the holocaust and other significant moments in history and with issues that are currently going on. It also helped me to realize even more that one should never judge someone until they know the whole situation and acknowledge every thing before making a final decision. It has made me realize even more that I should be so thankful for everything I have in my life, that if the survivors of the Holocaust were able to make it after they were rescued, then I can make it through anything.
What Facing History and Ourselves Meant to Me
One of the first things we watched in class was The Children’s March. While watching the film, I felt a whole spectrum of emotions. First off, I was just disgusted by the way the whites treated the African Americans. They treated them horridly and unjustly and it made me really angry and disappointed. I felt as though I was being let down. These were human beings that they were treating like trash and they felt nothing towards them. It’s really sad that such a horrible incident is part of our country’s past. As for the African Americans, I felt proud. They never gave up. The children were just amazing and so brave. They realized that they were the key to ending segregation and they did it in the most non violent, peaceful way they could. I felt as though I wanted to join them and help them fight. They got hurt, which is an understatement to the situation, but they kept on going. When the firefighters started to hose them done with the hoses, they were badly injured; but when they arrived the next day wearing bathing suits and dancing in the water, it was beautiful. They were able to find beauty and hope in the ugliest of situations. They were able to persevere until they got what they demanded. There were children who went to jail that were as young as four years old, they stopped going to school to march, and they did it together and got word out to the rest of the country to show them all the violent and unfair actions that were taking place in Birmingham and they succeeded in the end. I truly felt inspired by the African American children of Birmingham.
Part 2/4
One of the films we watched in class that really touched me was Swing Kids. I was inspired by how in the end the main character finds the strength and the courage to stand for what he believes in, even though it will get him arrested and even though he loses his best friend in the process. The film spoke to how pervasive Nazism was into life and how those in the Nazi party or in Hitler Youth were able to get away with much more than those who weren’t. It also spoke to how Hitler Youth molded the minds of its members, turning children on their friends and family, the way Thomas turned his father into the Gestapo. I was struck by this film, because of how much Peter struggled with staying true to himself and what he believed in, and not falling prey to the ideals of the Nazis. The film helped me to better understand how important it is to stand up against something you know is wrong, even if it has consequences.
The Milgram Experiment was unlike anything I’d ever heard of before. To put people in separate rooms and have one person shock the other, at increasing intervals was appalling to me. Later, when I realize no one was harmed, I was relieved, but still shocked at how willing some people were to inflict harm on others with little resistance, especially once they felt free of blame. While most people stopped after a certain point where they were afraid they were actually hurting the other person, some did not. One man went all the way to the highest level and was willing to go back down the range of electric shocks; once he had been assured that the other man’s health was not his responsibility. After watching this, I was better able to grasp the idea that many of the Nazi officials did not feel like they were responsible for the death of millions, because they were just following orders. To an extent I do believe the Nazi officials were following orders, but I think they were completely responsible for how they executed their orders and what they did. Before watching this I was confused as to how they could’ve felt like it wasn’t their fault, but after witnessing the Milgram experiment, I understood. Those men were not so much lying, but they had convinced themselves that it really was just orders, and that the responsibility for the results would not lie on them. It was just like the men in the experiment; as soon as the responsibility was lifted off their shoulders they had no inhibition about harming others. I was terrified by this in all honesty, that people would be so accepting of their harmful actions towards others, just because someone else says it won´t be their fault. Learning about the Milgram Experiment has made me feel more determined to take responsibility of my actions and to not do something that would harm another person like that.
for those people and hope that as one world today, we could all think and act as he did. I’d say Paul, although I will never know him truly, his character is something I look up to and aspire to be.
Lastly, one of the most moving, influential films in this class, Sophie’s Choice, changed me more that most of the other lessons. When Mr. Gallagher said she had to make a choice and this is the one she made, I didn’t expect this to be a hard lesson or choice. I watched with my jaw dropped, as this woman had made a choice of which child to save and which to kill. She literally had her kids’ lives in her hands and in 5 seconds had to make the choice of which one she wanted to save. Then she chose, the video paused and the lights turned on, and Mr. Gallagher gave us a sheet and told us to choose. It was the hardest thing I had been asked to do, truly. I felt as if I really had to choose, like I really had to pick one of my children to kill. In our lives we are most likely never asked to make such a hard and impossible decision. And here I was staring down at a sheet of paper telling me to choose my son or my daughter’s life. I sat and knew that giving myself up or trying to say none wouldn’t work and realized the horror these Jewish people had to go through, never knowing just how bad it was. I mean I literally had knots in my stomach and was panicking over the thought of choosing. This is really when Facing History hit me hard. The way peoples evil comes out when they’re in power or in superiority is terrifying and made me realized I really can never sit back and watch as this kind of thing happens, I could no longer be a bystander.
The hardest thing that I watched and learned about was the actual videos of the death camps. That really affected me to watch because of the horrors I had never known about. To learn that these people were not only killed in massive numbers but also being mutilated for lamp shades or using their heads for paper weights is just sick. Upon hearing this I couldn’t help but feel anger and hatred towards anyone who helped in these acts or just sat by and let it happen. These films and pictures showed me how power in this world is put into the wrong hands every day. It proved that our hatred and ignorance allows for this evil to happen and that more of us nee to show civic agency and understand that everyone is equal.
Facing History is a class that truly changed me. How did it change me? I am no longer going to be that bystander who watches as others get tortured. I was the type of person to see something happening to someone and would say “wow that sucks” or “at least it’s not me so I’ll stay out of it”. Now after taking this class, I know that makes me no better than the perpetrators themselves. I help them create victims and allow their evil to continue. I changed because of this class. I have become someone better than who I was, and definitely planning to keep it that way. I thank Mr. Gallagher and those who created Facing History & Ourselves for creating a class that can really touch a person and change us students in our lives forever.
more for the open minded people she worked with. I love Mrs. Elliot and her work and found her to be a humble hero.
I've seen this movie a million times before and each time, I was the same person before and after, except not this time. Ms. Gruwell taught her kids that they will always have a chance and opportunity as long as they're willing to fight for it. It shows that there are people in this world who will judge you and not care at all about your cause or what you want, and Ms. G showed us that we need to stand up to those. After hearing Mr. Gallagher speak and having a class discussion, I now can see the message in Ms. G’s teaching. In life there will be people who will act superior and put you down for your differences, but you need to see your differences and everybody else’s as a good thing and just embrace them for who they are and not what they look like or if they in a different “group”. Also, she made me realize that authority is everything in the world and if you want something you need to go to those with power, and forget about those who only want to knock you down. After watching this movie and finally understanding its message, I’m glad to say that no one is any better or worse than you, and the differences in them are nothing to put down or put on a pedestal.
The longest hatred was a very moving and eye opening film. When it talked about how everyone in the world basically refused to help those in Germany it made me realize how selfish these people were. Had someone stepped in when Hitler first rose to power and began breaking rules, the Holocaust could've been avoided completely. Unfortunate, anti-Semitism took over the world and just drove Hitler straight to authority and power. The longest hatred showed that the hate caused more pain and suffering than what had to have occurred. The film really upset me actually and made me think differently of the world. Instead of helping those who desperately need it, the world chose to hate because it was easier, no one tried to show love or support. The entire world stood by while Hitler and the Nazis took over place after places torturing and killing millions. Even if it is a “burden” to us or anyone, the longest hatred shows we should still try to help and not be a bystander in any situation in which someone/group is being hurt. The only way to show strength and basic human feelings, everyone needs to be rescuers and resistance but never bystanders.
Hotel Rwanda was one of the most confusing films I had ever seen, that is until I took Facing History. Although I have seen Hotel Rwanda quite a few times, it still moved me those few days in period 4. To watch what these people had to go through and endure because of ridiculous discrimination really changes who you are. While watching this, all I could do is watch in horror as further in realizing this is a true story, not just some movie. People around the world had heard and saw what was going on and what Paul and his people were going through and just decided to sit back and watch. They had a choice to make and clearly did not make the right one, thinking only what the cameraman had said "wow that's horrible" and went back to their daily lives. I believe that really hit home. This is because for most of my life this is exactly what me and my family had been doing all my life. All I ever did was say “that’s horrible, someone should help them” and then went back to eating my meal and going on with my life. Seeing Paul's bravery and selflessness in a whole new light as my civic agency started to come to light, proved to be what was truly needed by everyone through the Rwandan genocide, and life in general. He left his family and put himself in danger just to help people he didn't even know. If the world had acted like Paul did, maybe such an event didn’t have to occur as radically or at all. I envy Paul and what he did
Part 1/4
Facing History and Ourselves is exactly what is says- it is a course that requires one to look at the unpleasant truth of the Holocaust and to deal with how the world allowed it to happen. The course uses film to relay the horrors of the Nazi concentration camps, and to explain how something that tragic was able to occur. Facing History starts with how the Nazi party came into power and progresses to the liberation of the camps and what liberators saw there. I am a senior at Westborough High School and chose to take this class for multiple reasons. Firstly, I had been told this class can be life-changing and that it was a class I shouldn’t pass up. Also, knowing I was heading off to college next year I thought it would be worth learning more about one of the most significant events in modern history. Secondly, I am an avid history fan and absolutely love learning about history, because I think we can learn a lot from our past actions and it can help us make better decisions in the future. Finally, I felt that what I learned about myself from this class would apply to my life after high school. I am going into Army ROTC in college, and I think it’s important that, as a future Army officer, I understand the potential consequences of my actions. Facing History and Ourselves has made me a better person, with more courage to stand up for what is right and to not be a bystander even though being a bystander is much easier than resisting.
One of the first things we watched in Facing History was a documentary about Mrs. Elliot and a social experiment she performed. She was looking at how quickly people are to discriminate against others just because of what they’re told and how it affects people. She told her class that people with blue eyes were better than people with brown eyes, and made the inferior eye colored children wear collars for the day. She also set up rules that mimicked the rules set against African American people during the civil rights movement. For example, children with inferior eye color could not use the water fountain, and could not play at recess. Very quickly, the third graders began to discriminate and put down the kids with brown eyes. The next day she switched the eye colors, so that people with brown eyes were considered superior to people with blue eyes. Even though the brown-eyed kids had hated being inferior they didn’t hesitate to treat the other kids the way they had been treated. At the end of the experiment she talked to the kids about what had happened and how it wasn’t right to judge people for things they can’t control like eye color, or skin color. This film brought greater understanding to me on how the Holocaust was able to occur. I’ve been raised not to “judge a book by its cover” and to treat people based on who they are as individuals, not based on their skin or their culture or their religion. Watching the film about Mrs. Elliot helped me understand that people were quick to draw lines between “us” and “them” and that people would willingly accept that the Jews were inferior. This aided my understanding of how an originally small political party was able to have the power they did and influence how people saw an entire religious group as something less than human.
I had heard about Facing History & Ourselves back when I was a sophomore; my sister had told me about when she took it and that I should too. Then throughout the year I was taking Mr. Gallagher’s history class and he had also mentioned it and its powerful background. I asked to be put in it and I was. At first I partly decided to take it because I heard it was an easy A, which I thought would be nice to have in such a stressful year. Although, another part of me wanted to take it to test Mr. Gallagher’s word that it would change me. Back then I didn’t believe some boring class about history could change who I’ve been and become over 17 years. I’m a kid who likes to play devil’s advocate a lot and I thought that’s what I’d do in this class, little did I know that I would be completely wrong and be changed forever. And now a little bit about me, I am Corinna Morais. I am a junior at Westborough High School. I don’t really do many extracurricular activities, although I enjoy playing soccer very much. I’m still trying to figure out who I am and what I’m going to do for the rest of my life. All in all, I’m generally an optimistic kid with a lot of free time. Facing History is a class that is supposed to instill civic agency in kids and have them become better people. In this class videos are shown that will change your life and completely change how you think. Mr. Gallagher teaches with a huge passion for what he’s trying to do and influences you every day. Facing History & Ourselves is an opportunity of a lifetime, something that no one should criticize or disrespect ever.
In The Bear That Wasn’t it really brings the question “who am I?” into perspective. In the book the bear is grouped with the rest of the workers by everybody higher than him and soon loses himself in those labels. I think it tells us that as humans we have always longed to be in groups and when we are put in them, we lose our identity. Those groups put labels on us that may not necessarily fit ourselves individually. At first in class I thought it as crazy that Mr. Gallagher actually thought a children’s book would change me. So we read it anyway and at first I thought sarcastically “wow such an inspirational book. But then we talked about it in class and I started to see what this book was really getting at. Although I still thought I wasn’t going to change very much, this book did help open my eyes to the bigger picture of this class. This book showed us how a person can allow others to tell them who they are and if they’re not strong and fight for their independence, they lose themselves. Where we live, it’s all about independence and being different, but this proved what happens when we follow other and allow ourselves to become lost. Usually I hate admitting I’m wrong but this time I’m glad I was, because although it was a children’s book, it was so much more than that.
I have actually seen this video beforehand so I knew what was coming. But nonetheless I was still changed and inspired by Mrs. Elliot and her efforts to teach people that a person’s appearance does not make the person on the inside. She proved that even adults can have this terrible perspective, even when they’re supposed to be role models for kids. She showed a group of people acting just like kids when given superior feelings. All it took was for her to say an eye color means that person is better than the different eye colored person. What I saw was a bunch of people really acting as if it were a true fact and put the others down for a different eye color. Bu this just goes to showed me that once I give someone that power and allow them to make me believe it, I will lose myself and same goes for everyone else. Mrs. Elliot taught me that a person’s appearance in not who they are on the inside and that we are all equal, no superiors or inferiors. She changed people and showed them what it was like to walk a mile in a minority's shoes. What she taught was deeper than just racism is wrong and did so much
The only time I really felt a sense of closure in this course was while watching the Nuremburg Trials. To look at the men responsible for this and to see their defense was almost humorous. To think that there was any defense for that at all! To look at their faces, some of them regretful and wishing they could take it all back because they knew it was wrong the whole time, while some stayed true to their Nazi ideas and continued to believe that this was justified. Are you crazy guys? Seriously, who takes part in killing 13 million people, planning on killing more, and shrugs their shoulders thinking “what did it do wrong?” How is that even possible? I like to think that these are not even people at all. They are just monsters. People don’t do what the Nazis did. Knowing that all of these men do not even get to wake up in the morning anymore makes me feel slightly better about the whole situation but nothing can give back what the Jewish people lost.
When we watched The Boy in the Striped Pajamas it was interesting to see that the holocaust ripped apart families on both sides of the fence. The Nazi boy was an innocent mind who didn’t understand why the other “farmer” boy couldn’t leave and wondered why he had to wear pajamas all the time. The boy on the other side had a hard time understanding it as well.
The holocaust was one of the worst things humans have ever done. Designing killing facilities, death chambers, and killing gas is not what our intelligence was made to create. It makes me ashamed to even be living as a human because of what has happened. But there is a glimpse of hope. There was a resistance and people did something to try to stop it. We have created things that are great. The pyramids, railroads, the telvistion. This is what intelligences was supposed to be used for. To advance our race, not hinder it. I could relate to the idea of this class with Westborough High School. Teaching kids that a dictatorship is the way things work and that all you have to do is nod your head yes and follow the rules and you will be okay. It seems strange to dumb down kids in a place designed for learning. Constantly getting told to think like everyone else and to fit in when fitting in could be less than it is hyped up to be. Why should we be required to serve a detention for not coming into school exactly on time? It would make more sense to not come in at all if you’re going to be late. This teaches kids to be afraid of doing things wrong. People need to experience failure in order to grow from it. By scolding kids for being slightly late they learn to come on time but they don’t know why. If kids were allowed to make their own decisions they would understand the consequences involved with coming in at a later time and make the decision themselves to come on time. With so many people following orders it makes me feel like some Germans did when Hitler was coming into power. So many blindly go through the motions everyday never stopping to think if what they’re doing makes sense. Does it not seem strange that we can’t listen to some music while passing in between classes? How does that harm anyone? It is equivalent to reading a book. They want kids to be supervised at all times. No wandering the halls, no sitting where you’d like to sit at lunch. What are people going to do when they leave high school? If you hold people back rather than them holding themselves back, once they are freed from these bonds they will go wild with their freedom. If you teach them temperance and moderation, they will be able to do things for themselves.
Facing History and Ourselves was one of the best classes I have ever taken. It alters your outlook on life. It makes allows you to really get a grip on civic agency. To take every scenario you encounter in life and look at it through the lens of civic agency is an important skill to have. It reminds you that we are all human. It makes you think of right and wrong. I feel I am more mature after leaving this class. When watching the experiment done in that elementary school, it was scary to see how easy it is to judge and bully people based on the fact that they are different from you. It made me wonder if I had ever been so easily persuaded and looking back into my life I find it difficult to think that at one point that was me. After really thinking about this I realized that it isn’t hard to not fall into things of that nature, it just requires you to take a step back and think for yourself and your values. Will making fun of this person make me feel any better? No it just gives a person the sense that they are better than someone else because they have put someone else down. It is now apparent that the person that is making fun of the other is the real person that is worse. I don’t want to be that person ever. I want to be the one who stands up for the other person.
An entire country brainwashed into anti-Semitism. Propaganda films made Hitler seem like a god and the people of Germany were convinced that he was the answer to all of their issues. To watch this propaganda after knowing the truth it is appalling because you see an entire nation following this one man’s words with such diligence it was scary. It looked like they all had guns jammed into their backs with people whispering into their ears, “smile and salute”. People were overjoyed to see the notorious figure we know today.
I was asked a question a while back and it took me some time to think about the correct answer and here is that question: What do you think was worse, Slavery or the Holocaust. Both these atrocities were disgraceful for the human race and now the average person looks back on both and are ashamed. I believe that while both disregarded human life as a sacred miracle and decided to call themselves rulers and take them over by force, the Holocaust was the worse of the issues. The Holocaust was a planned, organized extermination of an entire race for reasons that are fed from lies and deceit. What’s even more appalling is the idea that the entire German nation was on board with the anti-sematic life and anyone who didn’t agree was a defector and was just as “bad” as the Jews. What the Nazis did to the Jews was something that most people wouldn’t believe if they didn’t see it with their own eyes. During the Grey Zone, I thought it was crazy to see the experiments done on human beings. To think about some of the people that this was done to and to place yourself in that person, you can begin to understand that it wasn’t just extermination in mind, they wanted them to pay. They thought that Jewish people were on the level of trash and that they were the cause of all the world’s problems when in reality any person can see that all of those people were just like you and me. They all have thoughts and feelings as well. They can feel pain and if someone knew this and still did what they did to the Jews then they are truly evil. To simply watch this happen is almost as bad as partaking in it. To simply turn your head away because you don’t want to look at it doesn’t make it disappear; it just lets them get away with what they were doing. In the film that was taken when they liberated the Concentration camps, I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. When the people who were brought in from the towns near the camp, their expressions were eerily happy because they did not know what they were about to see. The human skin lampshade changed their mood drastically; they had realized how bad all of this was and could put the pieces together of the truth. This lampshade shows how the Nazis thought of the Jews. They would skin them like some sort of animal and use every part of their bodies for something. The hair, the skin, the bones; everything was processed and taken advantage of. People were not people anymore. What a disgrace to Mother Nature it is to take the life of another. To ruin this perfect organic machine that has no spare parts and repairs itself, which is a crime against the power that made us. It is hard to stay level headed when speaking of this subject because all you want to do is get these guys in a room and show them how wrong they were. How could you honestly believe that this was the right thing to do? It just shocks me. It is something that I will always have a hard time wrapping my head around.
In Facing History and Ourselves, I found that it was more about feeling the material and getting into the minds of the people involved. It was something that you could relate to on a very human level. To feel compassion and empathy for people that have nothing to do with us or are even living is a powerful idea. It makes you grateful for the blessing of consciousness and the right to think and speak. It really solidifies the idea that we are more than just piles of space dust hurdling through the universe. We are Human Beings. We are lucky enough to even have a planet to live on so to come along and take that privilege from someone else is something that I see as disgusting.
Part 5/5
Last, in our trio of being a good person. Morals. Without them, we’re animals in the street with no regard for what’s appropriate or not. Life would mean nothing to us, and that’s what happened to the non-Jews of Europe during WW 2. There was a complete disregard for the human during Hitler’s reign and throughout history as other men have ordered the murders of thousands and of millions. The final piece we need to complete our sense of civic agency is morals. A sense of right and wrong. Many people shape there’s on religion, like myself, and others who don’t. As time has continued, people have always had a sense of morality across the world. That’s the reason I don’t think man is born inherently evil, in fact, we’re born with the power to discern good behavior from bad and we strive to act “good.” The films that push the moral boundaries most are the footage from the post liberation Death Camps and, “The Grey Zone.” They’re power together is shock value. They show things so grossly against all that we believe that we are force to understand all of morals and wonder how this could be done. How could people just shed all of their ideas on right and wrong? Well, it’s easy. But that’s not the point of this essay. What matters is that we can understand ourselves and what we believe compared to what has happened and what is happening. Whether or not we have the ability to say, “Hey, what’s happening there is completely wrong,” That’s the last portion of civic agency. I, as most people do, already had morals and, I’ve spent extensive time thinking about them but, this class was able to reassure and reinforce them.
Without this class, I would have had a much harder time becoming a responsible citizen of our Earth. Although the pieces were there, this class was able to solve the puzzle. I went in without any idea of what to expect and I walk away making the best chose of my life so far. If anyone is on the fence whether to take this class, take it. It may make you cry, depressed, and even fill you with fear, as it had for me, but it’s worth it. Understanding civic agency and our role is immensely important to our lives. We need this lesson. I needed this lesson.
Thank you, Mr. Gallagher
Part 4/5
The filmed that bridged the gap of facts and emotion best was “Hotel Rwanda.” It did a spectacular job all around, acting and directing, showing how the average person in such a situation would behave. It did even a better job of showing how the world turned its back on Rwanda and failed to take any type of civic agency duty. They did as little as they could because they had no emotional connection to the people of the nation. The only people that were helped by the outside world was those from the outside. There was no emotional connection. That’s an important detail, emotion drives all human beings and without it we grow cold and sour to one another. Without this film or class I don’t believe I would ever have been able to develop the emotional section of civic agency. I wouldn’t have been compelled to worry myself over anything that happened outside of my hemisphere. Most likely I would just say, “Aw, that’s too bad,” and then change the channel. (2) The second film to bridge that gap was “Resistance” (the film of the Warsaw Rebellion). What this film did, as I stated before, was giving a face to the Jewish rebellion and the people who helped its efforts. It shows the Warsaw ghetto and how its people were treated as no other film did from the course. If you can’t feel anything after seeing children dead in the street from starvation while people walk around them without a second thought, there’s nothing I can do to help you. I can’t quite describe the emotions it brings out, I don’t have the sufficient vocabulary to describe it, and I don’t know if anyone does. However important the emotional connection is, it ultimately doesn’t matter if the other two keys to civic agency are in place. Having an emotional connection is great but, if you don’t understand what’s taking place, you can’t be as effective as you could be.
Any person with good intentions can make an impact in any situation. Whether that impact is a pebble in a lake or, a stone, is the importance. If enough stones are thrown in the lake then all the water will shake and split itself apart. A single stone will ripple the lake but leave no lasting mark. This is the intellectual portion of how we solve our world’s problems and, the highlight of what can go wrong if we can’t collectively understand what’s happening. “Nazi’s a Warning from History” is a perfect example of the consequence of ignorance and short-sightedness. It tells of the Nazi’s rise to power and how Hitler came to rule over mainland Europe. And, with this knowledge, we are given everything we need to know if this is happening again. It opened my eyes to understanding how such a force could rise to power and behave as it had without any outside intervention. We, as humans, failed when we allowed Hitler and the Nazi’s to continue their war on the Jews and Europe. But, the best we can do now is remember the past and use it to tell the future. Remember, history repeats itself. We can stop this if it happens again. But, not without enough intellectuals to throw the rocks. The works of the BBC are essential to this courses entire reason for existing. Civic agency. With the knowledge of how to stop it and the connection to the people in the crisis, were missing one more vital part of civic agency. Our morality.
I took facing history because I had heard that it was a life altering experience and that it was something that was necessary to take before I left here. I felt that it would help acquire an identity, an important part of life. I am just a simple guy from Westborough, Massachusetts. I have lived here for the entirety of my life and I think that I am much different from the others that attend this school. Academic achievement is not my strongest suit however; academic achievement does not always correlate with intelligence. I think a lot of people in Westborough are caught up in a world where they are kings of their own realm. There are way too many cliques that give you strange glares while walking down the corridors and make you feel isolated in order to make themselves feel safer. I do not feel the need to be accepted into these groups because I am an individual. I can make up my own mind and think what I want to think. I am eternally grateful to be growing up in a time and place as this though. To be born into a place where I can get a hot shower and 3 amazing meals a day is something that people take for granted. To have a faucet that can supply endless amounts of fresh, safe water directly into one’s home is simply incredible. Just a few hundred years back into history in this country we did not have many of the commodities that we see everyday today and there are people in the world today that do not have any of these still and are living in poverty. This course will help a student gain an appreciation for human life and human rights (along with a justified hatred of the Nazi’s). It gives a person a rare opportunity to ask themselves questions that normally people avoid. Who am I? Am I the one pointing the gun at an innocent child and asking his mother to make a choice upon her child’s life? Or am I the person who at the first sign that something was wrong there would try to be a resistance because nobody else will? Sometimes it is hard to look at humanity and be a part of it knowing what we have done to each other. Something that really symbolizes the nature of the holocaust for me was when we watched Sophie’s Choice in class. In this 10 minute excerpt from the movie, a Nazi guard at a concentration camp asked an innocent woman to make the choice of keeping one child over another. This is an impossible thing to put upon someone. How does one make a logical choice to kill one of their offspring when everything in your mind and body is trying to fight for your kids? If you cannot make that choice, too bad, they both get taken. I tried to find a way that this could make sense to anyone but I still cannot wrap my head around it. It conveys how utterly disrespectful the Nazis were. They didn’t care. They wanted the Jewish people to be removed from this Earth. Who can be the deciding factor upon taking another’s life? This class has taught me to think for myself and think about my actions. Mr. Gallaher is the best teacher for this position because he has a deep passion for this subject and he knows how to make students want to learn more. There is no homework, tests, or quizzes in this class. I thought this was an interesting aspect to a class because so often do we find ourselves learning something only because we are obligated to learn it. I find that this takes the reality out of our classes and makes them more mindless information that is just being forced into our heads.
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Civic agency is the capacity of human communities and groups to act cooperatively and collectively on common problems across their differences of view.”(1) Being able to achieve this goal, civic agency, requires three major points that are connected to fully understand and to help the situation. First, is an intellectual understanding of what’s happening, second is an emotional connection to the peoples’ plight and, third; is a moral belief to tell you that what is happening is wrong and needs fixing. That’s what this class has done for me that matters to me the most. It’s given me the tools I need to be able to fill my role in civic agency. Without any sort of civic agency, humans never would have come as far as we have, as fast as we have. It takes more than one person to solve a problem. Before anyone is able to help other people, they first have to know if a person needs help. And, to do that, they have to know what they believe is right or wrong and use that to determine whether a situation needs any intervention or not. A person needs a moral connection before they can help anyone. Hearing only the words of what happened is nothing. Words can’t portray the same sense of emotion that a film can.
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It would seem obvious that, as a person, you should try to help someone when you can however; this class has made it evident that people would rather look away than do anything to help in a crisis. And those few who fight back, the resistance, aren’t solders, they’re normal people and families just like those of the people who would persecute them. They are the same as you and I. This case was never more evident in (that one about the polish resistance in Warsaw). Hearing about the resistance against and actually bringing it to life are two incredibly district and different things. Seeing this film immediately changed how I thought about freedom fighters. Before the film I thought that extended the duration and intensity of abuse was something that seemed stupid. Why would anyone want to do that to themselves and other people? But, although it isn’t entirely clear, know I think in an opposite way. If there are people that are willing to fight, than it’s worth it if you can save even one life from the horrors that it would see otherwise. The other side to fighting is that at least you can decide your fate, that there is no uncertainty, you will live or die by fighting for your people. Hearing people talking like that was a shock. In modern day, age and death are hidden away from the public eye but at this point in my life I’m well accustomed to death’s presence. I’ve lost best friends, a brother, and the closest people in my life, yet; for death to seem just as a matter of fact maybe even a relief was a shock. I never took the time to think that these people had no other chose that, to them, fighting was the only option that they had. I’ve never been through anything near what the Jews in Europe, and I hope that I never will have to but, if conditions come to such a point that we are the only ones who can or will help us, I would do what I can to help the resistance. These are words that bear a lot of weight and uncertainty yet, the best I can is give my word. And as a secondary thought, if no outside power or people are helping the resistance they’ve been betrayed by mankind and I with this class, it gives me an opportunity to recognize the warning signs so that I can help the people in need, not condemn them. The ability to recognize the signs of genocide and to help when it’s needed is something that makes me a better person than the start of the class, the veil has been lifted and I can understand a lot more now. The BBC films “A Warning from History” excelled at showing how the Nazi’s were able to gain control and behave the way they did. After watching the film it seems that the Nazi rise to power was too easy and that it was obvious that they were evil, which is a word that I hold in great reserve for only the worst of forces and that’s who they were, the worst of forces. A force for evil. Having a fuller understanding of the Nazi rise gives a preemptive knowledge of when a government is taking a turn for the worst. To be able to cut through the lives of their policies and see who they really are, humans, humans that we allowed to take power and do what they did. Our hands are covered in the blood of their victims because we didn’t help. That is a great lesson the class teaches, awareness, and you won’t even notice that this change has occurred when it first happens. The best thing this class can teach you is not the history of killing but, civic agency, and how to not be the bystander.
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Jacob Aguillard
What Facing History and Ourselves Meant to Me
Choosing Facing History as a class was a decision I made without much information. I had been told from nearly source that the class was something I shouldn’t miss, that it was a requirement before I left the school. So, I took the class with only a vague understanding of what was in store for me. I already knew what the class was teaching, not much surprised me, but words are only that, they have no emotion until they are given a voice. And that’s what this class does, it gives the word “Holocaust” a voice with every scream and whimper that the victims of it cried. The course allows you to see exactly how the Nazis rose to power and how the Jews were killed by the millions. Seeing and understanding these actions has made it impossible to just ignore the words “Genocide, death camp, and Nazis.” Learning the real weight is as easy as watching a movie, a documentary, or a speech, and that’s how the lessons of this class are taught, through film. By the end of the class you will have a full understanding of civic agency and the different types of people that arise in a crisis.
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Jacob Aguillard
What Facing History and Ourselves Meant to Me
Choosing Facing History as a class was a decision I made without much information. I had been told from nearly source that the class was something I shouldn’t miss, that it was a requirement before I left the school. So, I took the class with only a vague understanding of what was in store for me. I already knew what the class was teaching, not much surprised me, but words are only that, they have no emotion until they are given a voice. And that’s what this class does, it gives the word “Holocaust” a voice with every scream and whimper that the victims of it cried. The course allows you to see exactly how the Nazis rose to power and how the Jews were killed by the millions. Seeing and understanding these actions has made it impossible to just ignore the words “Genocide, death camp, and Nazis.” Learning the real weight is as easy as watching a movie, a documentary, or a speech, and that’s how the lessons of this class are taught, through film. By the end of the class you will have a full understanding of civic agency and the different types of people that arise in a crisis.
In the short video, After the First, a young son is forced to go hunting thinking that it was going to be fun. Leaving early in the morning with his father, his first hunting trip was like a rite of passage. The son had no idea what really was going to happen. He did not want to kill the sweet, adorable, fluffy rabbit, but, his dad pressured him into doing it. The dad was an authority figure and the son didn’t want to tell him “No”. He pulled the trigger and killed the rabbit. At the end of the video, the son brought the dead rabbit over to his father and said to the dad,” Are you happy now?” Or, something likes that. This video shows how an authority can pressure someone who doesn’t have authority into doing something that they do not want to do. As with the Nazis, people were frightened and could not say “No” even if they wanted to. The son finally did what his father said. The people of Germany finally listened to the Nazis and turned on their friends and neighbors and did horrible things just because they were pressured.
In the video, The Children’s March, I saw how young people stood up to the authority of the police. They had enough courage to march as a group even though they were sprayed with water hoses and dogs were barking at them constantly. I would like to think that if I were in that situation, I would have the courage to stand up for what I believe in. I wonder if the young people ever thought that they could be killed. They could have been trampled, or attacked by the dogs and humans who hated them or even shot. This was truly inspirational. My life is so easy and safe. I am a white woman who lives in the US. I am the model that the Nazis wanted for all the German people. Blacks would not be members of the Aryan race. I would be. It would take such a moral courage to stand up for my neighbors and friends, especially if I could get hurt in the march. I have a very good African American male friend, and I would like to think that I would stand up for him no matter what! These stories are important for everyone to hear and see!
Watching the video, Hotel Rwanda, was another movie that we watch was genocide. The Hutus and Tutsi were going at war. Too April 7- mid July an estimated count of 500,000- 1,000,000 Rwanda’s were brutally killed. This manager name Paul is a Hutu but his wife is a Tutsi. His buddy whose is a good supplier to the hotel is a leader of a very dangerous Hutu military. The people in Paul’s neighborhood and family head to the hotel for safe keeping. Children start gathering from Red Cross and this hotel is forming a refugee camp. People from around the world are there staying while all of this is going on. The UN takes action and gets every one out of the country into safe keeping but the people that live in Rwanda. The UN trying to attempt to evacuate a good portion of the refugees. The other refugees are later safe. Paul’s family and a couple others are going to the missionaries behind the Tutsi rebel lines. The African Americas were treated poorly by the whites, just like how the Hutus treated the Tutsi. Each race should be equal and not be too quick to judge. The fact that we were to fight and segregate the blacks from everything, schools, stores, churches and exedra. We aren’t different from the Hutus and Tutsi just because they have different culture and race we shouldn’t or any one should act upon it. Going to Project Rwanda gave me a better understanding on how much other countries need us. I always had some what an idea that other countries needed help but its hard when you’ve never actually whitens some one going through that unless you meet someone or travel there. My mom has been to Africa and we have heard stories and pictures and art work but it didn’t sink in till I went to Project Rwanda and whiteness
Several factors made World War 2 the most deadly war of all time. First of all, the weaponry used in the war was likely the biggest reason. There were virtually no rules in this war which allowed bombing to become a norm. Carpet bombs took out millions of people during the war; also, the United States used the first two atomic bombs of all time in this war. Another factor as to why the war was so deadly is how strong the resistance’s will was. Japanese soldiers were taught to never surrender, and their soldiers kept this precedent at heart throughout the war despite getting annihilated by the United States army. Even after one atomic bomb the Japanese refused to give up. Not to the same extreme as the Japanese, the Germans did not give up easy either. German soldiers and leaders fought to the bitter end of the war, the leaders literally fighting to the death taking cyanide pills after the war had ended. The final reason as to why the war was so incredibly deadly is the massive number of countries involved. There were almost 50 different countries taking part in the war most with massive armies.
“The Swing Kids” was a movie that showed a group of kids that embraced swing music and chose not to join the Hitler Youth and the Nazi movement. The movie did a great job showing the difficulties of being in a discriminated against minority and standing up to a powerful majority. In the beginning of the film, a group of friends got along perfectly together and had a great friendship; however, there stint as swing kids became harder and harder to stand by as the Hitler Youth and Nazis cracked down more and more on their resistance. Eventually, the swing kids are greatly encouraged to join the Hitler Youth and, of the friends, all but one join. The swing kids are at first against the Hitler Youth despite being in it and they hold their anti-Nazi values, but eventually they are morphed into the larger group that is the Hitler Youth. After being brainwashed in the Hitler Youth, the swing kids turn on their own friend that did not join. One of the swing kids even sells out his own dad to the Nazis. This movie was definitely pretty eye-opening to me because it showed that even people originally in resistance groups felt that they had to succumb to the peer pressure and avoid being an outcast or being sent to a concentration camp. It was very hard to watch kids turn on their own friends but that was the reality of World War 2. This movie definitely encouraged me to stand up for what I believe in despite what else everybody else is doing.
I thought before taking the facing history course that I probably wouldn’t change as a person because I already treated all people equal despite their religion, race, sexuality, etc., but I can honestly say at the conclusion of this course that I did change. Before the course I hated Nazis and I felt that all of the Germans that helped sell out Jews to the Nazis must have been evil, but with civic agency I can now tell that they were just doing what they felt they had to do to stay alive. I learned that you really can’t blame the individuals that went along with the Nazi cause, but instead the general public as a whole for being weak-minded enough to go along with something that most people don’t even agree with. This course definitely challenges me to never just do something because it is what everybody else is doing. I learned to stand up for what is right, not what’s popular. In the future, I hope to never give in to peer pressure and to stand for what I believe in; although I may have weak moments and give in, I know that if I believe in something strongly enough that I will stand for what I believe in. I would like to thank you, Mr. Gallagher, for taking the time to teach this course and for helping make the world a better place by helping more and more people become less ignorant and gain civic agency.
Another topic that I found very interesting in the course was the beginning phases of the Holocaust and the build-up to World War 2. Several videos taught us how Germany was in a very vulnerable position after World War 1. The people of Germany were desperate for recovery, and when an incredibly powerful and strong-opinioned leader like Adolf Hitler came along, the people of Germany had found their guy. When the general population of the country saw a strong leader that promised above and beyond what the German people were expecting, they felt so absorbed in this wave of confidence that people totally gave themselves over to Hitler and basically allowed him to take the reins. From there, Hitler began one of the most effective and massive events of brainwash of all time. Adolf Hitler began a group called the Hitler Youth which instilled the principles he believed in in the youth of Germany. While kids are obviously easily swayed, many children began joining the Hitler Youth. Over time, not joining the Hitler Youth basically meant social suicide for kids; while small scale peer pressure can influence kids into doing things such as drinking, you can only imagine how difficult it would be for a kid to resist the trend of joining the Hitler Youth. Once nearly the entire child population of Germany had joined the Hitler Youth, the brainwashing reached an all-time effectiveness. Children and their friends were taught to think of Jews, homosexuals, mentally ill, and gypsies as a totally different species. Hitler basically had free reign to teach the children whatever he wanted for about an 8 year stretch. As shown in “The Nazis: A Warning From History”, those that were once in the Hitler Youth comprised Hitler’s army and the Nazis. This group of fanatics was one of the strongest militaries in the world, and their goal was basically to take over the world. The movie showed us how Germany began ripping through a couple surrounding countries; more importantly, the video showed us how no other countries decided to step in and help these countries. From there, the Nazis spread their rule even further all around Europe, getting more and more powerful with each country conquered. Not only did the Nazis conquer the countries, the Jews in each of the countries were dealt with immediately. Jewish people lost their homes and were promptly sent to ghettos in which they were basically forced to starve in close quarters with one another. This was just the beginning of the catastrophe that was the Holocaust.
Once Germany’s rule had spread to other countries, the Allies were formed. The Allies were the resistance to the German’s and the Axis powers. While it did appear to be an honorable thing for the Allies to step in and attempt to stop the Nazis, their motives are questionable. Based on “The Nazis: A Warning From History”, it seems that the Allies stepped in more so to protect themselves then those being hunted in World War 2. In fact, despite knowing about the chaos that were concentration camps, the Allies and the United States did nothing about it. People actually concealed information about concentration camps from the general public in order to keep focus on the war itself instead of about the Jews.
One of the earlier topics in the course that I found very interesting was the discrimination of blacks and more specifically Mrs. Elliott and her experiment. While people today don’t understand how people could possibly abuse and kill African Americans like they did in the recent past in America, this course allowed students to put themselves in the shoes of both the African Americans and the people that treated the African Americans so horribly. While it seems that the racism was just downright terrible and immoral to us living in 2014, this was the social norm in this era. Generations of parents brainwashed their kids from the time that they were born that African Americans were a totally different animal than white people, and considering this was the same feeling among almost all of the general public, it is very easy to see how so many people were racist. One video that definitely will stay with me was the civil rights protest in which hundreds of African Americans were jailed, beaten, and taken out by fire hoses during a peaceful protest. I was inspired deeply by this video because these African American children knew that they were sacrificing their bodies and going to jail to prove a point. Luckily, their protest and many similar protests finally worked. Once such catastrophic events went public on TV, the general public almost had no other choice but to realize how wrong what was happening to the African Americans was. The topic of racism and the civil rights movement makes Mrs. Elliott’s experiment pretty shocking to watch. After seeing how quickly people can become prejudice in Mrs. Elliott’s experiment, it goes to show how difficult it must have been to resist racism that had been passed down for generations and anti-Semitism during Hitler’s period of brainwash over many years to the German youth. I was shocked to see in Mrs. Elliott’s experiment how quickly the children and even parents became prejudice against people with different eye color. There was even some violence within a matter of hours of Mrs. Elliott announcing one eye color being better than another.
Going into senior year, I had heard many great things about the Westborough High School facing history course. Students that have taken the course in the past explained to me that facing history is less of a school course and more of a life changing experience. Going into the course, I will admit I was quite skeptical that a high school course could be so impactful; however, after experiencing the course firsthand I can understand what the students were talking about. Another part of the reason that I took the course is that facing history focuses on the Holocaust which I find one of the most interesting topics in history. I also have a personal connection with the Holocaust; not too long before the beginning of World War 2, my great grandmother had a dream in which she saw a black cloud. The anti-Jewish sentiment that was on the rise in Germany combined with this dream caused my great grandmother and her family to flee Poland prior to the Holocaust. Despite my family avoiding the devastation that was the Holocaust, I and especially my grandparents have a significant emotional connection to what happened during World War 2. The facing history course is basically a lesson to students on how to gain civil agency and stop being ignorant. The course uses events from history in which minorities were treated poorly to set the precedent that all people are equal. The course started with a slightly more relatable topic of racism which vaulted into the civil rights movement and that period of history in America in which African Americans were treated horribly. From there, students had begun to gain enough civic agency to be able to relate to the next topic, the Holocaust. The part of the course related to the Holocaust began with Hitler’s raise of power to show how the people of Germany were manipulated into believing in this type of government. Hitler’s practical brain-washing of an entire nation’s youth showed how a massive group of fanatics can be manipulated into committing such a horrible event in history as the Holocaust. Next the course moved onto World War 2 and the devastating amount of deaths that occurred during this time. Finally, the Nuremberg trials gave the actual live proof of the absolute horrors that took place in concentration camps. Overall, I think that facing history taught me to stand up for what I believe in and not just follow in everybody else’s footsteps; the course allowed me to put myself in other people’s shoes and therefore make decisions that don’t just support the majority.
In closing, Facing History and we has made me a more thoughtful person. I am more aware of terrible situations that happened to people in the past because of their race, religion, political belief and disabilities. I will continue to travel to Mexico to help disadvantaged people and would like one day to travel with the Neil’s to Rwanda/ An ironic piece of information surfaced a few months ago which really has affected my mom and me. My mother read in a family biography that her grandmother was actually Jewish. Since, the female in a Jewish family hands down the tradition in the Jewish belief…then, my mom and also me are Jewish. How wonderful to hear this!
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like him. Also at social meeting people would say “Heil Hitler” when in America, that would seem weird if we started saying “Heil Obama” every time we met our friends. When I signed up for this course, I wanted to know how people could be so brainwashed and want to follow such a corrupt man. Another good movie was The Pianist. I didn’t know how the Germans could actually force the Jews into the ghettos and why they never fought back and this movie answered that for me. I felt a real connection with the characters when they felt so hopeless that they had to go along no matter what. The Swing Kids was excellent in grasping all of the attitudes of the children towards Hitler It really shows how much brainwashing actually went on in Germany in those times. I did not think I was going to like it at first but the producers left you wanting that the main characters don't "turn". It showed what kind of pressure these kids were under to join the HJ. I really enjoyed watching the movies like this to really show what those kids acted like to each other. Another video was the MIlgram Experiment. I hated how fast that those pathetic human beings changed once they knew that the blame was off their shoulders. I know that it is easy to say that I wouldn’t have done the same thing but, at the beginning of the course, I probably would have done the same as some of those teachers did. They didn’t care how much pain the student was in and they still forced them to go through all of the shocks. They threw away their morals once the guy made them feel bad and said that they wouldn’t be blamed incase anything bad happened to the student. I liked the beginning part of Saving Private Ryan. That is a great movie that is very sad but also very true about WWII. I think the beggining sceen in Normandy should be mandatory for everyone to see at some point in their lives. Also not just the holocaust but also the revolts in Rwanda showed how bad people can be if they are told the right stuff. It just goes to show that you can get people to believe anything and that even though the same thing was happening 50 years ago, they still wouldn’t learn from their mistakes. It shows what kind of people they were in Rwanda to do the same horrors that happened with the Nazi’s not long ago.
All in all at the end of the year I can say that this course really changed me and how I viewed things and people. I started off being a bystander and through all of the different videos and and documentaries I can say that I am different. I never thought that a course in high school would change me like this one did. Some previous seniors and my guidance counselor warned me of how heavy it was and I didn’t believe them and I will be sure to pass along this message. I don’t think that this course could be as good as someone teached it like you. Mr. Gallagher is one of the best teachers I have because of how self-aware he is and how much he wants to help. I think that someone needs to take over this course for next year because I can’t believe that people will not be able to take this course next year because the only one who teaches it is retiring. The only thing I wish was different was that there isn’t a second part to this class or that it isn’t full year. I hope one day this course becomes mandatory because I think that if everyone takes this it will make the world a better place and stop anything like the Holocaust or the events in Rwanda from ever happening again. I can’t thank you enough for making this course available to me and to change me for the better. I hope another teacher can pick where you left off and start changing peoples lives in the school because the loss of this class is devastating and should really a part of the core curriculum because there is not a single course in Westborough High School that could change a person like this course did and will continue to do. Thank you for a great year Mr. Gallagher
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ituation. Even at the start of the course I didn’t believe that it would change me, but at the end I can honestly say that it did.The perpetrator’s such as Adolf Hitler or Heinrich Himmler are ones who could never benefit of something like this course because they are the evil in the world and nothing could possibly change. Just hearing what some of the previous nazis said to defend themselves was pathetic. Those who wouldn’t own up to their faults and lied were the ones who can never change and are weak people. The guidance dept. should read these essays because if they saw what the kids were saying about this course, it would be life changing for students who are on the fence about taking it.
The Bear That Wasn’t was closely related to the Holocaust. The story was a great example of the mob/group mentality. The bear knew deep inside that he was a bear and even though all of the factory workers denied it, the bear wanted to be a bear but second guessed himself. I love how the bear in a childrens story can be so relatable to the victims of the Holocaust Groups ruin an individual's true identity. People change who they are in groups for the approval of their peers. The bear knew deep down inside that he is a bear and the groups mentality is that he is a human. This story is about the struggle of the bear against the mob mentality and how he handles it. My favorite video we watched this year was A Class Divided. Mrs. Elliot was definitely ahead of her time. Not many people back then would have dared to make the bold move that she did or to even think that way. It should be part of the core curriculum to do what Mrs. Elliot did in her class because even when those kids came back as adults they were changed people. Making a class torment each other based off of the color The children's lives have been changed because of this woman. She has stopped a whole classroom of families from become racist/prejudice and hopefully their children will not be like those kids use to be. I really enjoyed this film because of how early she molded their minds on prejudice to almost make the kids aware of how humans can act towards one another. Another very informative film was The Longest Hatred. I never knew before this class and this film why the Nazis targeted the jews and why everyone was so easy to jump on the band wagon. This video was very eye-opening. The story of how the jews became such a hated culture is depressing and interesting. i understand why everyone was so ready to just hate them even though their was no real evidence except the “Race Science”. People followed Hitler when he could blame Germany’s economic issues on the jews and that led him to being such a liked man in Germany until his down fall. It shows how much blame can really mess up a bunch of people. This was also very interesting because it shows that people very well knew what they were getting into when they elected Hitler into power. Another one of my favorites was The Swing Kids. The best part about it was when one of the writers emailed to say how happy he was that he affected us. Even the person who wrote the movie didn’t know how good it was and how great of a representation it was for kids to join the Hitler Youth. I love how it shows really how much pressure kids were under back then to conform and do things like the HJ and turn on their friends and even their families. I never even knew that the Hitler Youth even existed and that so many German children aspired to be a man just
Julia Zawadzki
May 21,2014
“What Facing History and Ourselves Meant to Me”
Intorduction:
The reason why I took this course was to have a better understand of the Holocaust and how it affected millions of Jewish people. My mother always wanted to be Jewish and she said that she felt a connection to anyone Jewish. Since my mother was always an active member of our church, I followed her and decided to make a difference also. As an active member of my church, I have been a part of helping developing nations know about God and help to build homes for them. When I read about Facing History and Us, I thought that it would be a great course for me to take since I help people and am horrified when I read stories of how others are killed for no reason. I plan on going to Mexico for a second time this summer to help build houses for the people and an orphanage. FHAO is mainly about the Nazis, but it also taught me about the Civil rights movement and how horrible Americans were to the blacks. Facing History and Ourselves showed me how people’s minds can be molded when they are little and how easy it is for friends to turn on one another. I learned how people are either bystanders or rescuers. I like to believe that I am a rescuer as I always want to help people in need.
What Facing History and Ourselves Meant to Me:
FHAO has benefitted me as a student and a person in many ways. I loved the movie, Ms. Elliot. I had no idea how easily a young child could be corrupted just by an authority figure, the teacher, could change their mind, in seconds. The teacher decided to do an experiment that said that blue eye kids are smarter and better than brown eye kids. The blue eye students actually knew the answers to math problems and had more confidence than the brown eye kids. They turned on their peers. When the teacher switched the roles, the same thing happened. It was sad to see how the kids who thought they were stupid, put their heads on their desks and ran their fingers through their hair because they were so upset. The kids, who thought that they were smarter, raised their hands quicker and were called on more, too.
I really loved the story, The Bear That Wasn’t. People told the bear that he was a “…silly man in a fur coat. They told him that he was a “circus bear”. The bear really was just a bear that lived in the woods and while he was hibernating a factory was built around his den. When he woke, the factory managers told him to “Get back to work”. When the bear said that he wasn’t a worker that he was just a bear, the man laughed at him and said “you’re just a silly man in a fur coat.” I learned a lot from this story. If a parent is always telling a child that they are stupid, or ugly or awkward, chances are that is all the child will know. The child will live up to the parent’s standard. On the other hand, if a parent tells a child that they have ability in activities, that they are kind and important to the parent, then the child will grow up to be a sensitive well-liked human being. The bear really didn’t have a clue that he was, as a child who does not get nurtured with good words from their parent, will always has self-esteem issues.
In the short video, After the First, a young son is forced to go hunting thinking that it was going to be fun. Leaving early in the morning with his father, his first hunting trip was like a rite of passage. The son had no idea what really was going to happen. He did not want to kill the sweet, adorable, fluffy rabbit, but, his dad pressured him into doing it. The dad was an authority figure and the son didn’t want to tell him “No”. He pulled the trigger and killed the rabbit. At the end of the video, the son brought the dead rabbit over to his father and said to the dad,” Are you happy now?” Or, something likes that. This video shows how an authority can pressure someone who doesn’t have authority into doing something that they do not want to do. As with the Nazis, people were frightened and could not say “No” even if they wanted to. The son finally did what his father said. The people of Germany finally listened to the Nazis and turned on their friends and neighbors and did horrible things just because they were pressured.
In the video, The Children’s March, I saw how young people stood up to the authority of the police. They had enough courage to march as a group even though they were sprayed with water hoses and dogs were barking at them constantly. I would like to think that if I were in that situation, I would have the courage to stand up for what I believe in. I wonder if the young people ever thought that they could be killed. They could have been trampled, or attacked by the dogs and humans who hated them or even shot. This was truly inspirational. My life is so easy and safe. I am a white woman who lives in the US. I am the model that the Nazis wanted for all the German people. Blacks would not be members of the Aryan race. I would be. It would take such a moral courage to stand up for my neighbors and friends, especially if I could get hurt in the march. I have a very good African American male friend, and I would like to think that I would stand up for him no matter what! These stories are important for everyone to hear and see!
Watching the video, Hotel Rwanda, was another movie that we watch was genocide. The Hutus and Tutsi were going at war. Too April 7- mid July an estimated count of 500,000- 1,000,000 Rwanda’s were brutally killed. This manager name Paul is a Hutu but his wife is a Tutsi. His buddy whose is a good supplier to the hotel is a leader of a very dangerous Hutu military. The people in Paul’s neighborhood and family head to the hotel for safe keeping. Children start gathering from Red Cross and this hotel is forming a refugee camp. People from around the world are there staying while all of this is going on. The UN takes action and gets every one out of the country into safe keeping but the people that live in Rwanda. The UN trying to attempt to evacuate a good portion of the refugees. The other refugees are later safe. Paul’s family and a couple others are going to the missionaries behind the Tutsi rebel lines. The African Americas were treated poorly by the whites, just like how the Hutus treated the Tutsi. Each race should be equal and not be too quick to judge. The fact that we were to fight and segregate the blacks from everything, schools, stores, churches and exedra. We aren’t different from the Hutus and Tutsi just because they have different culture and race we shouldn’t or any one should act upon it. Going to Project Rwanda gave me a better understanding on how much other countries need us. I always had some what an idea that other countries needed help but its hard when you’ve never actually whitens some one going through that unless you meet someone or travel there. My mom has been to Africa and we have heard stories and pictures and art work but it didn’t sink in till I went to Project Rwanda and whiteness
Part 1/3
Alex Sharma
Introduction
My name is Alexander Sanjay James Sharma, and I am currently a junior at Westborough High School. I chose to take Facing History & Ourselves for a few reasons. The first reason is that I have always enjoyed learning about WWII and, more specifically, the Holocaust. Facing History & Ourselves was the only course that would fulfill that need. Secondly, I have always wanted to find out what kind of a person I was. I know it is easy to say that people wouldn’t do the stuff that the Nazis did but, after having taken the course, It is hard to say what I would have done if I had been in that situation. Another reason I took the course was that that my sister Maggie had wanted to take the class when she was a junior; however, it didn’t fit in her schedule, and she recommended that I take it. I wish that this class could also be offered to sophomores or freshmen because sometimes later their schedules might be full and they won’t know how they can take such an amazing course. The final reason was that heard it was an easy class, and I wanted a break in my day. However, I soon realized that this would be the highlight of my day when I could sit and learn what really happened in Germany in the 1940’s. People who had told me that it was an easy class must not have paid attention After seeing even some of the movie depictions of dangerously skinny people and dead bodies, it was very hard to walk out of the call and not have the images have an effect on me for the rest of the day. This is easy to say that this class changed my outlook on life. I now know that even saying something remotely offensive about someone's character can do awful things to them and lead to awful events. Even something as bad as the Holocaust couldn’t change peoples minds because no one taught it like this course did. All of the fighting in Rwanda 20 years ago was just the same. One group of people were committing genocide and nobody decided to help for the same reasons they did not help during the Holocaust and the years before.
I never knew last year how much this course would change me. Last year, I remember discussing my course selections with Mrs. Goodlife, my guidance counselor. When I told her that I was interested in World War II, she suggested that I take Facing History and Ourselves. She warned me that it was a life changing course and that a lot of kids leave the course thinking of how it changed them and who they are. I kind of took it as a challenge and a true test of who I am. After the first week when you explained the different kind of people one can be, I never thought of myself as a bystander. But, at some point during the course, the realization came to me that I had been a bystander in the past.There is always something that you can do in a situation that would not make one a bystander. and I would never take advantage of those kinds of opportunities. I look back and reflect who I was throughout the course, and I can say that I have changed. Seeing the kind of treatment others were given can really get you to think of who you are and what you would have done in that s
Innocent the painter who has seen children gone through this and has been through this himself. I really hope is can make a difference on going there some day. Or even participating again for a fundraiser. This relates to the Nazis and Jewish people because even if they don’t have the same culture they are still equal to each other bad people should discriminate each other. I believe that no one really thinks if they were put in their shoes how they would feel if someone was killing me because of what is believe in or what I look like.
Watching another extremely sad and depressing video The Milgram Experience. Having someone has authority over you changes your perspective. A group of people decided to give a little experience on other people. They would shock their friends just because an authority told them too. Also if you told them “this isn’t fair” there response was “its okay you signed up for this.” or something like that or they would even say “no”. I like to think if I as student wouldn’t be a by standard and say something to that person that was shocking or hurting my friend. In this case people shouldn’t be shocking their friend if they are getting the answer wrong their is no difference between you or them. When someone in authority tends to say no you respect them, but there is a very thin line I think. If someone is getting hurt or being not treated right or being sexually attacked someone needs to step in and take authority and say some thing about this because it’s not right or healthy to do this. The reason why they weren’t sympathetic is because authority instructs them to and they didn’t want to disappoint someone in authority because you could get punished.
Watching The Swing Kids the 2 of the main characters Peter and Thomas join their friend Arvid to a swing club. Which is being different and expressing your feelings so the Nazis furan on upon this. Anything that was considering “American” or “promiscuous.” Nazi were only allowed to listen to German white Artist and would argue threatened or abuse with the composer to change it because its not right and they only listen to German artist. Peter Gets caught by the Nazis and his friend Thomas becomes a Nazi because peter is. Peter isn’t taking being a Nazi seriously but Thomas is. Thomas is becoming more like the Nazis and Peter is angry and sad too see him like this, Thomas never use to be like this he use to hit up the swing club but now authority has taking over. Thomas is making Jewish people doing awful things, while Peter is just still believing what he believes in. Having authority is one of the best feelings ever but you have to be careful about it. Peter and Thomas and his friend Arvid all go to the swing club before change has happened. Arvid is paralyzed he can’t walk well, so when they go to the club he listens. Arvid and Thomas starting to become more like enemies then best friends. Thomas is stating to grow away of him do to the fact that he is paralyzed and listens to German Artist. So Thomas starts making fun of him how he can’t move and how he bad taste in songs. Turning on friends for some thing that they are born with and cannot fix is awful, you’re not a real friend id you do so. Even making fun of the artist because of his religion is awful. What I mean by that is seeing brother against brother. Peter comes home from working and after seeing his little brother with Thomas teaching him Nazi routines and other things I believe. Peter sees this and gets very mad he get effected by this and doesn’t want to have his little brother become like what he is today.
In closing, Facing History and we has made me a more thoughtful person. I am more aware of terrible situations that happened to people in the past because of their race, religion, political belief and disabilities. I will continue to travel to Mexico to help disadvantaged people and would like one day to travel with the Neil’s to Rwanda/ An ironic piece of information surfaced a few months ago which really has affected my mom and me. My mother read in a family biography that her grandmother was actually Jewish. Since, the female in a Jewish family hands down the tradition in the Jewish belief…then, my mom and also me are Jewish. How wonderful to hear this!
Part 1
Hi, my name is Elizabeth Whalen. Going into my junior year at WHS, I was happily surprised when I saw that I had been put into “Facing History and Ourselves.” Although I hadn’t actually signed up for it, I still planned on taking the course sometime during my time in High School and was excited that I would get a chance to see what all the excitement was really about. My brother and others had told me that it was an intriguing and eye-opening class, but I never could have guessed how the course would have changed my life. I have always been a good student and have devoted a lot of time to my schoolwork and the pursuit of knowledge, but taking this course was one of the first times that I was actually inspired to do research outside of class and learn more about what really interested me instead of simply memorizing what I had to in order to get a better grade. “Facing History and Ourselves,” allowed me to understand the concept of civic agency and how to understand people in a different light, as well as highlighting the Holocaust and providing gruesome details that developed my understanding of what really happened.
Facing History and Ourselves seems like your average easy elective course with a total lack of tests, quizzes, and homework, but the meaningful and often weighty content add a layer of depth that other classes lack. Instead of teaching basic photography skills or how to bake a cake, Facing History and Ourselves teaches students how to be better students and human beings through a thorough study of the Civil Rights Movement, Rwandan Genocide, and the Holocaust. The powerful films, documentaries, discussions, and readings helped to establish a firm social and ethical awareness to help understand the true horrors of all of the terrible atrocities committed by appalling people. Also, a discussion of World War I and II created a sense of historical understanding to provide context as to how holocausts and genocides were able to take place and how different events were viewed in the context of the time. Finally, the encouragement of community service and reassurance that everyone is important led to an increase in civic learning. Facing History and Ourselves taught me a lot about being a generally good human being and student.
Since I started Facing History and Ourselves, I have noticed that I have developed a more benevolent desire to help other people as well as become more accepting of other people. Instead of simply judging others like I had done for years before, I have tried to be more rational in making important decisions and understanding how my actions affect everyone, not just myself. Recently, I have realized that everything that everyone does creates a ripple effect, and although we may not mean it, our actions can create drastic consequences for others. Facing History and Ourselves has made me understand that sometimes, people have to make difficult decisions, but they pale in comparison to the decisions that Jews were forced to make in a split second during the Holocaust. Sometimes in life, things go wrong, but most people never experience the horrors presented to millions of human beings. The typical high school drama and all the things that seem terrible in the mind of a normal teenager no longer seem as important after witnessing the life that young children had to endure until they starved to death in the Warsaw Ghetto, simply because they were Jewish. Facing History and Ourselves taught me how to not be a bystander and to stand up for what I know is right to protect myself, my friends, my family, and total strangers. The short semester I spent in Facing History and Ourselves changed my life by polishing the values I already possessed in some capacity and adding more to make me a better human being in the end.
Part 2
Part of the reason why I think Facing History and Ourselves change me so much was the fact that there were no restrictions on what could be said, and that answers were graded not on a right or wrong basis and more simply if they were honest. As a precondition of the class, students were required to sign a form, promising that they would be totally free and unbounded with their speech and beliefs. I think part of the freedom came from Mr. Gallagher. Mr. Gallagher provided a very natural and unassuming presence that totally embodied the values of the course and what he was trying to get across. He remained free of prejudice and was always willing to listen and provide explanations to anyone who was ever confused. The first couple of days, I was surprised and confused by the way class was run and how Mr. Gallagher taught such morally heavy topics when he gave away candy and ended some classes with music; it was so unlike any class I had ever been in before that I didn’t know what to think, but I quickly acclimated to the different teaching style and accepted the change with relief. The way that Mr. Gallagher taught Facing History and Ourselves cannot possibly be replicated by any other teacher, and I am incredibly grateful that I was placed into the class this year instead of next as I think many of the films and discussions simply wouldn’t be the same with a different teacher.
In the beginning of the semester, before we made it to the Holocaust, we watched a documentary entitle “The Children’s March,” which detailed one of the major civil rights demonstrations in Birmingham, Alabama. In the video, African American children and teenagers stood up for what they believed in and willingly went to jail in hopes that they would succeed in gaining some civil rights. Due to the fear of the adults, only the children, organized by Malcolm X and several local ministers, were willing to stand up against fire hoses, police brutality, and dog attacks in order to get what they wanted. Thousands of African American children were arrested repeatedly and practically marched into police custody where they happily sang church hymns in filthy jail cells. This film really impacted me because the marchers were kids younger than me who were standing up and refusing to back down in the face of terror. I was amazed by the bravery and perseverance demonstrated by the children and quietly admitted to myself that I would not have done the same thing in their places. Little did I know, as time went on, Facing History and Ourselves would teach me how to not be a bystander in a terrible situation.
Part 3
Soon after “The Children’s March,” we watched the documentary “A Class Divided,” which made even more of an impact on me. Mrs. Elliot, a third grade teacher in Riceville, Iowa, did an experiment with her class that tried to mimic the prejudice created as a result of race issues in the United States. For the first day of a two-day experiment, Mrs. Elliot told her students that blue-eyed people were superior and were entitled to privileges that brown-eyed people weren’t allowed. She made the brown-eyed students wear collars and created an attitude in the room that excluded and demeaned brown-eyed students. The brown-eyed students reported feeling dejected, inferior, and unintelligent, just because they were told that their eye color made them inferior. The next day, the experiment was reversed, and had the exact same effects on the blue-eyed students. In one day, Mrs. Elliot managed to convince her class of third graders that brown-eyed people were bad and should not be treated the same as blue-eyed people. I was amazed by the incredibly quick transformation witnessed in the children and the willingness to accept that you are superior over someone who used to be your friends. I couldn’t believe the animosity between third graders towards their own classmates after one day of lies. It suddenly became a lot more understandable to me how the anti-African American sentiments spread through the United States over the course of several hundred years. Mrs. Elliot’s experiment with third graders and later adults were an incredible demonstration of how people will believe almost anything if it benefits them.
The film, “Freedom Riders” brought the class in a slightly new direction by telling the story of a new English teacher in a very racist school in California. Throughout the course of the school year, Ms. Gruwell managed to unite her entire class despite their different ethnicities and backgrounds and was actually able to teach a group of delinquent students about the Holocaust and how to be accepting of others. This movie affected me because of Ms. Gruwell’s perseverance and desire to help students that had been written off as being “unteachable” as well as creating friendships that crossed racial lines and defied all prior patterns. Even when Ms. Gurwell found resistance in her department head, who refused to give the students actual books to read, she tried to get around the opposition and simply bought the books on her own. After taking her class on a field trip to the Holocaust museum and bringing them all out to dinner, she has to tell her class that she cannot teach them for junior and senior years. Eventually, after much dedication and pleading, Ms. Gruwell manages to convince the superintendent to let her “family” stay together for two more years. In the end, despite terrible odds and many hardships along the way, Ms. Gruwell manages to prepare her “unteachable” class for college and beyond, providing an incredible example of how to change other people’s lives. The film made me realize that there are some truly good people in the world, despite some of the terrible things that happen.
Part 4
“The Milgram Experiment” was another film that made a huge impact on me, simply because of how unbelievable the results were. In the experiment, unsuspecting volunteers were told to administer shocks to an actor every time the
actor failed to learn the words on a list. Each time the wrong answer was chosen, the volunteer would raise the voltage of the electrical shocks by 15 volts up to a maximum of 450 volts. Almost all of the volunteers continued administering shocks to the actor until either, the experimenter told them to stop, or the voltage got to 450 volts. Despite the fact that the volunteers thought that they were shocking a perfectly friendly human being they continued shocking them simply because they were told to by an official looking scientist. I can’t imagine how someone would willingly inflict pain on another person when they could hear the person crying out in pain and begging to be freed. The fact that 65% of volunteers were would have shocked another person with a 450 volt shock was appalling to me. The need for people to be obedient subjects easily outweighed the moral issue with shocking another person just because they chose the incorrect answer on a stupid matching exercise. This film really showed me how most people are generally immoral and how important it is to understand the kindness that all people deserve.
The article entitled, “Mengele’s Children: The Twins of Auschwitz” greatly impacted me due to the lack of all moral rightness and the way that Dr. Mengele dealt with life and death so nonchalantly without any care. The article explained how twins would be ripped away from their families on the ramp and would be treated like animals. Twins were tattooed, inspected, and were given little food. Despite the seemingly terrifying treatment, Mengele gave the children candy, talked to them, and would even play with them. Most scarily, the twins were experimented on. They would have blood drawn in large quantities, forced to undergo random surgeries, and were often killed for the sake of comparison. The idea of experimentation on live children is so disgusting to me that it is almost too difficult to comprehend. One of the most impacting facets this year was the article on Mengele’s Children.
The film that impacted me the most out of everything this semester was the short segment that we saw of the film Sophie’s Choice. In the clip, Sophie is told to make an impossible decision, to choose one of her children to save and one to leave to die. The pure impossibility of the choice made me understand more about the sacrifices that Jews were forced to make in a split second. To me, choosing one child over the other is one of the worst things a parent could ever have to go through and the thought of one of them dying doesn’t make it any easier. The absolute horror of the 10-minute clip that we watched appalled me because of the nonchalance that the SS guard treated Sophie and her children’s lives. The fact that life and death could be decided in a moments notice by someone as close as your own mother was incredible to me. I can’t even imagine what it could have been like to be put in such a terrible situation and have no idea what I would’ve done in Sophie’s place. The clip of the film disgusted me with the lack of value that a human life possessed in the eyes of the Nazis.
This semester and Facing History and Ourselves made me a better person by showing me how to really be empathetic for another person and to understand the social feelings of a specific historical time period. This course was definitely life changing and I’m incredibly grateful that I was able to take it this year with Mr. Gallagher. Facing History and Ourselves was a hugely beneficial class that I will remember for a very long time.
The Facing History and Ourselves course really changed me as a person. I know for sure that I was once in my life a bystander, I know that once in my life I was a victim, and I know that once in my life I was a perpetrator, but not anymore. After this course, I won’t allow myself to be any of those anymore. And it changed my friends and classmates as well. I always send positive comments and encourage my friends and family to take this course if they ever have the chance. I think that in college, if there aren’t any Facing History and Ourselves courses in my university that I attend, I will try to allow there to be one. I feel like this course is necessary. It’s necessary because you find yourself throughout it. Its necessary because you are informed and your eyes are opened. It’s necessary because we have to stop being bystanders, we have to stop being victims, we have to stop being perpetrators and we need to stand up. We need to never allow such brutality to ever occur again. This course has found a special place in my heart and it will always hold a special place in my heart. I want to spread the knowledge and insight I learned during the course with everyone around me. I want to start a movement and help. I am truly grateful for what Mr. Gallagher has sat and taught me and my classmates for the past several months. I don’t know one person who has so much to give to students as Mr. Gallagher does. He is truly an inspiration, and an incredibly influential person. He has so much courage to teach such an emotional course year after year after year. In my opinion, we need to make this a mandatory course for all students to sit through. We need to make everyone aware. We need to stop all the war and all the troubles of the world and learn to live in peace, because brutality is never the answer. Opinions are opinions, and to each their own. Violence should be the last answer to solving anything. I’m truly happy that I took this course. It has changed me a lot.
We then started to learn about Hitler. We watched a documentary called “Architecture of Doom” which explained how Hitler had a dream of becoming an artist, which is why there was a lot of art influence incorporated into Nazism. We were provided a timeline that went from January 30, 1933, the date Hitler was appointed Chancellor of Germany, to May 1943 when the Ghettos are liquidated, and the Jews are sent to death camps. We learned some about the SS and the police power. The SS were extremely brutal towards the Jews. It really sickened me to know that people were so able to hurt and kill others so easily, without feeling or thinking a thing about it. After that, we saw the documentary about the Milgram Experiment. It went to show how people who are told to do something, and given orders, do it, even when they know that they are hurting others. I shared that documentary with friends because I thought it was very important. We learned about the Warsaw Ghetto uprising and watched a film that I thoroughly enjoyed. The film was about how rebels in the ghettos gathered up and smuggled weapons in and tried to revolt against the Nazis. It was great to learn that the Jews actually tried their hardest to fight back, when I always thought that they never even tried. We then started to learn about Treblinka. The name was even intimidating to me. It was the first camp the Nazis created, and the only camp they ever got to completely obliterate. We got a chart of all the major camps and I was honestly stunned by just how many there were. It was crazy and saddening to know that those weren’t the only camps. We watched a little snippet of a film called Sophie’s Choice. I cant even imagine how hard of a choice that would have been. And I know that in the moment, I wouldn’t have been able to choose, and that I would’ve then had both my children killed. I really liked that snippet. We recently watched a part of the film that was shown at the Nuremberg trials of the death camps after being liberated. It was very hard to watch. It was especially hard to see hundreds of dead bodies having to have been literally bulldozed into pits since there was just way too many to handle. I liked knowing that they sent German civilians to the camps, to see the horrors that their government and themselves condoned, and seeing just how emotional they got. People really won’t realize that they’re doing wrong until they see with their own eyes. We also watched a little bit of the Nuremberg Trials. We saw how the Nazis were seated according to their level of interference in the Holocaust. The men didn’t even seem to have had this faze them. It’s crazy that they were still so numb about this and still didn’t feel that they were doing any wrong after killing millions and millions of innocent human beings.
After going through little documentaries, we started to learn about World War I and about the 1929 Stock Market Collapse as well as the German view of The Treaty of Versailles. We went more into the Great Depression and learned about how stocks and the stock market worked. We learned about fascism, which I thought was great to learn about especially since fascism still exists today, when it shouldn’t. We learned about all of this to lead us up to exactly why and how the Holocaust was as successful as it was. Mr. Gallagher provided us with multiple timelines of the times before the holocaust, the times throughout it, and the times after it. He provided us with information on how everyone knew about the brutality and racism against the Jews in Germany, yet no one stood up or said anything about it in surrounding countries. That’s called being a bystander. We learned about how the Gestapo was born, which I thought was very informative. We learned a lot about obedience and how the Nazis used that term to brainwash the Germans into thinking that being obedient is the same as condoning the mass killing of innocents solely because of their religion. We started to learn about the Hitler Youth and it appalled me to see such young children supporting such ludicrous ideas. But I learned how they really didn’t have a choice. They were brainwashed to believe that the Jews were not human, and that Hitler was holding up the motherland.
We started off the course learning making an identity chart. We filled out what we thought character was about, then filled out what we thought our character was. We discussed this throughout the class. To start a class, and have to identify yourself first, that should’ve been a clear portrayal of how much the class would have changed us all. We read a short story called “Little Boxes” about ethnic groups and what we really believe we are. This short story was going to show how some of us cant just describe ourselves by checking off little boxes, and I thought that that point was very important. And it stuck with me. We also watched the documentary about Mrs. Elliot and what she put her first grade students through. I loved that documentary so much, and I even had a friend who watched it tell me that they would never be racist towards anyone again, even in a joking manner. It was a great activity and documentary. Being Muslim, I sort of could feel more towards the Mrs. Elliot activity than most people considering being faced by racist slurs and remarks about being a terrorist based off of my religion.
At first, I was put into the Child Development course. I sat through it for a week, and I really didn’t feel like I would enjoy it or learn from it at all. So, a week in, I asked my friends what class I should switch into. Everyone told me to join Facing History and Ourselves. I went to my guidance counselor and told her about my situation and asked if I could switch into the Facing History and Ourselves course. She looked to see if there were any more seats left, and luckily, there was one. She had told me herself about how she thought that the course was a very influential one, and how I got lucky that there was still one seat open since the class is always usually immediately full. And more than halfway into the course, I can say that I am truly lucky to have been put in. As a person, I can say I changed dramatically. Every time I am ever cold, and go to complain about it, I always, always, always now stop and ask myself “I wonder how the victims in the concentration camps felt with no blankets.” Every time I am ever hungry, I always stop and ask myself “I wonder how the victims in the concentration camps felt without any food, or even any water.” I find myself to be eternally grateful to have been a part of this eye opening, influential, and thought provoking course.
My name is Rudy Alnaal and I am currently a junior at Westborough High School. I chose to take Facing History and Ourselves this year because of all of the comments I heard about the course. From what I heard, the course was an eye opener. It was difficult, yes, but you would walk out a different person. You would walk out informed and aware. You would start as the bystander, victim, maybe even the perpetrator, and walk out in a completely different stance. Everyone that talked about the course with me encouraged me, and pushed me to take it. They said it was an easy A but it was a hard course to endure, emotionally. So I signed up. And it being close to the end of the course, I can say that I completely agree with all of the comments I heard before coming into the class. Facing History and Ourselves is a course that teaches you about the time period before the Holocaust, during the Holocaust, and after the Holocaust. It provides you with the most amount of knowledge about the Holocaust and Nazis as one can probably ever receive. This course really isn’t difficult academically whatsoever. There are no quizzes, tests, or written homework assignments. Just blogs where you post your comments about the video watched that day. The whole class is held up by videos and discussion. The videos watched are very difficult to sit through at times. You sometimes have the urge to just want to look away and close your eyes to it, but you don’t because you know that you have to retain every piece of this class as much as you can. Although it may not seem to Mr. Gallagher that anyone in class truly changed, I strongly believe that the majority of us have. I know for a fact that I have.
My name is Paola Avila. I am currently a junior at Westborough High School and this is my Facing History and Ourselves story. I decided to sign up for this course because I have always heard great things about the class and that you learn a lot from it and become a different person. Facing History and Ourselves is a half year course that teaches you about segregation, the effects of being bystander, racism, and the Holocaust. The course is mostly taught by watching documentaries and movies about the topics we are learning. The good thing about this course is we do not get and tests, quizzes, and the only homework we get is to blog. Blog means we go on Mr. Gallagher's blog and in them we type any comments about the videos or documentaries we have seen in class. We get barely any work in class but that is nowhere close from having nothing to do or say. We have group discussions that get very intense sometimes because people have different opinions, comments and ideas about a certain topic discussed in class. With these group discussions listening to your classmates speak you get a different perspective of them and what they think about the situation and makes you realize things. The videos and documentaries that we see in class are very harsh at times and hard to watch, I got emotional in several times when watching the movies shown to us. If you think of taking this class don't think of taking a step back because you sure will not regret a single bit of it. You will grow as a person, you will change the actions you have done and change the way you thought of things. By taking this class you will feel the difference of how you have changed from the start of the course to the end of the course it is a life time experience. With no doubt Mr. Gallagher is one of the most influential teachers I have ever met. He has done so many things to change people’s lives and the way to think. Through the time I've been in this course I have been noticing change in me and the way I think of things. It was a great decision of picking this course because I have learned a lot from it. I grew as a person and learned how to be a bystander. It was an incredible experience.
When it was course selection day sophomore year I had no idea what to sign up for and there was a long list to pick from. I went down the list and saw many choices I was for sure that I did not want to deal with more history and Facing History and Ourselves was my last choice of a course. I took a step back and I thought about taking the course. I talked to many people that have taken this class and I had gotten so many great comments about the class. From that moment I knew I wanted to go to my guidance counselor and sign up for that class right away. I never thought I would have signed up for a history class after not being so great on any history classes I have been in before. History was never my first best subject so I still doubted myself about the class but I knew I had to try hard and see what the class was like. I was ready to come junior year, second semester to take the course and learn new things. When I talked to people who took the course they had first told me that we have no test or quizzes and I thought "wow that would be a great class because I hate studying." But they told me to not get so carried away because this class was not just an easy A, they had to pay attention to all the videos showed in class, do blogs and participate. Juniors and seniors I have talked to all of them said it was a life changing experience; they have become a whole new person and changed the way they looked at
My name is Connor Healy. I am a senior at Westborough high school and I am in facing history. I have heard some very good things about facing history over the past four years and I am very happy that I was given this opportunity to take this class. Facing history is I course that was primarily designed in order to teach students about the awful things that happened during the holocaust why the things that happened did. The course is thought mostly by watching videos and documentary’s on the events that occurred during the holocaust and the lead up to the holocaust. The class focuses on things like racism and anti-Semitism. These two things lead to very bad this like genocide unless they are controlled by those standing by and watching. A very important underlying theme of this class is the effects of the bystander. We learn about how the person that is standing by and watching perpetrator do their work they are just as guilty as the perpetrator them self. This is an extremely influential and moving course that I think should be a requirement in schools. This is a course that teaches extremely basic life skills, treat others the way you would like to be treated, all people are equally and what I consider to be the most important of them all do not stand by and watch someone get hurt when you are there and perfectly capable of helping or stopping the harmful action. Although these should be basic human characteristic that everyone has unfortunately they are not and by using the holocaust as an example as to why all people should have these characteristics students can see firsthand the consequences as to what would happen if these attributes were not present in a society. I also think that it is very important for students to realize that this only happened 69 years ago. This was not an event that occurred as a result of uninformed barbaric people this happened because a corrupt government brain washed its people to believe what they wanted them to believe and taught them to put all their trust in one twisted man. This course is very powerful and I can only hope that it continues to be taught for the next hundred years because this an event that cannot be forgot.
What facing history meant to me
The key messages that were reinforced by this class are ones that will never leave me. Coming into to the class I think that it is safe to say that in some situations I would be considered a bystander. After taking this course I am no really embarrassed and disappointed that could say this about myself. This is not a respectable quality in a person and I will now do everything that I can to make sure that I will never be able to say that about myself again. Although this course may not have been specifically designed as a self-help class I tried to apply the teachings to myself in a positive way and I really do think that improved me as a person. I will no longer stand and watch someone hurt someone else or themselves in any way and I am really proud to be able to say that and I hope that I will not let myself do that. I think that another quality of mine that was benefited by this class would be treating others the way you would like to be treated. I know that this wasn’t an out spoken thing that was meant to be taken away from the class but I do feel that I present with this internal statement several times. For example in the final film that we watched not only did the Russian solders that liberated the camp make the Nazis walk through and see what they had done they made the Germans in the towns around the camp tour the camps as well. This simply reinforced the idea of how would you feel being in situation that they were in. The original Idea of all people are created equal is an idea that has been around for generations and I unfortunately do not think that it is full accepted today. I do think that one day everyone will treat everyone equally but it will not happen unless they core ideas of this class are continually taught to students.
things before going into the course. They also told me that I would not regret taking the course because I would learn new things and get so much out of the class. When the second semester started I still was not sure about the class. I wanted to switch into another class because I still was not so happy about studying this course. At first the only thing that stopped me from switching out of the class was because a lot of my friends were also taking the course and I was excited about that but I was still not so sure about the class. I decided to stay but I was nervous that I was not going to like or I would have been really shy and not make any new friends because that’s my biggest fears sometimes. When I go into a new class and I do not know what to expect from it I get nervous and become really shy around new people. I had finally made my decision and decided to take a chance and get into the course and learn new things and what I get out of it.
When the term began, even after talking to many of my friends about how the course was like I still was not one hundred percent sure if I wanted to take the class. When the new semester began I was so nervous to walk in a new class and meet new classmates. I did not know what to expect from this class and the people who also are taking the course. On the first day of class when I walked in I was so amazed of how full the class was and I have seen new and similar faces. The thing I was excited about was that I thought we were going to sit where ever we wanted but that was not going to happen. I did like the idea of getting assigned seats because we would be able to meet new people, get to know them more, and talk to them before class started. When I sat down on my assigned seat I looked around the classroom and saw two bulletin boards full with worksheets, posters, and several pictures of different types of topics. I remember one of the first days of the course Mr. Gallagher showed the class a power point of different kinds of pictures; people and places. In each and every picture we had to guess the name, place, and name of person. When he had passed through all the pictures I looked down at my paper and noticed that I only knew about three or four of the pictures he had showed us. I was surprised because I did not know anything about the pictures, places and people that he showed the class on the power point. On those first few days of class Mr. Gallagher brought so many topics that I have never heard or learned about, after those classes I always wondered what he would be talking about because I did not know about most of the topics he talked to the class and I about. Through the semester we did not act like high school students we acted like adults and were treated like an adult which was a different type of environment of a classroom. Watching all the videos Mr. Gallagher showed it helped me mature and act like an adult.
We started the course with some stories and all through the first month we focused on racism and segregation, as well as being labeled as something that you were not. My favorite video of the unit we learned about segregation and racism was “A Class Divided”. This documentary really showed how easy it is to become a racist and a bully towards other people. Also it showed the effects of it in terms of performance in the classroom. During this point of the class I started to think and revaluate myself and whether I was being a bully and racist to other people or causing harm and hurting other people’s feelings. After watching this documentary I realized that sometimes I wasn’t so nice and fair to other people. Watching all these documentaries about segregation and racism made me realize many things about myself and that you are not supposed to judge people on how they look, what race they are, gender, color, religion, country, or language. Another film we watched was “Freedom Writers” and I
enjoyed this film very much it showed so much courage from the students and teacher. I thought that this movie showed the struggles of urban life. The fact that they have to even state that wearing pearls might be a bad idea. This shows the extreme difference between the society that Ms. Gruwell is used to and the life of her new students. I also thought that very few of them had heard of one of the most influential historical eras in world history, which was the Holocaust. That not only shocked me but also made me realize how bad these kids have it and how lucky we do because for me I only have to go to school come home and study but these kids they have to go home and work or take care of family some of them do not even have a place to stay. I also disagree with Tara's statement. I don't believe that Ms. Gruwell was saying that they were like Nazis but rather that their killing ways resembled them. I also don't believe that they are going to even come close to the event that is the Holocaust. Watching this movie showed that you have work very hard to achieve your goals and never give up. A while after studying and learning about segregation and racism we started getting into detail about the Holocaust. The class and I watched several videos on the hatred the Nazis has towards the Jews. During this time in the course I had realized how cruel and mean people can be towards other people. It made me open my eyes and see how people can become into a whole other person. Every single time I watched a film or movie on the Holocaust I would be impressed and angry to see how badly and crucial the Jews were treated by the Nazis. After these watching these films if I saw any injustice and unfairness towards anyone including myself I decided to step up and defends anyone and myself. I began to notice myself and step up for people and I have been noticing a change in me because before coming into this class I would have never stepped up for anyone even me. After a while we got into more detail about the Holocaust and learned more about it and everything that happened during that time. We watched many movies and documentaries about the ghettos, Jewish oppression, and the death camps. Mr. Gallagher showed us a clip about the death camps and how people actually were treated and even how they looked after they have been saved. It was horrible seeing how Jewish people were treated and how they looked after everything they have been through. We have watched so many films on the Holocaust and everything the Jewish went through. I have learned so much from and I cannot believe that people like the Nazis ever existed in life.
By this time of the course Facing History and Ourselves I felt like a changed person. I stopped judging people and saying things that I used to say and started thinking about the effects of the things that I do more often. I have noticed that we as human beings can never standby and let any of the things that we have witnessed in this class continue or ever happen again. I am glad and happy of taking this course and I will never regret taking this course because it has been a life changing experience. I have noticed change in me and I am proud of that.
I also learned how un-involved America was in helping the Jewish people during the holocaust and before World War 2 started. After watching the film I felt extremely sympathetic for the Jewish people. They are just like everyone else but just because they have a different religion get such horrible treatment and acted as a scapegoat. The U.S. was so arrogant and I don’t understand why they didn’t
Act sooner and more openly/freely. I felt ashamed of the U.S. and there responses to the holocaust and war time immigrants. This class does a very good job of making you think about what you really know and if what you know is the truth. Another very important topic that we learned about and that I really learned about was the genocide in Rwanda. This lasted 100 days and over 100,000 people were killed. I had never heard about this genocide before and to be honest was disappointed in me for now knowing about it either. Paul was the main character in the movie and was a very strong figure in protecting hundreds of people from being murdered. Without Paul hundreds of more people would have been hacked to death just because of title that they have. The genocide and the holocaust are just huge examples of how ignorant and evil people can become and the sickening things that they can do. The movie we watched was very insightful and I learned so much.
More facts that I learned was about the Jewish ghettos. I did not know much about the ghettos before going into this class and was suppressed at how bad the conditions were. After watching the movie the pianist I was shocked at how awful the ghettos were. It was un-humane and was a shame for anyone involved. I was so relieved to see that there were many who fought back against the Nazis. I think that if there was any event in history that you could take people to be inspired by is the people in these ghettos who fought against a force that was much greater than they were. The Jewish people are a people of pride and have more heart than anyone could have imagined. The Milgram experiment was very insightful and tough I a lot about how people act and how so many Germans were brain washed with propaganda. The video showed a very big insight on what it is like to be peered pressured into doing something you don’t want to do. The film showed a good example of the change of responsibility on people and how it was possible for people to do things they don’t necessarily believe or want to do. I don’t know what I would in that situation but I believe that I would have stopped if I heard the person being tested on was being truly hurt.
I think that everyone should be required to take a facing history class and now the things that have happened in Nazi Germany and Poland during World War 2. The class helps people to think about others rather then yourself and will definitely help people with finding who they are and where they fit int he world. This class has really opened my eyes on how people act and are easy persuaded to do things that they don’t want to. This class teaches you have to not be a bystander and stand up for yourself and what you believe in. The films that we watched were very informative and really made the audience see what awful things took place. It helps with preventing something like the genocide in Rwanda and the Holocaust. I also believe that for any teacher who will be teaching a facing history class should really know what they are teaching and should be a good enough teacher to drive the knowledge into the students. Thank you for taking your time in teaching this class and finding all of these films that help everyone understand what the holocaust is.
My name in Jocelyn Perez and I was born in a religious Latino family. My parents came from Guatemala. I was born in Framingham, and I’m the middle child. I have an older sister and a younger sister, which I am ten years apart each. I never really grew up with my older sister and she never really lived with us so I consider myself the oldest. Growing up I never really felt like I fitted in. I always felt like the outcast because of my color and my race. I remember I would always ask myself s a kid why I couldn’t be white and rich like the rest f the people in Westborough, but now I look back and I tell myself I am happy to be Guatemalan and wouldn’t change it for the world. Facing History in Ourselves was a very good course for me. I choose this course because I had an empty space in my schedule and Mrs.Breeze told me this course would be good for me to take. She was completely right! I’m not going to lie coming into this course I did not know what to expect. Taking this course did have an impact on me. I realized that you could never judge someone for how they look or act or speak. We are all the same and we all have our different features that make us who we are.
Facing History in Ourselves is a course that anyone in High School should take. It talks about identity, racism, segregation, and The Holocaust. During my experience in this course we watched a lot of documentaries and movies/videos about these topics and more. This is a very serious course and there is no better teacher to teach it then Mr.Gallagher. Taking this course was very good for. After my friend pasted I wanted to become a better person and wanted to change in helping others. When I came into this class I remember Mr.Gallagher telling us that people will walk out of this room and be different or there will be people who walk out like nothing like the bully’s and the bystanders. We watched many documentaries during this course and many of them made me open my eyes and see what is going on around the world. One of the movies we watched was The Pianist. This movie was eye opening. Even though it was not a documentary it gave a lot of information about how Jews were really treated. It was really sad to see how the Nazis asked the old crippled man to stand up seeing that clearly he could not and since he did not obey he was thrown outside the window. It was very upsetting to see that people would walk the streets seeing dead body's everywhere and children dead bodies all the time. At one point it was normal to them that they would just walk over them. It is very sad to see that there can be that much hate towards a group of people. The Swing Kids was another awesome and very informative movie we watched in Facing History. I really liked how they added a cripple to the Swing kid group. It was very heartwarming at the beginning to see that one of the main characters only joined the Nazi youth group so his best friend or better yet brother would not have to be alone during the time. It was still really sad to see that one little group can change someone so much. To see that this boy was actually starting to believe that Jews were bad and did not deserve to live. He started to change and even almost killed his
The boy in the striped pajamas was one of the most heart breaking films I’ve watched. The little German boy tried to help out his friend who was trapped at the concentration camp but had no idea why he was in there. They became friends not knowing the circumstances they were under. This movie was very inspirational because it showed how two boys of two different races could still be friends. It was sad to see how caught up the father was with making the Jews lives miserable that he didn’t even notice his son go into one of the concentration camp. Every time I see this movie I still get really emotional and it still hits me every time I watch it.
Facing History and Ourselves had greatly changed the way I view things. It has left a profound impact on my life and I am no longer the same person. I no longer say things that might offend another person and I now think before I act. I have learned that being a bystander makes you just as guilty as being the bully. I will no longer be that person that continues to make people feel “different”. This class has taught me that I am lucky to live in the world I live in and I will treat it and the people in it with respect. I can honestly say I am a changed person and I am so grateful that I was able to take Facing History and ourselves and to have the opportunity to have such an influential teacher like Mr. Gallagher.
own best friend. He was a swing kid and he knew it but since he wanted to be a “cool” kid he let all the rude and mean things the Nazis told him get to him. He along with other Nazi’s caught everyone in the club dancing Jewish music and started to arrest people and kick people out. He went after his friend and nearly killed the poor guy but I think after he realized that he was so wrong and he stopped. His friend was taken away and all he said was “swing hail” something like this I don’t quit remember. Another part of this movie that was very touching and very sad to watch was when Peter had to deliver boxes to wives and hear them scream after. When he opened the box and saw ashes, that was cruel. It was horrible to see that all they gave back to the families was their husband’s ashes or even for the little kids theirs fathers ashes in a box. "The Gestapo" was very eye opening. It was very upsetting and disturbing to hear that doctors would sign to have a baby killed if they were born with a disability. Even older children that had a disability were killed just for being "different". It was also weird that Jews were forced to eat the grass. I questioned myself what was the point of that? When Mr.Gallagher said nothing has changed today I agree because all we ever do is judge people without even knowing who they are and what they have to offer. The video "The Longest Hatred" had a lot of information about how the Nazis treated the Jews. They were accused for the murder of Jesus. Not only did the Nazis treat the Jews badly but so did the Catholics. I learned that the synagogue was burned down with Jews in it. It is very shocking how much hate someone can put into a certain religion and how many people they can convince to believe the same way. Makes me ask myself when we judge people how are we any different from the Nazis? I thought that Mrs.Elliot was a good video to watch because it showed how it feels to be discriminated. It puts you in the shoes of those who are discriminated every day of their lives because of their color or the way they talk, look, and act. Some for what they believe in too. I like how she showed adults how it feels to be put in different groups. You never really know how it is to be discriminated unless you have been through it. She was inspiring and sent a message to those who discriminate today. Watching the Grey Zone was very disturbing too. It was very shocking to see that that little girl survived the gas chamber and was healthy kind of. It was very sad to see her at the end when she was walking away and then boom she got shot. It makes me really sad to see that someone can be so un-hearted and kill a little innocent girl just for walking away. When they were in the gas chamber and the man was telling everyone that they will be back and they are only taking a shower it got confusing for me because I did not know if he was a Jew or a Nazi. Turns out that he was a Jew and he was forced to say all those things and give all those innocent people false hope of returning to their number. The doctor was a horrible person for experimenting on twins innocent little twins. Throughout the whole course all I could ask myself is why would someone do this I just do not understand why they would do such a thing. The Children's March really changed my thoughts about Martin Luther King's mission. I feel as though Dr. King knew that the way to get the message across was not by adults to revolt, he knew that the figured that the most powerful and meaningful thing to do was to get the children to show the whites how much freedom really meant to them, even if that meant getting sent to jail. It is disgusting to me to think that firemen and police officers thought that it was okay to pressure hose children...
I can clearly remember learning about the Milgram Experiment. This subject was very interesting because it clearly showed the power of authority and peer pressure. During the Holocaust, Nazis were told to be Obedient and follow every single order given to them no matter how harsh it was. The Milgram experiment proved the power of peer pressure. In order to prove this, a newspaper ad offering $4.50 for one hour’s work was put up around a factory. In the Milgram Experiment, an individual was asked to take part in a psychology experiment investigating memory and learning. He was introduced to a man in a white coat and a friendly co-subject. One of the individuals would be the “teacher” and the other would be the student. The individual who answered the ad was always the teacher. The student was then strapped onto a chair and an electrode was placed on his arm. The teacher’s job was to read of list of two word pairs and ask the student to read them back. If the student got the answer correct, then they moved on to the next word. If the answer was incorrect then the teacher was suppose to shock the student starting at 15 volts and increasing whenever they answered a question wrong. The point of this experiment was to see how easily the teacher was pressured into keep on shocking the student no matter how much pain they were in just because they were told to do so. I found this experiment very interesting and I was surprised as to how many of the individuals were able to keep going knowing they were causing pain to the other individual.
because they are black it doesn't matter as much to them because they aren't white. Although they were thrown around and disrespected, the black children kept their spirits high and kept on pushing the message. Freedom Writers is one of my favorite movies. I love this movie so much because I feel like I can relate to them and know what they go through each day. One of the main characters Eva is my favorite. I love how she says that she always has to protect her own. I agree with her because I feel like when racism hits you should always stay to your own people she tells us that no matter what she has to protect her kind. Kind of like the Jews, they all need to protect each other and stick to each other through anything. I feel like if they had the power to defend and stick up for each other they would but they were weak and it was not their fault. The Uprising was another video that I really liked because it showed how some Jews hated the Nazis so much that they fought back. I was so happy to see that they did not care what would happen to them they just wanted to show that they can fight back and they stick up for each other.
I am really happy that I took this course my junior year. I never really knew how much someone could hate a group of people. Taking this course made me want to become a different person. I want to be one of those people that help others and I feel like this class made me want to help people even more. I recommend this course to all the under classmen that come next year and come to this school. This class will stick with me forever. I will start to judge people less and be helpful for those that need it the most. Thank you Mr.Gallagher for this awesome experience in my high school carrier. You were right this is life changing and eye opening.
I remember that we first started off by watching the video of Ms. Elliot and her students. This film was one of my fvorites. At first I admit I thought that making one half of the kids inferior to the other half was a silly way of showing that being racist was wrong but after I got the concept of it. Seeing how easily influenced the elementary kids were and how they acted towards one another was surprising. What was more shocking was how the adults responded to the experiment. It seemed to me that kids were able to become more respectful towards one another than the adults were. I remember the one lady who kept arguing back and forth with Ms/ Elliot and simply didn’t care about being racist towards others. This film really sent the message across about being prejudice towards other and it was definitely one of my favorites.
After discussing topics about identity and racism, we went on to study the history of the Holocaust. The videos and documentaries I watched during this course were by far the most eye opening and life changing films I’ve ever watched. The movie Swing Kids stood out to me because it involved the youth group during the Holocaust. I was able to see how some of the youth were easily pressured and influenced to become part of the Hitler Youth instead of being Swing Kids. Before joining the Hitler youth they were swing kids and loved to dance and sing with everybody including Jews and people who were discriminated against. One of their friends was handicapped and during this time they were also discriminated against. It was heart breaking to see the extreme cruelty that people who were different went through. One of the friends even killed himself because he would rather kill himself than have one of the Nazis do it and give them that satisfaction.
What Facing History and Ourselves Meant to Me.
From the day I walked into Mr. Gallagher;s classroom, I knew this class was going to be one of my favorites. Having already had Mr. Gallagher as a history teacher sophomore year, I knew how much of an influential person he was. The course started out with the unit Identity. We were told to make a chart with a box in the middle with the word ME. Our assignment was to make an identity chart using words that you believe define yourself. This helped us compare how we see ourselves and how society see us. I was very surprised to see how much society can influence how you act and how much people are willing to change who they are to “fit in”. I recall reading the short story The Bear That Wasn’t and remembering how much I could relate to that bear. I’ve been in multiple situations where you feel pressure to act a different way to fit in. This short story sent the message that almost every high school student has been through. It is difficult to go against the “norm” in order to not be the outcast. We change the way we look, act, and even speak to fit in with a group because we’re scared of being “different”. This short story reminded me that sometimes being different isn’t always a bad thing. It’s better to maintain your individuality and stay true to yourself, than change the way you act or look and act like someone you’re not.
In Facing History class we also discussed racism. We talked about minorities which is something I could relate to. Being a Latina, I have been categorized in the typical “Mexican” stereotypes. I have felt inferior at times throughout my years of school, and know what it’s like to feel different from everyone else. During this unit, other kids in the class also talked about times where they have felt inferior to others because of their race. Your skin color, or the way you look does not define you which is a valuable message I learned during this unit. Knowing that there are a lot of people who have felt discriminated against was sad but at the same time comforting because it was good to know that you’re not the only one who feels “different”.
Freedom Writers was one film that we watched to show us that even though people will tell you that you cant do something or that you cant be something, believing in you and working at it will bring you to that successful place you want to be in. This was my favorite movie we watched in Facing history because it showed real life situations that the actors were able to overcome because they believed in themselves. They were their own heroes.
Sonia Vivar
May 22, 2014
Introduction
My name is Sonia Vivar. I am currently a junior at Westborough High School and one of Mr. Gallagher’s students taking Facing History. I decided to take this course because of all of the positive feedback I got from previous students that took the course. Everyone had told me that taking this course would change my life and I would walk out of that classroom with a new mind set. Facing History is taught by one of the very most respected teachers at Westborough High School, Mr. Gallagher. This course mainly focuses on the history of the Holocaust, but also teaches you about identity, racism, and being able to have the courage to be “different” and not a bystander. This course primarily consists of watching films and documentaries about the Holocaust. The only homework is to blog about the films and your reaction to each one of them. These videos are a lot of time hard to watch because they are to show exactly what occurred during the holocaust and the torture the Jews were put through by the Nazis. The intensity of the films seen in class is what leaves a profound impact and will forever change the way you think, what you say, and most importantly the way you act.
Mr. Gallagher’s Facing History course is about finding out who you really are and where you can find yourself in this world’s society. By looking at school experiments and the Holocaust and Nazi Germany leading up to World War 2 you learn how the Nazis and people involved in the Holocaust could carry out what they did. In this class you will question whether or not you are a bystander or someone who will stand up for what they believe it right and go against what everyone else is doing. Taking this course benefits you as a student and as a person because it makes you think more about who you are in this world than any other class in the Westborough curriculum. After taking this class you will be more aware of the things you say to people and be able to act differently outside and inside of school. This class will also make you extremely well informed on the horrors that occurred in the Holocaust.
I learned many different things that I did not know from before taking this class. I had thought that I knew a lot about Nazi Germany and the holocaust but I was wrong. One of the most fascinating and shocking things that I had learned was how everyone would be completely shaven and any gold or silver teeth would be removed. These things would be shipped to Germany and the hair would be used for things such as bed stuffing’s and wigs and other things. The gold would be used to make jewelry in Germany and would be sold to the people of Germany. I thought that this was extremely disturbing. Another thing that I learned was how Jewish prisoners would volunteer to become helpers for the Nazis and would have jobs such as cremating dead bodies, moving bodies, help with the gassing of the Jews and the shaving of people. I think that this was very awful because of the everyday things that these prisoners had to witness for a few more months to live. These prisoners would be rotated every 4 months. The movie the Grey Zone was one for the best movies I had seen on the Holocaust and was very eye opening. The characters in the movie did an amazing job and the scenery display was impressive. It really captured the watchers attention and threw them into the death and devilish hell of the holocaust and killing camps all through Germany.
I am a very family orientated person and to me family is always first. They are my top priority and without them I would not be able to function and my family is what made me who I am today. Second is god. I am not very religious but I am very spiritual and believe in helping others who need help the most and just being a good person. I don’t believe in a lot of beliefs but I do believe in treating your neighbors the way you want to be treated. Third is my friends who are always there for me and are practically my second family. To be honest I think my friend and god could very well be a tie for second. They are also a big part of who I am and a group of people I can talk to all the time and hangout with and do whatever we want that keeps up having fun. My favorite thing to do is go hang out with friends and family in the cape and just make great memories. Memories are the best thing that I have and are something I never want to lose and know that no one can take that away from me.
I had told you earlier/ in the beginning of facing history about my grandmother and how she had been going in and out of the hospital because of her old age and feeling sick. During April vacation I was at work on a Tuesday and got a call from my father saying that my grandmother had been hit by a train in Framingham. I am not sure if you had seen it on the news a few weeks ago but that was my grandmother. My father had told me that they did not know what happened and that she may have been trying to commit suicide. I left work early because it had hurt me and shocked me so much that something like that could happen to my grandmother. She had broken 8 ribs in 10 different places and had broken her arm in 2 different places and had punctured one of her lungs. The doctor’s biggest worry was that she would form ammonia and get sick. I knew immediately that this was going to be a very long recovery and that she would have to work very hard to get over this obstacle in her life. I saw her in the hospital the next day with my two older cousins (who are sisters) and aunt/godmother. We were going to meet my godfather there who stayed overnight with my grandmother. The worse part for me was not just seeing my bruised, broken, and mentally lost grandmother but seeing my godfather. He is the strongest man I have ever met. My grandmother had been a survivor of both breast and ovarian cancer and my grandfather had died of leukemia. Forcing him to become the father of his 3 brothers and sisters. I still remember like it was yesterday, waiting in the hall for the icu doors to open. They opened and there was my godfather with his thousand yard stair. He started walking toured us and his two daughters started walking toured him and in second he started to break down in tears. The worst part was seeing him holding his two daughters crying for everyone to see and just being emotionally drained and deprived. When my family is hurt I am hurt and when someone else is sad I want to make them happy and make them feel better. My grandmother had gone through a lot and had affected everyone else in the family also including my uncle/godfather. She is going to be transferred to Framingham today and I hope that she will be able to start her recovery soon and get better. She really does mean so much to me and I hope that she is treated very well in Framingham so that she can rejoin her family.
Patrick Dasilva
May 14, 2014
Period 4
Mr. Gallagher
“What Facing History and Ourselves Meant to Me”
This year I was given the opportunity to take facing history in Mr. Gallagher’s class. When my Guidance counselor told me that facing history was a course that I could move into when changing my schedule I was thrilled to know that I would not be sitting in a class that would just waste my time. I had heard from people who have taken the class before that it is extremely interesting and was not a very homework demanding course. I have always loved learning and watching films about the holocaust and World War 1 and 2. When I was young I would dress up as a world war 2 solider and pretend to fight Nazis. When I was in middle school a bunch of friends and I actually tried to make a movie of our own. I always liked reading about World War 2 and every sheet that you give us in class I read over. I like how this class requires you to write blogs because it uses technology and is much easier then handing you 20 papers. I think that everyone should be required to take a facing history class because it is one of the most informative classes you can take. People need to learn what happened during the holocaust so that every new generation of kids can know what happened and so that we can prevent it from ever happening again.
This movie had a lot of gory scenes to it and I found it easy and hard to watch at the same time because I am used to seeing gruesome things like that, but not just that but I also kept in mind that it was only a movie even though this actually all really happened. This film was rather scary. I don’t think I will every truly understand what being in the holocaust was like but those movies we had watched in class gave me a great outlook and perspective on everything going on at that time. The next film that had an impact on me and that caught my attention was the film Nazi Concentration Camps. This film caught my eye because this was actual footage from the holocaust. I had seen pictures of this before but it did not actually come to life until watching this film. The scene that disgusted me the most is when the soldiers were tossing the bodies in the ditch to bury them and sometimes using those mower movers or whatever they are. The way they were handing the bodies were completely absurd and I was so disappointed. They tortured the prisoners while they were living their life with all the riches they could possibly wish for. The way their bodies were thrown around made it seem like they were animals and to see that some of them were smiling makes me question humans on a whole new different level.
By the end of this course I felt like a changed person. I watched what I said to people and because a stronger person. I know not to be a bystander and to stick up for everything that is right even if it may not have anything to do with me. I’ve came to realize that us humans should never stand by something bad when they know they can step in and make a difference or stop what is going on to help the other person or people. We should never let anything like what we learned in facing history to ever happen again. We will make a difference. I would say everything that I saw and learned in this class caused me to change who I am so I wouldn’t be that horrible person I was watching. I honestly wish I wasn’t able to see any of the things that went down because it hurts my heart so much knowing that a hatred for some race was that strong that they would be willing to kill the whole population of it. Signing up for this class or switching into it, I never really thought it would make this much of an impact on me and I never knew it would be this intense and scary. I can grow up and tell my kids and my grandparent and even my next teachers about how great this class was. I never knew that ever in my life there would be a class that can change my life the way facing history did and I am truly so thankful for this opportunity of having this class and having such an amazing teacher that wasn’t scared to say anything and made sure that we felt comfortable not being scared to say what we thought. I will never forget this class.
We wouldn’t have to be worried about being judged by simple the color of your skin or where you are from. I want to be a rescue. After this class I don’t think I’ll ever be a bystander again. I would never want to be seen as that person that didn’t ever try to make a difference or help because that’s all I want. I think not being a bystander is not going to be a very hard thin do to because I’m the type of person to say what’s on my mind but if I don’t feel like its any of my business I won’t say anything. I can’t imagine the feeling I would have if I witnessed something so bad like the holocaust but I did nothing by stand there and watch like nothing was wrong. I would watch them get hurt.
A lot of the things I learned in this course were so meaningful to me and cause me to now think the way that I do. I don’t take anything I have for granted and I am thankful for everything. I feel like the movies that we watched affected me more than the documentaries because they were easier to follow and I understand modern things more although the movies may have not been as horrid as the documentaries or true. A movie that really stuck on to me was the pianist. This film was meaningful to me because I saw things that I’ve seen before. For example when I saw that man in the wheelchair getting thrown out I remembered the time I saw a father in Syria getting thrown out of his window trying to hang on as hard as he can so he can get back to his family and be alive. His family was helpless and couldn’t do anything in their will to help him. At this particular scene of the movie I was so disgusted and I didn’t want to finish the movie. The way the Nazis told them to run while they shot them one by one was beyond me. How can you hold that gun and say you’re a human when you’re killing innocent civilians just like you. How can you hold that pride and say I am a German and I am a human? I will never understand. And not only were they shooting them but they were also running over them. I would never be able to live with myself knowing I did these crucial things. But I would say it really put in a perspective what the Nazis really did to the Jews. After that I really understood everything a lot more and I analyzed everything a lot more carefully and spent more time asking myself questions and figuring out the truth. The Jews constantly feared their lives and surroundings. If I were them I would’ve probably wished to be the person dead right next to me on the ground. The next movie that meant a lot to me and was very important and meaningful to me was the movie The Grey Zone.
I came into this class thinking that it wasn’t going to make that big of an impact in my life but it has. I know have more knowledge about what had went on and I now know how much something can affect someone. Last year when I was picking my electives, I didn’t have any motive to take a history class because they all bore me. But taking this class has probably been one of the best decisions I’ve made in high school. Before taking this class I didn’t know how many other kids take it or how popular the class is in other schools. It amazes me. As I said before a lot of kids have talked about this class and said great things about it but I didn’t really consider it because it was history aka one of my worst subjects. This course puts a huge emphasis on the kind of person someone is, or who they may aspire to be. We recently watched the trials about the people involved in the holocaust and speaking about bystanders I think those who witnessed crimes such as what happened in the holocaust are just as guilty as those who were actually doing the crimes. The bystanders had the opportunity to make a difference and try to stop the horrid action going on against the Jews. What the Nazis were doing was clearly unfair and the bystanders should’ve seen that and did something. Even if it caused you to lose your life when you fought yourself then it would be worth it because you had that much courage to stand up for what is right and you had the hopes of changing the wrong things going on. But instead of being the person they chose to stand back and watch horrible things going on before them. They could be considered as murderers in my eyes. The sad thing about the Nazis is that they actually thought they were innocent. They did not believe that they had done anything wrong because they were not the ones working in the concentration camps. They thought they were innocent and they thought whatever they were doing was fine and was not considered at all to be murder. When someone witnesses something they too are guilty for not doing the right thing. If the bystanders were to try to make a change and stand up for what they believe is truly right then they would be considered the rescuer. They are the one that save everyone else before themselves. They are the ones that make a difference. To have an intension and strive or motive to be someone like a rescue you would be a hero forever. If more people were like that then the turn out of the holocaust could have been so much different. By learning these types of people that one could one day be or become the world will be a different and better place. Wed feel safe and loved by everyone.
My name is Zinah Alnaal. I am currently a junior at Westborough high school and this is my Facing History blog. I chose to take this class because I’ve heard a lot of good things about it. Everyone would talk about how much of a good class it is and how much it impacted their lives. I’m not going to lie I did also take this class because I heard amazing things about Mr. Gallagher and I wanted to have an experience with him as my teacher. The things that I have learned from this course or this course focused on was segregation, racism, the holocaust, and learning more about how being a bystander can really affect someone or some situation. All these topics are very important to me especially the holocaust. I say this topic is very important to me because ever since I could remember Palestine and the majority of the Middle East is always being attacked. This may not be as close to the holocaust but there are still killings of innocent people. Also Palestine and Israel have been at it for quite some time. I would say about 68 years or so. But anyways, this course consisted of a lot of modern movies and documentaries to help of show or explain to us what had happened. I would view this class to be a fairly easy class because there are no testes or quizzes just blogs. The videos that we have watched in class were very intense and scary. I would just imagine myself in their shoes and I would wonder how these Jews have dealt with these issues and still stood strong. That is the definition of hope and courage although most of them became weak after a while. They knew they were going to make a difference one day. This class taught me that you really don’t know how it feels until you go through something like that. I say this because when I imagined myself in their shoes I would want someone to stick up for me and fight for me and there wasn’t a lot of that. There were a lot of bystanders and this class taught me not to be one. I will fight for what is right. This class has also taught me to not take anything for granted and not say anything I will regret. I loved having Mr. Gallagher as a teacher and I wouldn’t mind taking this class 10 more times. He is easily the most loving, caring, most respectable and most influential teacher I have ever met or gotten the opportunity to have him as a teacher. I am very grateful to have had this opportunity and I have a new outlook on everything.
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