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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Mike Ferraro’s Facing History Final Blog
May 22nd, 2014
Introduction:
My name is Michael Ferraro and I am a senior attending Westborough High School, in Westborough, Massachusetts. In the fall of 2014 I will be a freshman attending Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey. I was advised by my older sister and many friends who were one or two years older than me whom had already graduated to take Facing History and Ourselves (or just Facing History as everyone calls it). They told me there were many benefits and rewarding lessons to learn in the course. I was unclear about what actually occurred in the class until I took it myself. Facing History is a very informative course that is centered on the study of racism and prejudice throughout history. We studied back to the 1800’s including early racism and segregation in America, Jim Crow Laws, but the timespan we studied the most and in most detail was the Holocaust and the Rise and Fall of Nazi Germany. Almost every class involved the viewing of a documentary or Hollywood film related to the Holocaust, or the subject of racism. I was surprised and confused to hear there was no tests or quizzes in this course. There were no homework assignments that were formally passed in and graded. The only form of outside work we had was a personal reflection on the film/documentary/reading that we had to write in the form of a blog post (like the thing you are reading now). The blogs were not something to pass up or just blow off to the next day, because on the blog you can see what everyone in class was thinking about according the subject we just discussed. The videos were not always boring documentaries; they were often very graphic and hard to watch. I thought to myself after my class in this course that I had evolved into a different person after seeing everything that is included in this course; I have grown as a person and have a different view on life.
What Facing History Meant to Me:
Going into senior year, I chose to enroll in Facing History because I needed to simply fill a half year elective slot. My friends simply told me: “It’s a good class. Take it. You have to take the class to get it”. I was always annoyed when nobody told me what you actually learned. Which then made me intrigued when I started the class. My older sister also told me Mr. Gallagher was her favorite teacher and the class is truly rewarding. I knew treated a course in high school as “rewarding”. Most of the time the classes felt like chores to go to. Being in this class for only a couple days, I was excited and eager to attend class every day. When I first met Mr. Gallagher he came across as a truly wise and influential person. Before he even said anything, I could tell he was successful with everything he put his energy into: especially his teaching. I can honestly, truly say this course changed my life and was the most influential classes I‘ve ever taken. In the past I attended a few leadership seminars that had an enormous impact on my life, however this high school class has truly made me appreciate life and stand up for what I am and what I believe. I have already recommended this class to several underclassmen so they can experience what this class has to offer. This class should be taken by everyone if possible so hopefully in the future the world can be a better place.
After covering social issue involving race in the past, we moved to an issue that occurred more recently and its impact is still being felt today by those who lived it: The LA Riots. The social repercussions lived by students that were our age now were devastating, and a complete culture shock in comparison to how I live personally. These hardships were captured in the film Freedom Writers. Ms. Gruwell was a strong and dedicated teacher and tried so hard to give direction to her student's lives. Ms. Gruwell knew how to unite them together despite their backgrounds and racial stereotypes. That's what makes her teaching methods revolutionary and effective. Ms. Gruwell is a role model for all teachers who want their students to succeed. Mrs. Gruwell showed how educators have potential to save the lives of their students, and their friends and family. When she was faced with these delinquent and criminal teens, she could’ve stopped right then and quit and went to a school district with students more willing to learn. But instead of taking the easy way out and being a bystander to the events that would’ve taken place had she not intervened, she decided to persevere and change the lives of those kids and helped them graduate high school, a milestone many others were sure those students would not reach. Again I was blown away by the actions of a single person who chose o make a difference and inspired me to act by the same kind of values.
I truly adore and am inspired by the lone human being, who sacrifices so much of what they have to help others; to help people who are complete strangers. I wish tragedy doesn’t strike in my life, but if it does, I feel I can do something to benefit those around me and not sit back and wait out the storm. While doing this thousands of innocent people die. Films like Hotel Rwanda again show the actions of a single person can save those who cannot fight for themselves. This movie has moved up the list to one of the most influential movies I’ve ever been exposed to. I feel this movie was an eye opener to those people that were born after this event, who did not experience it as it was happening. It truly was sickening to learn that foreign countries would stand by while warlords were committing genocidal acts. This event is scary similar to those acts committed in the Holocaust. The fact that a group comes to power and dehumanizes another group of people they don't view as humans. This is referenced in the 8 steps of genocide. Then led to the extermination of 800,000 Rwandans. One hotel manager. One man was all it took to save over a thousand more deaths in Rwanda. If there had been even more men to acted as half as selflessly as Paul did, the number of lives lost could have been seriously lowered. I only hope to grow up with the same sense of courage Paul had.
I can’t remember the person I was 5 months ago before I took this course. I wish I could meet him and tell him how blind he is. How all his life he had opportunities to help others and make his life have meaning by giving back to others and the world. I can’t think of a way to repay Mr. Gallagher and the Facing History and Ourselves course for forever changing my life, and giving me the tools to never let evil live in my heart and in the hearts of others. The knowledge I’ve been given is priceless. I only hope in the future, all students are exposed to this course and the information it gives. Then, watch how the world will become a better place for the future of man.
Introduction
My name is Jadon Sullivan and I was born in Natick, Massachusetts. The only town I've remebered living in was Westborough but I have lived in another town before and that was when I was a very young kid so I don't remember much of what house I stayed in and what town I lived in before Westborough. I love history because I love figuring out descrepincies in the past and learning about the real history of the world rather than the made up part of the history that people make up so that other people can sometimes accept it without questioning it. I like to dig deep into solving puzzling parts of history and explaining them so that they make sense to me. I don't like to not know the truth about history and accept that because If I do I find it wrong of me to ignore a part of history thats important. I also found history to be fun to learn about even if it is sometimes depressing to hear about or even if its scary to learn about because of the evilness of the past. I took this course because I wanted to learn more about the holocaust and why it ended up being as bad as it came out to be and how. I also took this course because my brother took this course and said it changed his life for the better and helped him understand how bad the holocaust was. This course is about showing people the dangers of the world, as well as its evilness and over coming the fear you have of it by not being afraid of it. Every class we discuss historical events and sometimes we watch a movie and write about what we learned from it and how it changed how we felt about ourselves from watching the movie.
What Facing History and Ourselves Meant to Me
Throughout this course I've thought alot about the meaning behind what "Do the right thing" means. I thought that over the years it just meant that you should choose to do the right thing if you felt comfortable in the situation you were in and if you felt it wouldn't hurt you emotionally or physically. This course has taught me that holding back on doing the right things for others and for the world, even if it means taking action hurts you in the process is selfish and sinful. However, I learned that people naturally have bad habits like standing by in a situation that scares them because at the end of the day we are human and we are not born knowing right from wrong as perfectly as we'd want. Its the parents or guardians, the teachers, and well rounded adults who sacrifice time out of their day to teach the younger people about morals and values that later as a result resonate well in a great and prosperous world. It was this class that opened me up to a new outlook of the world. The world is filled with problems and I believe its my job to always fix them when I can and thats one of the lessons I learned from this class and what I'll take with me to use to help make the world a better place. One of the first films I watched in class was "After the First" (short film). I felt that film really captured the struggle of what its like to express one's true emotions to another human being who doesn't care for your feelings and emotions too much and how it hurts you personally. The son was flabbergasted by the dad's carelessness and lack of empathy towards having shot a rabbit to death for the sake of shooting one out of boredom. The son tried to get through to his father that it wasn't okay what he did or what he himself did either which was shoot a rabbit in the woods in hopes for the only reason being for entertainment for the two who would find comfort and later excitement from killing a rabbit which was not the result. The son wasn't amused in anyway by killing an innocent and physically active rabbit trying to live its life comfortably in the woods. He communicated his emotions by looking down at the ground and not saying anything in response to his father's remark at the end of the film, which ultimately said a lot about not only how he feels toward hunting, but his view on people's personalities. His father, having done the wrong thing of not properly explaining to him the reality of the world's cruelness actually made the son fear it because he showed him how bad the world can be through showing him what people can do to end a rabbit's life which was to shoot it with a rifle. While hunting with your son is fine and not necessarily a bad thing to do, it becomes bad when you make the hunting trip about yourself and not you and your son. I mean, if you invite someone with you, the least you can do is start up a conversation about the world around you and not act like they hardly exist and worry about the world you put yourself in without others entering it with you because you're too concerned with yourself to want to let people into it. The father makes the hunting trip about himself but makes a lighthearted attempt to make it about his son when he says at the very end "I know. Things get better after the first time," (Something along those lines). His father's statement is powerful, but not as much to the son who doesn't respond back to his father's statement.
Another film we watched was The Longest Hatred. I felt that this film was the definition of the word "ignorance" and its impact on human beings who use their hatred against people who are simply following a religion they admire and like best. I found it really difficult to comprehend why a person who has a different religion and practices it would want to hate another person for believing in Judaism and practicing that religion. If someone likes a different religion over mine I would accept it. I would not defame people's graves with swastika symbols and I would not hate people by putting them down for following that religion if they were dedicated to practicing that religion. It is none of my business what people want to believe in so I have no reason to do what some of the people in the past have done. Another film we watched was "The Milgram Experiment." I found that some of the people in the film had a distinct lack of integrity and confidence when trying to dismiss themselves from the experiment as well as the other person in the room they were shocking. I learned from this film firstly in Facing History that its really wrong for people growing up to not be taught right from wrong because if they aren't it can lead to them going through stressful situations like this one. I wished I could have gone to the men who fell for the experimenter's tricks and told them to stop doing what they were doing and tell them to take control of their life. If they don't want something bad done to another person, they stop the problem from ever happening any further by not starting the problem and continuing it onward.
Another film we watched was Hotel Rwanda. This film to me was the best film we watched because I learned that people when given the opportunity to can turn excessively violent and evil with one thing in mind and in hand: A deadly weapon to kill another person. The iniquity of the two opposing armies were blatantly ruthless. Though resolving a past conflict can be difficult, it would have been easier to solve the conflict that created massive amounts of unfair tension on both sides then thought. If they had not killed any innocent civilians I believe the genocide would have not happened on such a large scale. However, when one tyrannical leader of an army says its okay to kill innocent civilians and the rest of the soldiers agree with the statement, the soldiers will unfortunately be programmed very easily to kill on sight anyone who represents the country of Rwanda just so they can be liked by their leader- Like pleasing God only doing evil actions for God who universally does not condone death to occur by the hands of murderous people. The film shows the main characters family's struggle of trying to escape difficult situations in Rwanda by paying off rebels, hiding in bushes, staying down low in camps and not causing trouble with the soldiers of the opposing army and ultimately making it out alive. I thought the main character did what was right in the movie which was keep his country moving forward instead of backwards and hiding them so they cannot be caught and killed. He showed people the path to not fearing the soldiers with guns and machetes but the path to letting go of fear and continuing the career that they all love to do. One of the ways the character made people continue work was by telling the people in the kitchen to not stop working because they had a hotel to run. He was assertive enough to make them do the work needed for the hotel to continue financially and he got their mind's off the constant worry of the rebels coming to possibly kill them. He stuck out to me as my favorite character in the film and this film stuck out to me as being my favorite that we watched in this class.
One book we read during class was "The Bear that Wasn't". I liked this book because I felt it was a truthful book that spoke volumes metaphorically about basic human behavior. If you forget your identity or never learn it, you can be susceptible to people telling you that you're something that you are not and you can instantly accept it which is wrong if what people are telling you is that "you are this therefore you can't do this." In reality the person has no idea that demotivating people is a key motivation to make them do something and sometimes prove that person wrong because they know putting them down unfairly is wrong and they want to stick up for what is right. Another movie we watched was Sophie's Choice. I have to admit I didn't understand why the Nazis wanted the woman's children dead so badly. If people really mean that little to a Nazi then why wouldn't he just leave them alone rather than feel obligated to kill them? If he was so heartless why didn't he just let them go on the trains instead of intruding himself into their lives and forcing their fate in his hands. I felt awful for the people who had to go through hardship like that in the Holocaust and it made me wonder if we can ever teach people to never think of evil choices to commit that while may be witty in their mind, is not in anyone else's except their fanatically evil mind which is adaptable to change back to normalcy if they comply and we comply to helping them. Throughout this course, I learned to always do the right thing and to always encourage others to do the right thing. If I don't I don't know who else will, and I certainly dont need to know because I'll still be the one to keep pushing and fighting for whats right even if its the last thing I do on this Earth and I feel I can't do it any longer because I'll always know I'll be able to because I'll have learned how to do the right thing from this class.
When I signed up for the course, "Facing History and Ourselves" I knew it wasn't going to be a "blow off" class, or something easy to go through, but I didn't think that it would have the effect on me that it did. I always thought that I could be the one to go through the class, not changed, and not very affected. I definitely did not think that I would be as moved as I am today to help other people. I've known from the start that I'm an overly emotional person; so coming into this class I had a pretty open mind and I was excited to learn about something that had interested me for so long.
Nothing would have been the same in the class if the teacher didn't have the passion behind them. The Holocaust is not an east topic, or a happy, energetic, or exciting topic. It's sad, disgusting, disturbing and disappointing. Mr. Gallagher made this class mean something to every single one of his students; and I want to thank him for that. You, Mr. Gallagher, have taught me what it means to be a genuinely good human being. I went from thinking that my mind set on life was okay. When I look at the way I portrayed life then compared to now it makes me really upset. I didn't think of other people and what they wanted and what would better them. But you go above and beyond to help people. Not only is it your passion to make people aware that life was not all good and that we can't just blow off the Holocaust like it never happened, because the truth is, we lost so many people and we cannot take back our actions. And the reason we can't take back any of our actions is because we did nothing. The U.S stood by and watched as millions of Jews were being tortured and killed. But your ability to push us to want to know more about this amazes me every day.
One day in class, you started talking about the electric shocks, and what you had been going over, you had done the day before. And when someone finally said "Hey Mr. Gallagher, you did this yesterday." You stopped what you were doing and started talking to us about what you were doing in your spare time, which at the time you were working with the Neil's and working on Project Rwanda. When we were in class talking about Project Rwanda, that is when my opinions changed from, this is a really nice teacher who really knows what he's talking about, to this man will do anything to help people in need. We need more people in the world like this. We need more people that care unconditionally without asking for anything in return. If we were all more willing to help one another, things such as the Government being overthrown overseas and little girls being taken from their school, where they are supposed to be safe, wouldn't happen! It amazes me that more people don't stop and think about their actions. I believe that every person should have to take this course, and I think that everyone at Westborough High School should have to take this course with Mr. Gallagher at least two times while they are attending the school. If more people were aware of what goes on and what has gone on, their outlooks would be completely different. I know that mine are.
I was told by several people who are friends that this course was an amazing course to take and it was a life changing experience so it sounded very appealing to me right off the bat. I am a junior this year at Westborough high school, so right now I am currently in the college research process. I have been named the varsity soccer captain for next year and I also work at Roche Brothers down town and used to work at Teamwork’s in Northborough. I have three siblings one being my older sister who is graduating shortly plus two younger siblings in middle school. I would like to study sports management and criminology because those are what have caught my eye the most in my life. The facing History course was mainly to show you the all people have the same worth. We journeyed through Nazi Germany and we learned about the Germans who were so heartless to down grade the Jews.
No one should ever be valued because of their race or religion; they should be valued on what is in their heart. The adventure we took throughout this course not only taught me about the value of people, we learned about people’s viewpoints and how influenced and clueless a human can be. I also have become better at talking with people as we had so many group discussions towards the beginning of the course to see the viewpoints of all of us students. I was traumatized throughout the course in seeing the killings of innocent people for no reason and I truly became a more aware student of the previous times that groups of people had to go through.
I will put these facets in no order of importance, but the ones I use have been chosen because I felt they stood out compared to the others. The short clip that we watched called; “Sophie’s choice” was very heartbreaking. I completely disagree with Sophie’s choice, in my opinion I would have told them to take both because they are of the same value to me and I love them equally. If that wasn’t an option I would just close my eyes and let them take one under their own power because that is the only option I would have left. My children have the same value. That is what should hit me, it is completely terrible that they are going to take one away but Sophie shouldn’t value one of her children over the other. The Nazi’s are just absolutely crazy if they think they can just tell someone to make a life or death situation on the spot Sophie must have gone through so much emotional pain for the rest of her life. This clip showed me how you can’t ever value kids with the same importance over one another.
Project Rwanda wasn’t associated with Nazi Germany, but it still had the same message given from it. We watched the full film which took up a lot of class periods because the movie was well created and we got to observe all the aspects going on during the genocide. Although not nearly as many people died it was still as impactful as the holocaust. Paul had to go through so much in such a short amount of time being trapped in his hotel why chaos went on. The scene when we saw him driving and he went off road and saw all the bodies was just painful. It showed all of the people who were hacked to death for absolutely no reason. This film showed how emotionally desperate people were getting because they were so afraid of the chaos. When Paul’s friends were about to get killed he reacted quickly and saved them all, which shows the true hero in himself. As a person I learned from this movie that a government can be tangled and destroyed so easily which should never happen. The killers who took over were exactly like Hitler who took over and caused all the chaos. People were also being killed because of what type of Rwandan they were, which again ties into the absurdity of value one person over the next.
The factual build up with interviews of specific and crucial members of the Nazi party, in a docu-series by The BBC “A Warning from History” paints an accurate picture of not only who Hitler was as a man, who turned out to be simply an angry disheveled lazy failed artist with an intense hatred but passionate way with words, to the political campaign taken from the National Socialism party in Germany dating back to the early 1930’s. The party had been gaining momentum with the Great War, and perhaps advanced their cause through stirring World War 2. Before the dead bodies at the greatest magnitude, some of the still disturbing footage are of old members while who may play the part of the fool and deny that anything wrong happened in the Reich, of which nearly all of them do, some still stand by it. It shows on a subtle scale the stigmatic residue that the genocide had on the people’s psyche. It was either “Come along, or get out of the way.”
I enjoyed this class in the sense that I enjoyed the experience and outlook it has given me. The highs and lows that these films addressed on, the good that can arise from the bad, how fighting back is always an option and that even if you can’t find something to live for, there is honor in finding something to die for. The two fold action that this class has adapted my cognitive visual skills are recognizing and situation and simply addressing it. No matter what topic and who is involved, be it a fist fight to people simply being cruel and taunting one another, intervening is the key step in making sure that in everyday life, there is a willingness and awareness to arise and stop conflicting matters. Preventing them is nearly impossible, but taking the time to help another person simply because it is the right thing to do, then perhaps we can make this world a better place.
I can say for myself as a person, this has been a real growing experience like many other things this year for me. I personally feel I have found an inspiring figure in our instructor, Mr. Gallagher, but also that I can take my insight, perspective and general information as a critical outline on basic human morality as well as the general knowledge that happened. It is rude and disrespectful to turn a blind eye to those who are suffering simply because we do not want to get involved, whether this happened in 1930’s-1940’s or if it is happening now, like in Nigeria. Even today, there are people who say that the Holocaust never really happened. With profound certainty I can declare that did it happen and came very close to tipping the very tiller of humanity, I for one will do what I can to make sure that nothing like this ever happens again, with whatever strength, monetary use or any sort of medium that we have, fighting for the oppressed is something that we can all stand beside, for we all deserve a fair choice.
“The only time you should look in someone else’s bowl is to make sure they have enough.”
-Anonymous
Liz Makris
Facing History Final Blog
May 21, 2014
Introduction
My name is Liz Makris. I am 18 years old and I am a senior at Westborough High School. I will be graduating in a few weeks. I decided to take Facing History and Ourselves this year as one of my history electives for a few reasons. One of these reasons is that it seemed more interesting to me than any of the other options. Another, more compelling, reason that I decided to take this course is from the recommendations of my friends. I have a few friends who took the course as juniors and I heard from them that this was a course that I could not miss. One specifically told me that no one should be able to graduate from Westborough High School without taking Facing History and Ourselves. Throughout the course, I came to understand what she meant. The course mainly consists of films and documentaries that are focused on various parts of history from which we can learn, such as the Rwandan genocide and the Holocaust. After each film or documentary, we were assigned to write a blog post about what we thought of it, how we reacted to it, and what we learned from it. Through this class, I have been exposed to things I never had any knowledge of beforehand and learned way more than I ever imagined. I truly mean it when I say that I have been changed by this course.
What Facing History and Ourselves Meant to Me
Taking this course really opened my eyes to a lot of things that I either had never known before or had never thought about much. To be honest, I have never really felt much of a personal connection to anything that I’ve learned in a history class. I have always just thought of the content as something removed from me and my life and that did not have much of an effect on me. Now, after taking Facing History and Ourselves, I understand how misguided that attitude was. I know now that it is my responsibility to study history in order to learn from it. It is my duty to make sure that past events such as the Holocaust are not forgotten because that it the only way to ensure that they do not happen again.
The first film that we watched that had a profound effect on me was The Freedom Writers. I felt like I could feel a personal connection to the story because the characters were high school students just like me. I could not really relate to the situation that they were in, as they live in an inner city and many of them are involved in gang violence. However, the film still felt personal to me because I felt a connection to the characters. It opened my eyes to things that people my age are going through in other parts of the country or in other times. It really drove home the fact that the world in which I live in Westborough, Massachusetts is incredibly sheltered and not true to how the rest of the world is. I realized that some kids who are my age or younger are forced to deal with issues that I have never even imagined, such as lying to protect their families. I really enjoyed this film because of the way it was able to show me a little bit about the world outside of this small town.
Julya Peairs
May 22, 2014
Period 6 Facing History and Ourselves
My name is Julya Peairs and I am a senior at Westborough high school. Facing History has had a profound effect on me and how I view history’s relationship to our everyday lives. When I first heard about this course, it sounded like something that was really cool. I wanted to take Facing History because I had heard so many good things about the course itself and the lessons it teaches. One of the first things everyone said about the course was that it was easy because there are no tests or quizzes, and the homework was to blog about something we had either read or watched in class. While the work that we are given is simple and very self-explanatory, the physical discussions in class are ones that require quite a bit of thought because sometimes they are opinion questions and sometimes they are questions that have to be answered out of context. And while there were so many good things to be said about the course and its material, there was also many students saying how difficult it was to take especially if seeing the horrors of the Holocaust through actual footage was something that was too painful to watch. I didn’t understand how taking this course could change how I react to something I have already watched, like the footage of the Nazi death camps after they had been liberated. Before taking Facing History, I could watch a bloody, violent movie and not be fazed by it. But in the past few weeks I have noticed that simply watching war movies in War in Literature has become difficult for me to watch. I have a very new point of view of violence and its long lasting effects on the victims. This course has changed how I view the world and the events that have and are taking place in it. I am so grateful that I had the privilege of taking this course and it has had a huge influence on me. But I feel even more honored because I got to take it with easily one of the most intelligent, involved, caring people I have met. Mr. Gallagher has been a wonderful teacher and I truly believe that he is the reason I have gotten so much out of my high school career. I feel that the time and effort he puts into this course is wonderful and he has made going to sixth period each day that much more exciting for me.
Trying to fit Facing History and Ourselves into my courses was difficult. I did not have many slots open for electives until my senior year. And when I was able to take the course, I was scheduled to take Facing History second semester. This was unfortunate because as a senior, we finish earlier than the other students. After a while it became clear to me that I simply could not leave this school without finishing the course with the rest of the class. I felt that to not finish such a meaningful course would defeat the very purpose of signing up for it. So I was able to get Mr. Gallagher’s and Mr. Callahan’s permission to finish the course with the other students. I am so happy that I will be able to finish this course because I have learned so much from it. When I first heard other students claim that this course truly was life changing, I could not understand how. I had seen the footage before. How could seeing it again in school make it that much different? I was shocked to learn that it was not the same the second time around. Now that I have such a different perspective on the subject, it is hard to watch. Now that I understand what is being shown to me, and how these events cam to take place, I can understand how terrifying it must have been to be there, and I have much more respect for those that survived, and even for those that died fighting. I was not prepared for what I was about to read and watch documentaries about. What I learned is something I will carry with me for the rest of my life.
. In the beginning of the semester, we started to talk about how civil rights was a huge issue and how African Americans were attacked and treated poorly simply because they had darker skin. This is a topic that I have heard of before and most of the information given to us was not new to me. But when we were asked to blog our opinions on the films we watched and the articles we read, I found it harder to say what I was thinking. For the first time, I was asked to state my opinion on a website were other students could see it. There was several times where I felt unsure of what to say because I didn’t want to say something that sounded like I had a different opinion from everyone else. I soon learned that having my own opinion was something that I should be proud of and I now feel that being able to state it rather than keep it to myself is helpful in handling the truth. But there is still one question that we were asked in regards to a portion of a film we watched not too long ago. The film was about a woman who was told to choose which of her children could live. She had to choose between her young daughter and a son who was also young in age. When asked the first time she said she could not choose and she would not let the Nazis kill them. But when both children are seized, she says “take my little girl”. I could not believe that a person could choose which child to send to their death or imprisonment until I was asked to make a choice myself. In my head I thought it was impossible for anyone to send one child to an unknown destination and live knowing they opted to let them die rather than doing what they could to save both children. But in the end I said I would have chosen to let both children be taken away because if they were killed, they would not have to go through what the Jewish people went through during the Holocaust. I realize now that it is truly impossible to make a choice like this and not feel guilty for not protecting both children with my life. When we first started to talk about the Holocaust starting, we watched a documentary with a man who was able to travel to America before the Nazis took control in Europe. One man says that while he was safe in the US, his parents were both unable to leave Germany because they were unable to get visas from the US. We learned in the documentary that the reason so many refugees were refused entry into the US was because the government did not want to have to find a safe place for the thousands of Jews from many different countries. Some of the former representatives said that there were specific efforts to exclude the refugees from traveling to the US. These tactics included prolonging the distribution of visas, not sending rescue groups, and refusing to allow the victims a safe haven. To learn this about our government made me very angry because their main objective at the time seemed to win the war first, then help those in need. But the mass murders continued all throughout the war and by the time Germany had been defeated, millions of innocent people had been murdered simply because they did not look like the Arian race.
As a person, I feel as though I have changed quite a bit. This course has taken my emotions in many, many directions, mainly sadness and being disappointed. I'm sad for all of those helpless lives that have been lost, and all of those innocent people that survived and have to live with the images of their family members and friends walking into a gas chamber, or having to throw your own family member into a fire to burn their body after they are already dead. The thought of having to choose only one of your children to stay with you, not knowing the other's fate. I know that from my point of view I would not have been about to stay in a camp not knowing what day the Nazi's were going to kill me, not knowing how they were going to kill me, I would have taken my own life. I was in shock hearing that none of the men or women Jews that were in charge of throwing the bodies in the fire never threw themselves in. Because I know damn well that if that was me and I got the opportunity to get that close to death and it be my own choice, I would have taken it. I wouldn't want to give the soldier's the satisfaction of knowing that they got to murder me. I would want to be the one who was stronger than them.
While watching “Sophie’s Choice” I had a really hard time taking in the film, not because I wasn’t interested and not because I didn’t want to watch it. But because I cannot imagine the pain that Sophie had felt, since I was feeling so much pain in my heart and it didn’t involve me or my children. I felt for her, I wanted to go and help her and tell her not to cry and tell her not to worry, but you can’t. We will never be able to go back and fix the mistakes that we have made. It has never angered me so much to know that the Country that I love so much has stood by while mass murders occur around the world.
When talking about the genocide in Rwanda it really hit me that this is the time period that we live in. Where people think it’s okay to kill people if they have somewhat of a slight reasoning in their head that gives them some type of “excuse” for why they are doing this. The Rwanda Genocide was 20 years ago, and I had no idea that it had ever happened. That’s because not enough people are talking about it. In fact, nobody is talking about it and that’s where it needs to change. This course is that change. It has brought us to the realization that this world is not really such a beautiful place in which we thought, as kids, it once was. We have been shown the brutal reality that this world is dangerous, and cold. That you can’t always trust people and those bad things may happen to good people only because the bad people persuade everyone to have the same beliefs as them. No one in Rwanda would have hated each other for no reason at all. There was an underlying hatred just like with the Jews in Germany.
With the Jews, they came in, had well-paying jobs, had homes and were living their lives free in Germany. This angered the Germans. They believed that some of the Germans, who didn’t have a home or a job, was due to the amount of Jews in the community. This is where, in my opinion, the hatred for the Jews started. This dislike turned into the mass destruction of the Jewish people. Hitler wanted to have a “pure population” all blonde, and blue eyed people because those are the beautiful Aryan people that could do no wrong in the world. The Jews were treated like animals, brought somewhere where they had no idea what was going to happen to them, and they were put to work. They were separated from their families and they were forced to do disgusting things. They were lined up and brought into an undressing room, and had to remove all of their clothes. Next they were told to go into the showers, there were so many of them in there that mothers would lose track of their children, and then, the gas was dropped into the room. The gas makes you lose control of your bowels; you throw up and scratch at yourself. The Jews locked in the gas chambers would try escaping by crawling up the walls, but there was no way out. Meanwhile, the Nazi’s sat back and watched in enjoyment.
While watching the video on the Concentration camps, the video that was used in the trials, what I watched will forever be imprinted in my head for the rest of my life. It is absolutely disgusting; it killed me watching people's faces as they walked through the concentration camps, those who once praised Hitler and bowed down to the Nazi's are not horrified at what they have done. Seeing their face as they look at children who have been defaced, naked and mauled. You can see in the German's faces that this is nothing at all what they expected to come from what was being said by the Nazi Regime. I think that now, for the German’s to witness what they single handedly have done to their country and to the people living in their country, that they have loved for so long, I think they became confused and dissatisfied with the results of their actions.
Although many German’s did not like what had happened, and as disgusted as they were, there were still the German’s who were no happy due to the amount of Jews that were left. Almost as if they wanted the Nazi’s to keep going, to keep killing them off like vermin. When watching one of the documentaries, and Nazi had said that he still, to this day, hates the Jews and he ended the conversation saying that he no longer wanted to talk about his opinion. I think that he stopped when he did because he was getting upset about the fact that there was nothing that he could do anymore about continuing the extermination of the Jewish people.
Swing Kids was the best acted and filmed movie that I thought we watched throughout the course. It had mainly the same message but a slightly different plot then the other films. It showed a group of boys that were German-Jews but had an opportunity to get out before the madness. Some of them started peeling off and didn’t follow the “swing” attitude but some of them did and they eventually died because of it. One ended up killing himself because he saw what was coming and he couldn’t reach out to his traitor friends that abandoned him. The boys who were traitors started to work for the Nazi’s and began to beat the Jews at dances because they were told to and they were just following orders. They were convinced by the German leaders that they were superior to all other people who they really weren’t at all. The boy who never really switched over either ended up fighting his past best friend and sung him the “swing” song at the end and that’s when it really hit him that he was no different if he was known as a German or known as a Jew.
Another video that displayed people being valued above one another because they told they were was the Jane Elliot eye experiment video. This is the video that first made me realize that people should never be ranked higher than one another based on features and colors. Jane said that the blue eyed kids were better than the brown eyed kids and proceeded to convince the children that this was true. It just showed how easily influenced a person can be, this relating perfectly to Germans being told that they were superior to Jews. She even did this experiment with adults and it almost worked just as well, it got the downgraded group very frustrated as they were known as slow or dumb. Again the adult group had been convinced that they were lesser of a human than the regular group just because someone is telling that they are. The downgraded group could have easily been nicer and warm hearted people but in the experiment you would never be able to tell. It is just ridiculous that people can be influenced so easily that they are better than someone. You think that they would eventually realize that they were no different from everyone else. It is crazy to think not one German spoke up about him or her not being different from the next Jew. It is disgusting just to think about and I am now more aware of the absurdity that was going on back in this time period.
The first time I watched “The boy in the striped pajamas” I didn’t really know the true meaning behind it. I had watched it about 6 months ago which is actually pretty recent and yes I thought this was terrible that the Jews were being killed but after this course I had a completely different perspective about the movie. The second time around after seeing what the gas chambers were actually like I was horrified the whole movie knowing the little boy was going to have to go through that. The true meaning behind this is to show how similar the Jewish boy in the camp and the German boy outside of the camp were. These boys were 3 feet away from each other the whole time and they could have easily been switched and they would have the same value.
This course was extremely hard to sit through; there were times that I couldn’t stand to look at what we were watching or what we were reading in class, it’s really hard knowing that this happened to so many innocent people. I wish that I could have lived in this time, and I wish this just so that I could make a difference. I would have wanted to be the change. Even if I couldn’t do much, it would mean more than anything to me knowing that I affected at least one life. I want to make sure that from here on out I try harder to be a catalyst. I am done sitting back and waiting for things to magically happen on their own. We live in a world that is not all safe, and is not all good. But we learn to take the good with the bad and that is what I have learned from this course.
One last thing that I thought I would share that really affected me, was the removal of the bodies from the camps, the nurses and people involved in the extermination were “forced” to dispose of the bodies under American orders. But they were so careless, and so disrespectful to the remains of the deceased. This really angered me, I just think that after everything, the people that were involved should see what a mess they have made, and they should see what an awful problem that they have caused and yet, there is no emotion from them at all.
I'm not sure where I'm going to go from this or what is going to come from this experience, but I know that I am not going to sit back and let things happen to innocent people any longer. I will promise to take a stand against the people who go out of their way to hurt others. I will not be a bystander. I will be the resistance.
There are two films that we have watched that have truly made me realize the true horror of the Holocaust and what the effects were on the families and individuals who survived. The Boy in the Stripped Pajamas was a film that was so realistic, it made me cry. Even knowing it was a film, to see how oblivious some of the German people were to what was going on was heartbreaking. Throughout the film, Bruno, an eight year old German boy, seems to be unable to understand that what he thinks is a farm next to his home, is a Nazi concentration camp. When he tried to explore, he finds the edge of the camp where he meets a young Jewish boy. He befriends the boy, and tries to ask him questions about the camp. And when Bruno learns that the boy’s father has gone missing, he decides to help his friend. They make a plan to have Bruno dress as one of the prisoners, and sneak into the camp to help look for the boy’s father. But when he arrives in the shack where the Jews are all crammed in, the SS guards force them out of the bunks and march then down into the gas chambers. Meanwhile, Bruno’s family is desperately looking for him, and his father, who is in charge of the camp, is trying to stop the SS from killing the prisoners. But before he is able to find Bruno, his son is sent into the gas chamber with his friend and killed. Even as this happens, and it is clear that Bruno is not going to survive, when he dies in the film, it was the single saddest moment in any movie that I have ever watched. While hundreds of innocent people are killed at once, Bruno’s father finally learns what it is like to lose family during the Holocaust. I have never felt the way I did after watching The Boy in the Stripped Pajamas before. It is a helpless feeling, and the message of the film is one that will stay with me for the rest of my life. The most important thing I learned from this film was that when Bruno was told that the Jewish people were animals and should be treated like the vermin they were believed to be, Bruno could not understand why. This was because he had met a Jewish boy who was friendly, kind, trusting, and loyal. Bruno did not understand why the Jewish people were evil because he knew from personal experience that not every Jewish person was evil. I think this is very important because too many people simply believe what they are told by a higher power, and so these events are able to escalate. The second film that has had a huge effect on me was the footage from the death camps that were shown when the Nazis were put on trial for war crimes and mass murder. I have seen these films before, but with the new knowledge and perspective that I now have, it is extremely difficult to watch. I feel that something should have been done to save these people because they were humans and should have been our first priority at the time. I feel that those who were liberated from the camps were truly grateful to have been saved by the American soldiers, but I cannot help but wonder how many more could have been saved had the US done something more rather than stand by and watch as millions lost their lives.
One documentary in particular that had an effect on me was The Longest Hatred. Before taking the course, I knew that Anti-Semitism is out there and that it has long been an ideology that exists in the world. However, I had never really thought much of it in terms of its breadth or its origin. During the start of this class, when Anti-Semitism had been mentioned here or there, I started to think more about it. I wondered why the Jews had always been targeted, why this hatred even existed. This got me thinking about the roots of Anti-Semitism and how it started in the first place. Watching the documentary The Longest Hatred shed some light on this topic. I learned from this documentary that the Bible was essentially the root of Anti-Semitism. I had never before heard anything like this, so I was caught completely off-guard. I had no idea that the Christians blamed the Jews for killing Jesus Christ, which is basically the root of hatred toward the Jews. I was shocked by this, but I am glad that I now have an understanding of where Anti-Semitism came from. I feel that this understanding is the only way to truly comprehend such events as the Holocaust.
The BBC documentary The Rise of the Nazis – A Warning from History also had a great impact on me. I was particularly fascinated by the interview with Resi Kraus. I was shocked by the fact that she denied what she had done to turn in her neighbor to the Gestapo. I would have thought that if she really did not think that what she had done was wrong, she would have admitted to doing it. For this reason, I realized that Ms. Kraus did in fact know that what she did was wrong. In my opinion, this is precisely the root of the problem when it comes to the Holocaust. So many people contributed to the Holocaust simply by knowing that something was seriously wrong but failing to do anything about it. It honestly infuriated me to hear Ms. Kraus say that she did not actually kill anyone so therefore she was not responsible. The fact that she did not put a bullet in anyone’s head does not mean that she did not kill anyone. She, and everyone else who witnessed the killing and did nothing to stop it, is responsible for the deaths of millions. In terms of how this documentary affected me personally, it gave me an emotional connection to the Holocaust by making me angry. It helped to make me realize that something that happened decades before I was born could still have a very personal impact on me. This documentary as a whole helped to change my attitude about the Holocaust. It was no longer just something that happened in the past that, while I had always thought it was horrible and been saddened by it, was removed from me and my life. Now, after watching The Rise of the Nazis – A Warning from History, as well as the other films that we watched, I feel that I have civic agency with this topic. I feel an intellectual, moral, and emotional connection to the Holocaust.
I believe that it strikes the German boy’s father when he is gassed that this whole camp was a terrible mistake and that none of these people should be being killed. I really feel for the mother because she knows that the Jews were of the same value as her and she had to live just a mile awhile and also see her innocent son along with innocent people be gassed to death. The German soldier who was working in the house had his father leave the country previously. His father must have known what was really going on and wanted to get out. Also when Bruno lied about the Jewish boy stealing the food from the table this is the second most impacting part of the film. I believe this because this shows exactly what was going on in Germany, people probably wanted to speak up but they were so scared that they never did. I think that these people were the cowards along with the people running the death camps. It could have been so easy to contact someone about what was going on and someone could have tried to contact and influence an outside country about what was happening. This brings me to the topic of why didn’t the USA do anything about it, this actually makes me sick to think about that we didn’t step up and help the Jews at all, it hurts me to know that we even sent some Jews trying to escape back to Nazi Germany. We sentenced them to their death. That is why I am so disgusted about the whole thing and it almost shows that the US government didn’t care enough about the thousands of deaths. I think there even could have been cowards in other countries who believed in the German philosophy that some people were better than others which is down right mind blowing. To conclude the viewing of the film it shows again how the German leaders valued other Germans over all Jews. It was sickening when you watched the Jews being herded out of their crammed little shack then having to walk to their death. The fact that they were being lied to the whole time about getting a shower is the most frustrating part. I wish I could have had an inside look because it would have been more life changing than anything. My life has changed just by knowing people can act so unaware about terrible situations going on around them.
I really need to view the rest of “the pianist” because it was another very intriguing film. We saw people in the ghettos being herded on to the train and the main character was separated from his family which was probably heart breaking. The fact that I even am saying the word herded when referring to perfectly normal people is downright outrageous. The pianist was a man who seemed to be very content throughout what was happening which surprised me. A terrible part of this film was when they devalued the cripples and injured before they devalued everyone else. When the old man couldn’t stand up at the table they decided to drop him to his death and proceeded to kill the others like they were rats or garbage. These Germans were sickening me just about how jokingly they would kill the Jews. Along with all the other films, readings, and documentaries, the Pianist had showed how the Jews were thrown away like garbage and devalued compared to everyone else. It makes me so upset thinking that they would specifically get rid of the cripples first because they thought they weren’t even human right then. They proceeded to put the rest to work and then kill them off like they were not humans either.
If there is one lesson I have taken away from this course, it is that being a bystander is the worst thing to be in this type of situation. Because no one acted and attempted to help those who have been targeted throughout history, people were able to get away with mass murder, genocide, and brutal attacks on specific groups of people. The Rwandan genocide is another prime example of nothing being done to help people who are being attacked because they are different. While the tourists in Rwanda were evacuated to safety, the people who lived there and who were being targeted were left to defend themselves. When kids are younger, if you told an adult about someone being bullied by another person or group, you were called a tattle-tail. When faced with the option of helping another person, or losing their current friends because of telling an adult about a bully, I feel like many kids would rather keep their friends and pretend that nothing is wrong. But if no one speaks up this will be a normal part of someone’s life, and bullying has long lasting effects. I know this by personal experience, and while it was happening, nothing was being done to help. It was bad enough that I had to be taken out of school for several weeks because the adults who were supposed to protect me at school did nothing to keep me safe. Knowing what bullying can do to a person emotionally is something that I think about a lot and I feel that If people acted to the benefit of those in need, people would be more comfortable with who they are. While the Holocaust is very different from what might go on in school, it does share similarities. When nothing is done to aid those in need, the perpetrators believe that they can get away with anything because they won’t be stopped by anyone. Also, the victims of these devastating events may feel a long lasting distrust towards those who were there at the time of the event, but who did nothing to help or stop the perpetrators. This distrust is something that can last a life time and it truly takes away from someone’s life. I hope that in the future, I can be more aware of the facts and help to raise awareness of these tragic events. I hope I will be able to support efforts that are made to help those who are in need of help. The lessons I have learned this semester are lessons I will remember forever and I hope to be able to make a difference using the tools I have been given. Facing History is a life changing course and I hope that it is able to help shed some light on such terrible events from the past and to help prevent anything as catastrophic as the Holocaust in future years to come.
I would like to finish off my writing by saying how mind boggling and how much this course affected me. I would definitely recommend this course to anyone who wants to have a life changing experience. Everyone should see what happened during this disastrous time and how easily people turned against each other and how Hitler brought this upon all the Jews along with many other German men. I would like to say that my life has changed after watching all of the films and reading all the readings. I would also like to thank you for this opportunity of being in this class as of know I look at everyone more carefully and differently than I did before.
Finally, the most impacting thing I think I can recall in this class was something of an apex that we viewed on the last Monday for the seniors this year. Simply entitled “Nazi Concentration Camps,” on the surface the film appears ready to be factual and fulfilling as well as unveiling. But only a few minutes in, the horror show (as an understatement) begins. What the smell lacks, the sights of which partially make up for the disturbing atrocities that we see, a bit grotesquely at times, in the flesh, literally. Over the course of a single hour, several of the liberated concentration camps are visited by the same camera crew, sometimes being introduced by a militant person of a higher rank simply explaining the processes they have been taking throughout the course of the exploration amidst the camps. The horrors range from those too thin or sick (or both) being left behind in evacuations to torn up and shredded corpses of recent prisoners being mowed down and caught in barbed wire after being told they could leave and were fleeing for their lives before being barraged by machine guns. The most graphic thing that words cannot do justice to is the barren and true emptiness that pervades you through the heartlessness of the Nazis to the physical being of the camp’s prisoners. On at least three separate occasions in the film, there are empty shacks, houses, or barns stacked and filled with dead bodies, eyes rotted out and faces festering as they were prepared to be burned or buried in massive quantities. The small intrinsic parts of what the narrator points out brings a haunting element of familiarity or endless possibility of this happening anywhere with certain details like pointing out the family style oven that was created for their customer only to harbor the skeletons of the dead bodies thrown in there after the showers. While this just be my morals speaking as I still become extremely horrified and sickened stiff thinking about this film, I approve what the Ally soldiers made a motif throughout their trips; having the local German people as well as captured Nazi’s not only view these infinitely perverse acts, but aid in the tearing down of the camp itself and recovering of remaining prisoners. To add to their ghostly return, the only remarks told to us of them was that they denied any sort activity being conducted there. On a single occasion, the townspeople were digging up the bodies for a third time, having moved them twice due to the “overwhelming smell” and once again for being too close to the town itself. Each individual camp has hours of nightmare-provoking images of dried, rotten, mangled bodies dangling limply from each man, woman and child who help toss the carcasses into large singular burial ditches. One particular wide spread shot shows a bulldozer with a plow, trudging the murdered victims into the ditch in order to speed up the process. This film puts into words the demonizing behavior of the Nazi’s through its images that no one person possibly could through a text book and homework sheets.
When I was watching “The Grey Zone,” it felt as if it was all made up, because it seemed as if it was too unrealistic. That is what scared me the most; the fact that everyone coming into the camps just blindly followed the orders of the Nazis just for a drink of water and a shower seems unlikely to me, because I can do/get those things almost whenever I want to. The part of the movie that deeply disturbed me was when the Jewish man was helping the Nazis follow through with their plan. Not only that he beat some innocent man who was trying to warn others about the showers, but he also did it for the man's watch. As soon as the doors shut to the showers, the man knew what he had done in that he had just sent innocent people to their death. The part that deeply disturbed me was when you could hear all the people screaming inside the showers. I still have a sick feeling every time I think about this movie.
After watching “The Boy in the Striped Pajamas,” I was only able to feel bad for the mother and the sister. The father, as soon as he looked and saw that the one area that the kid was sleeping was empty, knew it was all over. He would have had to live with the fact that his son basically died because of him, because he helped create what ended up killing his son. The boys were so innocent and looked like they had no clue what was going on all the time. How the Nazis wanted to kill a race of people that are so innocent is beyond me.
One of the last movies that I wanted to discuss is the film that we watched that was shown at the Nuremberg trials. This movie will stick with me for life. Mr. Gallagher was right when he said we would have strong feelings about this film. This movie made me want to just look away because of how terrible the concentration camps looked. I can only imagine what it would have been like to actually be there. When they brought in the “heavy equipment” my heart just sunk. How could any human being treat another human being like that? This movie was so disturbing. Mr. Gallagher talked about how the Nazis fixed together lamp heads made of human skin, as well as with paper made from human skin. How the people of Germany had no clue of how bad it was in the concentration camps is unbelievable. The way that the smell is described, you would have been able to smell it for a couple of miles. Also what did the civilians think when they saw trains of people coming in, and no one going out, as well as a lot of smoke coming from the chimneys? How oblivious could the nearby towns have been, because I am surprised that even if they were risking their lives by asking these questions, at least someone could have asked them and done the right thing in trying to stop it.
After taking this course my eyes are open. If I see something in society that does not look right, or that I could up for, I will be that person to volunteer to help someone else. Also, if I ever see the signs of a genocide start to form, I will do whatever I am able to do to stop it, because there are always innocent people involved in conflicts no matter how big or small they are. Overall, this has been my favorite course over the four years that I have taken at the high school, and it is also the most important class. If anyone has the option to take this course that has not already, they should take it. This course should be a requirement for graduation, because the people that live in this town for the most part have never seen anything like it, and before they go out into the real world they should be aware of the things that go on in the world. For example, discrimination is everywhere you look in society, and this course increases a person’s awareness of several issues. This class changes people; I have heard it from many people who have previously taken the course, but more importantly, I have personally experienced this.
Another film that I was very interested by was The Swing Kids. Again, I felt a personal connection to this film simply because the main characters were around my age. I also was fascinated by this film because it put a bit of a different spin on the Nazis. Traditionally, when I had learned or heard about them, it had always been with the Nazis as the enemy, an evil power that was seen from a distance. However, the film The Swing Kids tells the story from a slightly different viewpoint. It chronicles the experience of a young German man living in Nazi Germany and the struggles that he faces with whether to join or to fight the Nazis. He is faced with the problem of having to join the Hitler Youth so as to avoid speculation that he is not on the side of the Nazis. He also then must watch his best friend turn into a full-blown Nazi, becoming completely indoctrinated and even implementing the ideas he learns in the Hitler Youth. I feel that this film was a very important one in the course for me because it showed me that perhaps Nazi Germany was a bit more complicated that I might have thought. In the film, the line between good and evil became slightly blurred, and it evoked sympathy for some of the people who ended up joining the Nazis. I personally began to feel bad for the kids who were essentially forced to join the Hitler Youth and ultimately became indoctrinated. While this does not change anything about the Holocaust in my opinion, it was still important to get the opportunity to see a different side of it.
Hotel Rwanda is a film that I found to be quite captivating. I had watched it as part of a history class once before, but it had a much more profound effect on me upon watching it in Facing History and Ourselves. Before taking this course, I would never have thought of the Rwandan genocide and Holocaust as related. However, this time around watching the film, I noticed that so many parallels can be drawn between the two. For example, the backbone of both genocides is dehumanization caused by ideas of superiority and inferiority between subgroups of the population. The only way for people to be able to kill others in this way is for them to view these others as less-than-human. The Nazis referred to the Jews as vermin or rats, and the Hutus referred to the Tutsis as cockroaches. Another connection between the Rwandan genocide and the Holocaust is that both were made possible by those who stood by and did nothing. One of the most significant groups of bystanders for the Holocaust was the German people. An entire nation of people stood by and watched as their government systematically murdered millions. In terms of Rwanda, the entire rest of the world acted as bystanders by refusing to step in and help the victims. Many countries, including the United States of America, knew exactly what was going on in Rwanda but chose to be a bystander. It is this precisely that allows these atrocities to continue to take place, even after we swear we’ve learned our lesson. Hotel Rwanda showed me that if we are to fulfill the promise of “Never Again,” we must refuse to be bystanders.
Due to this sterilization though, I feel that most kids who arrive and leave here gain little to no vision of the true unruly mercy that life works with. To live each day is not only a gift, but an opportunity. While this doesn’t mean you or I must go around kissing the ground we walk upon, it means that we should be thankful for having the available knowledge to stand up, react, and dismiss discriminatory, racist and hateful remarks and behavior to help give every human the chance to live the way they choose to. In Facing History and Ourselves you are immediately conflicted with oppression and general ignorance dating back to the Native Americans, who were tossed in trains and shipped to hollow buildings during a time of war where (does this sound familiar?) they were punished for acting out of line/as themselves. At least our American ancestors gave the natives the “option” of assimilating into white culture rather than exterminating them in a tactile and brutal manner. As we progress through the class, each film gives several different insights into many alternate storylines during the Nazi era, be it cinematic or documentary style. These films help embed the realism of not only these issues but the stories themselves, from ”Swing Kids”, where the western Europe and American dance craze of the 30’s is suppressed into forcing Nazism down their throats and dying for it’s cause to “Hotel Rwanda” where a man truly becomes a hero by harboring his neighbors during the Rwandan Genocide of 1994.
Over the course of the class we also discuss difficult choices that we come across, ranging from the story of the father who takes his son hunting (can’t remember the name of it) where we discussed as a class what each one of us would have done in a situation where perhaps our lives aren’t on the line, but the choice of choosing whether to let another’s live or die is just as difficult. While we didn’t break up and have the time to talk about the even more pressing choice, in “Sophie’s Choice,” we did spend time reading choice answers aloud to the class talking about what anyone could have done in a situation that shouldn’t humanly exist, but does, thanks to the Nazi’s brutality at the concentration camps.
Before watching “Mrs. Elliot” I never thought it was possible to get little kids to hate or think they were better than each other. While watching Mrs. Elliot teach her class of third grades about how terrible discrimination is, I asked myself what the people at our school would be like if this happened to us at an early age. At the beginning of the film I was surprised by some of the language that the children used to describe other races. I found it amazing when she stated the stats for the children’s tests and quizzes had changed before, during, and after the lesson was learned. Also when watching Mrs. Elliot teaching her lesson to the adults, she was almost always going after the same two people, who felt powerless. Those who were part of the minority group did nothing to help their own people out, because they did not want to suffer the repercussions of them speaking up. This film really interested me, and I learned a lot from it.
While watching just the first fight scene in “The Swing Kids,” you get a feel for what it was like to live in Germany, including the feeling of terror wherever you went. The Jews could not go anywhere without being beat up, stolen from, or worse. This movie did a fantastic job of showing what it would be like to live in Germany if you were not part of the Nazis. While I was watching the scene where Thomas turns in his own father, I just wondered about how he hated his father to the point that he would want him to die. Another thing is how easily Thomas was persuaded to become a Nazi and believe the propaganda that they put out. This movie also shows that there were people in the German society that stood up and did what they wanted to do despite what the German government told them to do. At the end when he says that he knew who his real friends are, hit Thomas hard and he realized he became the type of person he never wanted to become.
The film, “The Pianist” really shows you what it was really like to live in the ghettos. Although it was probably a close representation of what actually happened, the director really showed that Jews during that time period were hated for no real reason. At the same time, the Germans thought they had reasons for hating them, but they were not even close to having actual reasons for hating them. While watching this movie I learned that the Germans had built a wall all around the ghetto to just contain the Jews. One of the most terrifying scenes that I have watched all year was when in the middle of the night, the Nazi troops raid a house in the Warsaw ghetto and catch a Jewish family while they are eating dinner. Everyone at the table stands as soon as the Nazis enter the room, except for one man who is either not able to walk or just simply to old to walk, and the Nazi yells at him to stand up. When he does not stand up, the Nazis take him and his wheelchair, and dump him over the railing of the third story balcony. As a punishment to the rest of the family, they told them to go outside and run. As they did that they were shot practically as target practice. What I was even more shocked about was hearing that this went on almost every night of every week, which made me sick to my stomach.
Another documentary that had an impact on me was America and the Holocaust. I felt a personal connection to this film for a slightly different reason than some of the others: it talked about the country that I live in and the things that it did, or did not do, with respect to the Holocaust. I am ashamed to admit that before taking this class, I had never even thought about what the United States might have done during the Holocaust. The Holocaust had always been something that I had thought of as having occurred in Europe, and not having much of a connection to this country. I now understand that the entire rest of the world was involved, and that the United States could have done something to help but chose not to. I now know that many, many Jews tried to get into the United States to avoid being captured and killed by the Nazis, but that the US closed its doors completely. While I understand why this decision was made, it is certainly not justified. I was incredibly angered by this fact. I could not believe that my country knew of the terrible atrocities being committed by the Nazis and refused to help their victims.
Lastly, I felt one of the strongest emotional connections to the content while watching The Boy in the Striped Pajamas. I had never before seen this film, and was certainly not prepared for what I saw. In my opinion, children are as pure and innocent as people can be, so the way that they view things is often the most natural. For this reason, I think that this film does a good job of showing that it is not natural for people to hate, dehumanize, and murder one another. This was displayed through the friendship between Bruno and Shmul, who both did not care that the other was a member of a certain group. Instead, they developed a true friendship that was incredibly meaningful and very touching. I was completely heartbroken by the ending of The Boy in the Striped Pajamas. This helped to solidify my emotional connection with the Holocaust, which in my opinion is the strongest type of connection.
All of the films and documentaries that we watched as part of this course made me a better person. I learned so much that I had never even thought about before taking this course, and developed an intellectual, moral, and emotional connection to the parts of history that we studied. This course has inspired me to pay more attention to the world around me, to be a part of the solution rather than contribute to the problem, and most importantly to refuse to be a bystander. I am truly grateful to have had the opportunity to take Facing History and Ourselves.
Coming into this course, I knew little to nothing about the contents of the course and our instructor, Mr. Gallagher. Having experienced both, they have fundamentally driven me to change my human behaviors as well as giving me an in depth, historically rich and one of the most thought provoking as well as accepting classes I have ever had the privilege of taking. While delving into the factual evidence surrounding the events and chaos, chaos being an understatement for sure, of the Nazi party, having a culturally relevant made-for-theaters film that follows either a similar fashion in a different setting or is simply about the Nazis, depicting those who are in control and how the bystanders respond emphasized the importance of stopping behavior that can be abusive or controlling. When taking this class, I knew from the very beginning of the severity of it’s importance. A respectable but investigable boundary was set by those who were “going into the class to learn something and change” or to be one of those “who remain the same by the end of the course.” Having understood the basic outlines of the Nazi’s abuse to the Jews through gas chambers, beatings and capturing of cripples, mentally handicapped and blacks as well, this course unveils a truly dark side so horrible at times it is easy to forget this was considered a political party and not just a collection of fragmented, jaded and cruel human beings so desperate for aid, any scapegoat that could do, would. I as a person am a bit of an examiner. I will study the motions and actions of people, but usually not be able to apply certain legitimate or accurate feelings that those involved might be conveying, so while seeing something horrific was nothing new, to experience it and be familiar with it is a whole other beast.
Coming into this class, I wasn’t the type of student that dreads each morning as if I am being punished by going to school, let alone one who would get up and walk away during class before school is over, but I would like to use that example as reason to validate myself in saying that I truly think for myself. I am keen on what goes on, but most of the time it gets filtered out. I can take things for what they are, not stress on microcosmic details, and try and appreciate everyone’s attempt to express themselves, though I feel that most people here limit themselves out of this dark age-like fear, perhaps authority or punishment. That being said, not often is the punishment and harm done in our high school (as it happens in every single high school across America, perhaps even in home schools) in sight of others, but a sort neurological repression system that conveys people the option to “fit in” and “structuralize.” Granted, this works very well for forming a domesticated student body. But if there was to be just a single student who not only intensely despised this school (as I am sure at least a few have) but also have the wherewithal to do what they feel is right (or what they think), Westborough High School would have radical policy changes in order to keep the culture of the society within their control. While volatile and toxic at times, the instinctive human element in this school is rather dead or pacified at the very least, which keeps things under control.
Joe Bretta
Thursday, May 22, 2014
Facing History Blog
Final Blog
This course has changed my life forever. Not only the course, but also the teacher has opened my eyes to the atrocities that have gone on in the world and the ones that still go on today. In Westborough, all of the students are sheltered to the point where they are not aware of current events and issues going on in the world. The point of this course is to show all of the terrible things that have gone on in the world. First in this course you start off with the Jim Crow laws and at the end you will experience some of the most horrific things you will ever see in your entire life. Mr. Gallagher has a unique teaching style, first he shows a documentary, which he then follows with a film to solidify what was just seen in the documentary. This film has also changed how I act around people. Before taking this class I never thought about what I said before I said it, now I actually think before I talk.
First film I want to discuss is the America and the Holocaust film. I was absolutely shocked while I watched this film. How any country could turn their backs on an entire race, and not even feel an ounce of guilt is absolutely terrible. It makes me feel awful to be an American. The American Government also knew for a long time that these killings were going on, but they did not care. Not only did the American Government not do anything to help the Jews that were being killed, but also they just stood by and did not even let them into the country. I am ashamed of the government at this point in time, but I am also extremely disappointed in the American people for not standing up for the people who did not have a voice in the matter. People in America were completely aware of the situation going on in Europe, despite it being on page six and not front-page news. Bottom line is the American people still did not do anything.
The next film I want to talk about is the movie, “Uprising.” This movie shows you that the Jews living in the ghettos did not just do everything that the Germans told them to do. The viewer is brought inside the ghetto and shows the struggle that these innocent people went through every single day. These people were some of the bravest people I have ever seen or heard of. They fought the Germans in the ghettos despite being outnumbered and outgunned. Despite only having a couple of guns and Molotov’s, these people took on a tank in an effort to fight the Germans. They used their knowledge of the area and turned it around to kill a lot of the Germans trying to invade the ghetto.
While I was watching the “Milgram Experiment,” I was so shocked that over fifty percent of the people that participated in the experiment were able to continue after hearing the guys’ cries of pain. These people blindly obeyed orders after knowing that they were giving the man shocks and that he had a heart problem. Sometimes people need to challenge those in authority because it can be necessary. The fifty percent of people that did this experiment and left because they knew that the man in the other room could be in a lot of pain, are the types of people I want to be when I get older. Even though they heard the man's screams and as he begged for them to let him go, they continued to give him his shocks. Luckily there were people in this experiment that chose to stand up against this and speak out. They are the types of human beings that everyone should be like, the people that chose what is right over what they are told.
Introduction
Introduction
Above all, I have always been curious. Stories from my childhood corroborate with this. When I was little I asked impossibly difficult questions without hesitation, I was blunt and outspoken with my opinions (sometimes inappropriately so), and I showed a general disinterest in most of the things that usually fascinated children. I was content with reading books I had stolen from my father or taking things apart and putting them back together again, all in order to figure out how they worked. The years may have dulled my bluntness, instilled in me a sense of politeness and of the boundaries which I had lacked in childhood, but curiosity is probably still my chief trait to this day. I may have learned to disguise it, but I still find small talk unbearably boring, and would much rather be discussing the difficult and convoluted issues. Taking this curiosity into account, it's somewhat obvious that I would be interested in a course like Facing History and Ourselves as I reached my senior year in high school.
Facing History is centered around confronting those events that are seen as black marks in the history of our race, prominently, the Holocaust. But it's no typical history course; it doesn't just cover the facts surrounding the Holocaust like logistics and statistics. The course goes beyond that, through readings, films, and discussions, it encourages an understanding of the very psychology and mentality that enabled such atrocities to ever occur. It reaches outside the Holocaust and even history to prove that genocides and acts of injustice still happen today, further bolstering the importance of examining our conduct as individuals and as a society. This is all in the hopes that students will reach some form of civic agency, which is borne out an intellectual, emotional, and moral connection to the subject matter. These studies and discussions also force students to confront themselves. Essentially, it isn't just a discussion of the Holocaust; it's one of human nature. But in the investigation of why we do what we do, there are no easy questions and no simple answers. Other teachers and friends who had taken the course had only positive reviews, and assured that while it may be tough, it was an entirely worthwhile experience. I was looking forward to the course and thought it would be an informative experience, but I did not expect it to benefit me as a person quite as much as it did. I was already naturally inquisitive about human nature and the gritty aspects of human history. What else could there be? But in the end I learned how susceptible we all are to manipulation, how important it is to view every person with as much realism as you view yourself, and how important it is to maintain your independence. I realized with renewed vigor the true accountability we have for our actions, the value of resistance, and the value of constructive confrontation of the issues.
Along the quest of understanding the Holocaust, one of the most asked questions is how? How were people able to commit so many despicable acts against fellow human beings? As I write this I find myself reflecting on how each day of Facing History has contributed to my reaching an understanding of the complex answer to this question. As I said there are no easy questions in the realm of human nature, but if you are receptive to the course, if you reach civic agency, you might be able to grasp at the very mentality and psychology behind the perpetrators and bystanders involved in the Holocaust. When you're young, your world seems to be as black and white as fairytales lead you to believe. The identity of the hero and the villain are both clear, and they are who they are simply because the heroes are the good guys and the villains the bad. When you're young, the Nazis did horrible things simply because they were bad people at heart. But as you grow, you come to realize that identity and character are not that clear cut. Men are not just inherently good or bad, they can be made either way. Facing History helps students come to this realization, as well as one about the complexity of answering the aforementioned question. Many of the films we watched made me realize how malleable the human really is, how fickle we are to the influence of outside forces. Swing Kids in particular showcases this. Learning the extent of the parties indoctrination was shocking, and while every 21st teen sits there and says that they would never cave to the parties influence, that they would see through all the propaganda, seeing the story of the swing kids makes you realize how difficult it was for those in the occupied areas to resist. Thomas seemed the most adamant protestor of the party, yet as he was exposed to the parties influence, their ideas began to slowly creep into his mind, so subtlety he never even realized what was happening. Even those who were able to resist the mental manipulation, like Thomas, were unable to ultimately fight the party because they were so outnumbered. Other films like those regarding the experiments conducted by Mrs. Eliot and Dr. Milgram even further validated my realization of how susceptible we all are to influence, even if we try to deny it. I had me considering my own upraising and the influences on my life thus far. It instilled in me a renewed sense of importance about maintaining your own individuality and being cognizant of those things that may be influencing the way you think and see the world.
But the fickle nature of the mind and the party’s widespread propaganda are not sufficient in explaining how so many people reached the depths of hatred and inhumanity that Facing History revealed. What else contributed to the Holocaust? Dehumanization. The exercises conducted in the course elicit the realization that dehumanization is required in committing acts of prejudice, brutality, and eventually genocide. But how is this dehumanization achieved? Through divisions, divisions and groupings that slowly enable the construction of the "we/they" mentality that when fully evolved, turns into dehumanization. Watching The Freedom Writers I found extremely beneficial. It exposed our class to what teens in other parts of our country have to struggle with, as well as an example of how prejudices and genocides still exist today. Teens were divided into racial groups and pitted against eachother in gang wars, and in the films exploration of this we were exposed to the kind of thinking that divisions cause. Due to group think and the "we/they" mentality, each group viewed the others as the enemy, and saw each individual outside their group with skewed perspective, dehumanizing them and not placing them on the same level. The Boy in the Stripped Pajamas was one of the most emotionally impactful movies to me that we viewed. Bruno's fate was tragic, and his story is provides only a small dose of the many innocent lives that were taken during the Holocaust. The contrast behind Bruno's innocent childlike views and that of the status quo or of the young Nazi soldier fully demonstrated the dangers of dehumanization. Because Bruno was a child, he saw the Jews he encountered as he would any other person that he met and treated them accordingly. The others in the film had been exposed to indoctrination and influence, which caused them to see the Jews as subhuman, allowing them to be guilty of prejudice, hatred, and brutality towards those they incarcerated. It reminded me of a quote I had read just the summer before, from Ian McEwan's Atonement. It goes like this: “It wasn't only wickedness and scheming that made people unhappy, it was confusion and misunderstanding; above all, it was the failure to grasp the simple truth that other people are as real as you. And only in a story could you enter these different minds and show how they had an equal value. That was the only moral a story need have.” Perpetrators of the Holocaust were incapable of seeing those they abused and murdered as humans just as they were, understanding that "undesirables" had families, homes, jobs just as they had, and that just like them they possessed a varied and unique personality and background, not just the label as a "jew" or a "gypsy" or a "cripple." This is a meaningful lesson for someone about to go into the adult world. Though I've never been guilty of prejudice or cruelty, I think this course has more definitely ensured that I will keep reminding myself to see beyond a person's label or designation to consider them a person in all their complexity and sincerity, and take this consideration into account when interacting with anyone I ever meet.
If there was ever something that forces you evaluate your own actions, it would be Facing History, and I was no exception. As you sit in class, you are assailed with countless firsthand and secondary accounts of injustice, hatred, and prejudice. Growing up, most of us constantly negate the effects of our own actions. We tell ourselves that one small decision or act of laziness won't make a difference in the grand scheme of things, and that no matter what we do, we're only one person. But Facing History makes you see the error of this justification, throughout the course I consistently saw examples where one person made a single decision and it was monumentally influential. Documentaries like Nazis: A Warning From History and films like The Grey Zone showed the destructive power that just one person can have. But other films show how a single person can do the opposite and make a huge difference, as witnessed in the stories of Mrs. Eliot and Erin Gruwell, who both singlehandedly changed the lifelong perspectives of an entire group of people. At some point the realization occurs that we are all accountable for our actions, no matter how small, and that in life you are either a perpetrator, a victim, a bystander, or the resistance. There is no other category, you must fall into one. This is a rather profound realization for a young person, who has been told that their own responsibility so far is their grades. I've always been ambitious and knew the strength of one person who has a goal, but so far my ambition has mostly limited to doing those things that affect my own life directly. I'm proud to say I grasp the benefit of making a positive impact on lives that are not your own, strictly for humanitarian motives, and that I have seen how even the smallest acts can make a worthy difference.
Emboldening would be an adequate word to describe the effect of Facing History, not only has it made me realize the value of service but it affirms the worth of resistance and taking a stand. Of course, taking action can be difficult; we're all trained to me timid and polite, and pursue change via slow and regulated processes. But many of the examples we saw in class affirmed that the discomfort and risk that may come with resistance is far better than the regret and shame of being a bystander. Doing something, anything, can be difficult. It will always seem easier to blame your peers, your environment, the government, or any other resource. The true correspondence of events, however, is built by the countless small decisions of us all. I've learned that every one of us must hold ourselves accountable for every decision you make, no matter how big or small it may seem at first, because it can ultimately make a difference. That slight racist joke or remark could contribute to a growing movement of animosity towards that group, which could (more easily than you would think) escalate into dehumanization and genocide. Alternatively, that small amount of effort you give to be human and decent to others, or to speak out against those who choose to spread hate and injustice, could start a more positive movement. Look at the Jews living in the Warsaw ghetto, whose efforts to resist the Nazis were detailed in Uprising. By taking a huge risk and resisting they were actually able to make some sort of an impact, which was entirely worth it. Even though they were forced into the ghetto by the party, forced into a situation in which they had no control, forced to watch as they and their peers starved to death, they choose to take their situation, and rather than wither away as the party hoped, they fought back and made a difference. Look at Hotel Rwanda, for example, Paul's decision to resist influenced countless lives in ways he hadn't even expected.
The entire course as a whole validated my own support of constructive confrontation. Not confrontation in a violent and physical way, but the confrontation of those issues that are difficult but need to be addressed. The truth always comes out eventually, and all that effort spent trying to avoid confronting it or hiding it only adds more pain and complication. The Holocaust is a reality, acts of genocide are realities, murder and brutality are realities, and injustice and hatred are all inescapable realities. There is nothing we can do to change that, but confronting these facts openly, as temporarily emotional and difficult as this confrontation may be, is entirely worth it and a cathartic experience. It's the only way to make a difference, confronting the issues, usually in a graphic way, is often the only way to truly shake a person enough to change their behavior, and these changes are desperately needed to ensure that genocides will never happen again. As we watched with horror some of the footage of the death camps that were shown at the Nuremburg trials, I was at least glad to hear of the occasions when American soldiers led the population of well-dressed and well-fed people in the surrounding towns to see the carnage caused by the government they were supporting. Perhaps these tours were hugely responsible in causing those people to open their eyes, or to at least begin questioning what it was they were contributing to. But, by far, the support for the value of confrontation can be seen in how Facing History changes its students in a beneficial way, myself included. We're all transitioning into the adult world more responsible, mature, informed, and morally aware after forcing ourselves to look at those things we usually avoid or are sheltered from.
Introduction
My name is Jen Whitehall, and I am a senior at Westborough High School, and this is my Facing History and Ourselves blog. I originally signed up for this course I had heard that it was a very interesting and meaningful class; anyone I knew who had taken it talked about how much the class had an impact on them. I also love history, and knew that I would find this class interesting and knew I would be learning about important historical events. When I was younger I read The Diary of Anne Frank and other books about the Holocaust and WWII, so I thought that I knew a lot of information about the Holocaust already. This course proved me wrong, Facing History taught me much more. The films, documentaries, readings, and discussions we had in class gave me more insight and knowledge on what the Holocaust really entailed. This class taught me the importance of being educated and aware on history, so that history is not repeated. This class gave me a different outlook on life, and taught me to never be a bystander.
What Facing History and Ourselves Meant to Me
Facing History taught me so many things about the Holocaust and WWII, shocking things that I probably would never have learned without this course. This course did not only teach me about Holocaust, but events that led to this horrible genocide and how it even became possible. This course taught me about different prejudices and stereotypes from over the years that led to the hatred of different groups of people. This course did not just teach facts, but also why it is so important to not be a bystander. As a student this course taught me new facts and information about the Holocaust that I would have never known, and as a person it taught me to never be a bystander and fight for what I believe is right, because any person can make a difference.
One film that was very meaningful to me was Freedom Writers. This film was about teenagers who lived in a dangerous part of LA and were involved in gangs, and how their English teacher helped them all throughout high school. Throughout the film many different people did not believe that the students were capable of anything, because of their background. Mrs. Gruwell (the English teacher) is determined to teach these students, and believes that they are smart and capable of more than what people allow them to be. At first Mrs. Gruwells goal seems hopeless; the students do not listen to her or seem to care about anything she has to say. As time went on, Mrs. Gruwell was able to gain respect from the students by listening to them and showing that she truly believed that they were all smart capable kids. She even went above and beyond to help her students; she started working a second job so that she could buy them better books, and stood up to her bosses so that she could to do the most to help her class. She even took them on field trips to learn about the Holocaust, which none of them knew anything about. Learning about the Holocaust inspired the students to want to learn more, and taught them about themselves and the world around them. By the end of the movie, the entire class of students were all friends (when at the beginning they all hated one another) and loved Mrs. Gurwell and were confident in themselves and their abilities. I thought that this movie was so inspiring, because it showed to never give up and that even one person is capable of making a difference. Especially since I plan on studying Education in college and possibly becoming a teacher, this film showed how even one teacher can have a major impact, and inspired me even more to work with children.
Another film that was very meaningful to me was Hotel Rwanda. I have seen this film multiple other times in other classes, but every time I watch it, it still has an effect on me. This film is one of the most heart breaking and hardest things for me to watch. It is hard to understand how just 20 years ago something so awful was happening, and the whole world turned away
This class has meant very much to me. This class shows the really showed me the history of the important words that the class teaches. When talking about myself, I am 18 years old and about to go off to college next year. I work at Stop & Shop and have worked there for about 2 years. I can’t wait to go to college next year and am looking forward to the opportunities later in life that I will have. I am hoping to be a business major specifically in Marketing. My dream job would be to market cars because they are one of my favorite fascinations.
Perpetrator, Bystander, Victim, Rescuer, and Resistance are the core values of this class and what the class is based on. Perpetrator is the person who commits the crime. Bystander is somebody who just lets something bad happen. Victim is somebody who the crime is committed on. The rescuer is the person who eventually rescues the victim. The Resistance is the people who go against the perpetrator risking their own lives. The horrible things that were necessary to show in class, like the video we watched today had a really profound effect on me. The overall disgustingness of the bodies that were just thrown in the pits like they were nothing really horrified me because they were once humans and I believe that you shouldn’t do that to a dead person’s body. The film of the alive Jews was also very moving because of the extreme skinniness of them and how malnourished and weak they were. I could never live in those kinds of conditions and I don’t know how they were able survive. Beating and torture of very crude nature was also very common in the camps. For example, the Jews were slashed with a wooden stick with barbed wire attached to it. They were also held in defenseless positions that made the extremely vulnerable so that the beating would be that much easier to the beater. The bodies that were on display at the camps when the Allies over ran the camps were also extremely graphic. These bodies were mutilated and just laying there to decay. A big lesson that was thought to me in this course is the power of discrimination and hatred toward people can be taken way to far very quickly. There were about 6 million Jews killed by Hitler and the Nazis who were either gassed, beat, starved, experimented on and died from that or died of labor. The Nazis took this idea of anti-Semitism to a whole new level and it went way too far. The role of the Bystander is also a huge lesson I learned from the class. While the Jews were being executed in Europe, the United States did almost nothing to stop it. If the U.S. had stepped in before the killing had started, it could have stopped the killings all together. The U.S. also stopped getting communications from Europe because they didn’t want to know and they didn’t want to public to know of the camps.
History and Ourselves
Mr. Gallagher
May 21, 2014
Brian Bernard
My name is Brian Bernard, named after my Dad, and I’m a senior at Westborough High School. I’ve lived in Westborough for most of my life, I’m your typical 3.0 student, a three sport athlete, and I’m planning on attending the University of Lowell next year. In addition, I plan on working my butt off next year in hopes that I will be able to transfer to a better business school; because I know the business world is all about connections. In addition to being interested in sports, I’m really into nature and animals. When I retire, I
I originally heard about the Facing History Course from my upperclassman friends when I was a sophomore. I heard the course was pretty cool, and so was the teacher, Mr. Gallagher. I’ve always been interested in World War two and the Holocaust; however, I would be lying if I said I understood concentration camps, ghettos, and anti-Semitism against Jews throughout history. Nonetheless, I was drawn to the course to interpret the Holocaust for myself.
Right when I got into the course, I wasn’t really sure what to expect. We started off learning about prejudice here in the United States. A prejudice is a preconceived opinion that is not based on reason or actual experience. Most prejudices are completely inevitable, but allowing prejudices to become fashionable can make people feel uncomfortable, stupid, and unwanted. The allowance of prejudice gives the perpetrator more of a reason to bully people because they receive attention from bystanders watching. The United States has a rich history of discrimination: Asian Americans, Irish Americans, Iranian Americans, Catholic Americans, German Americans, and Italian Americans. The most notorious discrimination was towards African Americans.
After the Civil War, the thirteenth amendment was ratified which legally abolished slavery. The civil is the bloodiest war in American history where 6% of Northern whites died along with 18% of southern whites. Consequently, when African American’s were freed but forced to stay with the same job; it was a terrible situation. Racism continued on through the reconstruction era and thrived when the Jim Crow Laws were enacted were blacks were now separate but equal. Racism was so bad that hate groups like the KKK formed. Finally in 1954, African Americans gained the ability to go to public schools with Brown v. Board of Education. This was a very dark time in the United States. It’s interesting to me, because I imagine if the civil war was lost, there would be an extremely different way of life in the United States. In addition, when I analyze the bad times, I also look at it as sort of inevitable. There was really no possible way for African American’s to assimilate into culture without discrimination, but I think that the whole time period is needed for now, and the situation is only getting better. Moreover, the point of learning about discrimination in our country is that it parallels that of discrimination towards the Jews in Europe.
The role of the Resistance was also taught to me in this class. Prior to starting this class, I had never known about any kind of Jewish resistance in a ghetto or in a camp. The Grey Zone shows the rebellion in a dark but successful way. The Jewish Kapos finally got enough gunpowder from the women camp that they could explode some of the ovens in one of the crematoriums. These people risked it all just to make a small dent in the Nazi war effort. Even though the dent may have been small, at the very end of the movie, one of the Jews says to his partner, “We actually did something!”. This shows that they were proud of the efforts that they had put in. The role of the rescuer was also taught to me by this class. The rescuer is the person who finally rescues the resistance and the victims from the perpetrator. The rescuer for our class was the United States, UK, and Russia. These countries saved the Jews from complete destruction by the Nazis. The importance of the rescuer is they are the only hope for the resistance and the victims because they are trying to stay alive to be rescued. The rescuers are the liberators of the perpetrators and put an end to the evil that is caused by the perpetrators.
When we read the book, The Bear that Wasn’t in class, I think that it represents the attempts to demoralize somebody to fit into a group. The bear shows the representation of the person trying to be assimilated, but rejecting it. The other human characters in the story represent the larger group, which could be society or just a few people, telling the bear that he is not what he actually is. By almost the end of the story, the bear decides that he is no longer a bear, which shows the success of the larger group in assimilating him into the new group. The bear has lost his way at this part. By the end of the story, he is finally found is identity by going into the cave and saying that he doesn't really care what the other people said, which is the victory for the individual. While this book is written in a child format, it can be applied to any age at any time.
Boxes
In the story Boxes, I thought that the article talked about destroying identity through a simple act of checking a box. By checking a box, he classified himself as a single individual, while his identity is many different ethnicities was reduced down to only one. He says that he refuses to be identified as only one type of person, which is how it should be because with the number of multi-cultural people in this day and age, it should allow a person to check off the box or boxes that apply to them. He also likes how he can identify with many groups, because he can view things from many different perspectives. I think that this is a huge plus to the situation, because I am mostly English, so I can't look at things from different perspectives like Anthony can.
In After the first, Steve's mother in the beginning of the film wanted Steve to learn that hunting was bad. Steve's dad throughout the film wanted to teach Steve that hunting was fine. He also wanted to teach Steve that killing another animal may be difficult the first time, but it gets easier later on. Steve learns quick about killing an animal is not exactly an easy thing to do. He was very excited at the beginning of the film, but his mood rapidly shifted. This shows that you cannot just judge something so quickly, because the decision to kill the animal is a big decision.
In the documentary White Man’s Image, I learned from the documentary was that the act that give the Indians land and other things wasn't exactly what it seemed. The fine print of the act or just the real truth about that act was that it was to take away the native in the natives. The government wanted to kill the Indian and make him a man. This was a common theme back then because of the assimilation movement that was taking place to try to make every immigrant like each other. To strip another person of their identity is not a good thing to do, no matter the circumstance.
Julia’s Facing History Blog
May 22nd, 2014
Introduction:
Alike many other people, when I was young I was taught that the Holocaust was the worst event in history. Even as a young child, I knew that Hitler was bad—without even knowing pertinent information about his dark reign and the Holocaust as a whole. I never even thought about what really happened in the Holocaust until my Mom suggested I read The Diary of Anne Frank, which even at that time I couldn’t understand the details. I remember thinking “why do these people hate this girl?” and “what has caused them to want all of the Jews dead?” Still, to this day, I still can’t completely comprehend the answer to this question. Though many have speculated Hitler and the Nazi’s hatred focused on the Jews, Gypsies, and the homosexual and disabled population, the degree of horror brought upon these groups greatly outweigh this displaced anger. This year I decided to take Facing History and Ourselves to explore my own identity and discover more about myself. This course is designed to impact the bystander: someone who can relate to the many messages taught through the history behind the tragedy of the Holocaust. Through the lessons that the world have taken from this event in history, I have been able to ask myself a vital question pertaining to who I am as a person: what would I have done? Would I have been a bystander?
What Facing History and Ourselves Means to Me:
One film which examined the power of instruction was Dr. Milgram’s experiment. In the experiment subjects were tested to see if they would follow the instructions of a powerful individual (in this case a medical doctor) even if they inflicted pain on others. The individuals would have to give another person a series of questions, and for each one wrong a shock would be administered. The shocks increased in value and the person being shocked would cry out in pain after each one. Many just listened to the orders and did not stop even though they knew the other person was suffering from a heart condition, though showed signs of being uncomfortable such as laughing or acting reluctant to perform the acts. Though generally looked upon in society as a respectable characteristic, the power of obedience can be fazing and have dire consequences. I believe that obedience stems from both a desire to please a person or thing of a higher power or standing as well as the need to go along with the group. In a simple form, a dog is obedient to their owner who can provide them with food and has the power in the relationship. When a man is encouraged to be obedient, it is from a similar animal need to please. I believe that the laughing derived from nerves—the uncomfortable situation the people were in watching others shocked and hurt. This would correlate with the need to relieve tension, laughing to ease the uncomfortable situation. While administering the shocks, many volunteers tried to object to the scientist’s “needs” to continue on, though looked remorseful after administering the shock. Some pretend not to hear the cries from the other side of the microphone, ignoring the pain of another human and listening to the researchers. It was scary for me to learn that people would blindly listen to the researchers even if they did not agree with what was being done; ignoring their conscience to complete their part of the experiment and obey the scientists. This pertains to the ultimate actions of the Nazi’s: pleading guilty for their crimes in the Holocaust. It was really interesting to see these men who had abused their power completely deny their own role within the tragedy; claiming that they were forced by higher ranking officials to perform these tasks and had little role. To combat this defense at the Nuremberg Trials, a film was played to show the horrors of the concentration camps, which ultimately created a strong response and allowed me to question what I would have done if I saw the terrible state of these camps during the Holocaust: would I have spoken against these men of power?
In the Children’s March, I learned from the documentary is that peaceful protest can be very successful. The protest in my opinion was a huge success and it helped pave the way for the rest of the civil rights movement. This march is living proof through the video of the march that the African American people wanted change to come as quick as possible. Something that really struck me about the documentary was the use of the fire hoses on the protestors. I thought that this was a horrible site and it was a horrible way to treat the peaceful protestors who would not harm a fly in many cases. This march showed the resolve of the black people and how they were so calm, and did not resort to violence.
In the documentary about Mrs. Elliot, I really liked the documentary about the experiment and I thought that is was an ingenious way to show the kids, who can't really understand large ideas. Racism is a complex topic and for Mrs. Elliot to boil it down to blue and brown eyes is a great idea. She was really able to teach the kids how it felt to be discriminated against for something that they can't change, like eye color. I believe that every single person should have to go through an experiment like this because then they can really see racism from both sides, which is impossible in the larger world. This has to be one of my favorite documentaries that I have ever seen in school.
Mrs. Gruwell in the Freedom Writers ignored the original advice given to her because she didn't understand why she would have to take them off. She didn't think that the kids could steal the pearls or do anything with them. The importance of the discussion with her department head establishes a wall that she must overcome throughout the movie. It made her motivated to try to get the books to the kids anyway. I think that the message of the film is that when a person wants to succeed, then they need to better themselves with a proper instruction, like Mrs. Gruwell. I also believe that this movie is very powerful and should be shown to every History class when talking about the Holocaust.
The entire world was a bystander. This film showed the horrid realities of the genocide, and people’s lack of response and help. Seeing this film in the context of the Facing History course also made it more meaningful. After learning about how genocides such as the Holocaust even happen, it was interesting to watch this film and realize the years of hatred and fighting that must have gone on before the genocide itself even started. And after learning about being a bystander, it was obvious that the Rwandan genocide could have potentially been stopped if just a few people had decided to not be bystanders. Hotel Rwanda is a film and I think is very important, and I’m glad I got the chance to see it again in Facing History.
The film The Pianist taught me many things about the Jewish ghettos that I did not know before. I used to think that the ghettos were just a different place for Jews to live, and that they really weren’t that bad, and this film taught me otherwise. The Jews were not allowed to bring all of their belongings or money into the ghetto; but it was also very hard for them to get jobs. Because of this, people could not afford food and many people starved to death. The ghettos were cramped and dirty, and there was a physical brick wall built around the ghetto, completely secluding the Jews from the outside world. The Nazi's who were in charge of the ghettos would do many cruel things to the Jews. This film showed a scene where Nazi's went into a random families house one night and killed them, just because they could. The Nazi's would kill anyone at anytime, just because they could. This caused fear among the Jews, because you never knew what the Nazi's would do next. I never realized how many Jews suffered and actually died in the ghettos because of the poor conditions. This film showed how terrible the ghettos were for the Jews and how much they suffered living in them. That is why this film was meaningful to me; it taught me and made me more aware of what really happened in the ghettos.
Another film that had huge impact on me and was meaningful was the documentary America and the Holocaust. This documentary was very shocking. I knew that the US did not help the Jewish people, or anyone, in Europe, but I didn’t realize how badly they ignored the situation. It was shocking for me to hear that the government knew that thousands of people were dying every day and they continued to ignore it; ships of Jews were sent back to Europe and it was almost impossible to get a visa into the country. America was completely ignorant to what was happening in Europe. This film showed how being a bystander is a serious issue. If the US had not stood back and let the Holocaust happen, then thousands of lives could have been saved. This film was meaningful to me because it showed the importance of standing up for what is right, and not to be a bystander.
The film The Grey Zone was one of the most influential and disturbing films about the Holocaust that I have ever seen. This film showed the harsh realities of one of the most deadly extermination camps in Nazi Europe, Auschwitz. This film did not sugarcoat anything, and was harshly realistic. The film was also based on an eye witness account from the assistant to Dr. Mengele, a Jewish doctor at the camp, which makes the film even more disturbing. In this film you see inside the gas chamber, crematorium, and you see people being tortured and killed. This movie was very influential because is showed how gruesome the camps really were. I knew about the gas chambers and torturing, but seeing and hearing them really put things into perspective. It made me realize how many innocent un-knowing people were brutally murdered.
Another film that was very meaningful during this course was The Boy in the Striped Pajamas. This film was so emotional that it actually made me cry. This film showed too young boys, one who was a Jew in a concentration camp and Bruno, who was living outside of it.
I commented above how teaching children that the Jews killed Jesus was wrong because at such a young age, it’s hard to decipher what to believe and what not to believe. The German’s used this tactic on much of their youth; about 99% percent of teachers in Germany were part of the Nazi party. We watched a video on a crazy experiment conducted by Mrs. Elliot. This lady convinced a bunch of young kids that brown eyed people were more intelligent than blue eyed people. As the movie dragged on, blue eyed children began feeling self-conscientious about them and brown eyed children seemed more confident and were prejudice toward blue eyed children. This lady was even able to convince a group of adults and conducted a similar experiment where she convinced legitimate adults the same thing that she convinced the younger kids. In addition, we watched the movie “Swing Kids”. Two characters from the movie joined the SS, where the Nazi culture was pretty much forced on everyone, 18 year old boys. They learned about social Darwinism which is derived from Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution. To Nazi Germany, Social Darwinism was everything. They actually believed that if Jew’s were fazed out of the population, Germany would become more pure. At the end of the movie, one of the boys who entered the SS bought into what the Nazi’s were telling him, thus, becoming a Nazi. The whole idea of Eugenics is extremely interesting, there were extremely intelligent Nazi scientists working to try to perfect the method which ultimately led to the construction of the concentration camps. I think that the fact that this was accepted as scientific fact, that many Europeans were convinced of Eugenics and the need for the extermination of the Jews. I think that both movie’s show how the influence of a superior person can completely alter ones’ opinion about a particular topic. I think that when people are being told by someone they think is smarter than them that something is considered, “complete”, fact, they just assume what the person is telling them is true. In facing history, we learned that these people are called “bystanders”, or sheep. I think there were many Nazi’s that were brainwashed into believing Jew’s were terrible, and when asked to do horrific crimes, like execute woman and children at point blank range with a pistol, they were able to carry out the orders because they actually believed in the Eugenics’ in Nazi Germany, and they couldn’t resist orders from a superior because they simply weren’t mentally strong enough. Most of the German’s that were mentally strong enough were sent to work camps like our class saw one of the characters from “Swing Kids” get sent. I also noticed that every single person in the Nuremberg Trial’s thought they weren’t guilty because they were simply: “taking orders from their boss.”
I learned many things from the film, A Longest Hatred. The first major thing that I learned was that anti-Semitism started a very long time ago. I did not know that it was started by Christian’s very long time ago because they believed that Jesus was killed by the Jews, who is the son of God. I also learned that the Nazis were not anything different from history; all they did was take existing beliefs about the Jews and multiply them on a massive scale. The film really opened my eyes to religion in a different way and it is very good in my opinion for everybody to know this, regardless of the religion. Another interesting thing that I can talk about is that I am a Methodist and in the Methodist church, we have never talked about the idea of Jews killed Jesus. Has it stopped being taught like that in the Roman Catholic Church, I’m not too sure.
After watching the documentary about the Gestapo, I learned many things about them that I had not known before. I learned that they were a very disorganized and they did not have many officers. This really surprised me because I always thought that the Gestapo was very organized and had an army of officers. It also surprised me about the brutality of the officers. It seems that they would just go around and beat random Jewish people if they were in the wrong place at the wrong time. Something that surprised me also was how the citizens would rat each other out if they suspected that their neighbor was Jewish or weird.
When we watched The Pianist in class showed me that the living conditions were so bad. There were dead bodies on the street and people couldn't or wouldn't do anything to clear the dead bodies so that they dissolved in the street and smelled horrible. I also learned was that the German's forced the Jews to walk into the gutters and bow to them when they saw them in the street before the ghetto was set up. I also learned that some people went completely insane with the horrible situation in front of them. It really put me into the shoes of the Jewish people of the time and I learned a lot. The fact that at the end of where we stopped watching also struck me because they were almost willingly getting in the box cars like it was no big deal, or they had no idea they were being sent to their deaths.
The film which struck the greatest emotional response from me was the Concentration Camp film showed at the Trials. Though it wasn’t difficult to show the damage caused by the Nazi’s, the prosecutors had to go the measure to show the horrors which occurred in the camps to ensure that the crimes by some of the officers were seen and brought out to the public. It was terrifying to see the sheer number of bodies of those killed and the conditions that the people who lived in the camps had to endure to survive. Many didn’t make it out alive due to sickness, violence, punishment, starvation, and other reasons. The movie showed the conditions of the camp and people at various concentration camps around previous Nazi territory, all after liberation by the Americans and Russians. I found this both intriguing and repulsive, as the condition of the people as well as bodies was atrocious. I couldn’t believe that there were only a few degrees of separation between the living and the dead, as well as the sheer number of starved skeletons tossed on the ground. This film provoked an emotional and physical response from me as I felt the sadness of the remaining survivors and yet the way that the bodies were treated and thrown around was almost repulse. A favorite part for me was when German citizens were forced to march from their homes to the concentration camps and experience what their government had done: that the clean appearance of the dignified Nazis could commit such a filthy and disgusting crime. Many faces turned from laughter to dismay as each citizen was given an education to the real concentration camps—they were nothing alike the happy, peaceful one shown on film. A day after I saw the film, it seemed like a blur. For a brief second, I could see why people had thought the Holocaust was fake: it is almost unbelievable. It is unbelievable that men would turn on their fellow man and create so much damage: kill so many, damage relations, and hurt their own brothers and sisters. I have never seen so many dead bodies together, discarded as trash. Though I know that it was real, the preposterousness that a group could ever do that to others still stuns me. The Holocaust was a terrible and disgusting act; it was not the only time that mass genocide occurred. It was really interesting to watch the movie Hotel Rwanda, and learn about a more modern example of this vial treatment of others.
In 1994, within the African country of Rwanda, an uprising occurred and war broke out between the Tutsi and Hutu people. Upon watching the film “Hotel Rwanda”, it became clear how much I did not know about this tragic event in history, even though it occurred just two years before I was born. I found it shocking to learn that about 800,000 men, women, and children lost their lives in tragic and horrible ways. Countries’ lack of involvement in the event is appalling, as the small sacrifice of involvement could have saved so many lives. It was very interesting to see the real story of Hotel Rwanda, as it gave a first-hand account which I had never had access to of the hotel manager, Paul Rusesabagina. This film had a very large impact on me as it is a real, recent account of the slaughtering in Rwanda and the fight for a family to stay together and alive as well as to protect other innocent people. It was also stunning to me that this event was so recent in history, only twenty years ago. Though politics between groups can be difficult, I always wonder what would happen if everyone took lessons from previous history. Could this have been prevented if lessons from the past were taken into account? Mr. Gallagher gave us an interesting look into the result of these acts, as he raised money to support children and villages in Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo. It was interesting to look into the lives of these people who are so far away, seeing how they are still affected by the tragedy of
The two boys became friends, despite a barbed wire fence separating them. Bruno did not care that the boy was Jewish, that he had to be in the camp, or that he wore “striped pajamas”; he still wanted to be his friend. Bruno was not influenced by the outside world telling him that Jews were bad and deserved to be punished. He knew that his friend was nice, and that was all that mattered. As the audience, you began to love the friendship between these two boys, and you become attached to them. At the end of the film both boys were murdered in the gas chambers. Watching two innocent young children die is hard. There is no way for me to even begin to understand how something so awful could have been done. I could not stop myself from crying at the end of the film; especially knowing that this killing of innocent children happened everyday at the extermination camps. It makes me sick. This film used children to show how it is possible to think differently than what you are told. We as humans are competent enough to make our own choices and judgments of others. Bruno was able to look past the barbed wire fence, and see the boy as a friend. And this was meaningful to me and reminded me to not be a bystander, and think for myself.
For my last facet of this course, I want to reflect on the first story we read in class, “The Bear That Wasn’t”. We read this short story on the first day of class, and I understand what the point of the story was, but I feel that now I understand it even more. The story shows humans tendencies to label, judge and conform to fit into a group. The bear started off content with who he was, but more and more factory workers convinced the bear that he was one of them. Since none of the workers had ever seen a bear in a factory, they refused to believe the bear was actually a bear. They judged him based on his appearance (they all commented how he needed to shave) and then forced him to conform to factory worker life. This left the bear confused and lonely, he was no longer confident in himself. This story shows how we as humans always feel the need to label people and put everyone into certain “groups”. Humans harsh judgments on one another force us to conform and not believe in ourselves. We are taught that different is bad, just like how the bear lost confidence in himself just because he wasn't a human. After reading, watching films, and learning about the Holocaust, I realize how important this story is, and how well it sums up the class. The Nazis were able to gain power because of peoples need to conform to fit into a group, and our need to make someone else below us. These simple human tendencies are what got so out of hand with the Nazis, so much that they killed millions of people just because they were different. What if one person had stood up? What if one person had said, no, the Jews didn’t do anything wrong? What if one person stood up to the early stages of the Nazi party? What if Nazi’s had taken time to talk to a Jewish person, and realize that they are a person, just like them? What if the bear had said, no, I am a bear? This class has honestly had more of an influence on me than I can ever put into words. I am so grateful to have been lucky enough to be educated on the tragedy of the Holocaust, so that I can make sure nothing like it ever happens again. I will never forget some of the things I have read and seen in this class, they will always stay with me. I honestly feel like this class has changed me into a better person. I know now to never be a bystander.
the Rwandan genocide. For the future I hope that humans can learn from the mistake of allowing this tragedy to occur without aiding the innocent people, and hopefully stand of for all people on this earth against injustice in the future. This film makes me think back to another film we watched, about a classroom in which an experiment was performed.
I was very interested by the film depicting Mrs. Elliot and her experiments with eye color—and the effect that the authority figure had on the children. A teacher, Mrs. Elliot, performed an experiment with her young students seeing how these children would respond to orders to treat their classmates cruelly. Divided into groups by eye color, these children were told that one eye color was worse than the other. The once innocent third-graders changed, picking out the students different from them and treating them with blatant discrimination. This film provokes questions for me about my own response to this experiment: could the words of an authority figure, such as Mrs. Elliot, change the way I treated and viewed others different than myself? I also thought it was interesting how Mrs. Elliot backed up the change in disposition in the children with concrete test scores, showing that the children’s scores improved when their eye color was the “smart” one and decreased as they were the “naughty” kids. After the experiment as a whole, the children seemed to have more understanding about inequality and judgment which ultimately was kept with them throughout life. The bravery of Mrs. Elliot during this time of change was immense—she refused to be a bystander and decided to try to change these kids outlook on an issue they have little perspective on, before it is too late and they develop prejudice. This experiment was very interesting, not only showing the malleable minds of third graders, easily following what the authority says, as well as the effect of the experiment, changing the way that these children viewed equality and injustice as an issue altogether. This made me think about the effect that an authority figure, such as a teacher, has on the students. One film we viewed in class explored the effect a teacher can have on the class, as seen in the movie Freedom Writers.
A teacher in an underprivileged area, Mrs. Gruwell displayed her belief in the children: a belief that no other teacher in the school had. The department head had preconceived prejudice that the type of students Mrs. Gruwell would be teaching would certainly steal her pearls, a preconceived notion which lead to the head treating the kids like criminals. Mrs. Gruwell showed a belief in the children that they aren’t bad people, giving them a chance that few other teachers provided. Mrs. Gruwell understood that this distrust in the students based on prejudice lead many of the kids to act out, as they were treated unfairly and as delinquents. In the community which these students came from, many had been limited by the notions of what they were meant to do, for instance Eva followed in her father’s footsteps and joined the gang to protect “her own”. I believe the message is that by living up to one’s own potential, each person doesn’t have to be limited by his own predetermined future. Many of the students had been told before that they were bad, that they would steal and act out. With Mrs. Gruwell’s support and allowing the students to expand their view beyond their surroundings and community, the students could finally see a future that was beyond what they had always been told was their own. The power that Mrs. Gruwell had over the kids to influence the children depicts how a person can influence others—which is also seen in Hitler’s instance. Hitler had such power over his country that he lead his country toward hate and violence.
Before concentration camps were made accessible for Jew’s, every Jew in the city was hoarded into a Ghetto, where they were locked off from society. Our class got the opportunity to watch the movie, “The Pianist”, a Piano player and his family were forced into a Ghetto were they were eventually deported to concentration camps. However, we got the opportunity to see what the conditions were like in the Ghetto. The conditions were absolutely horrid: bodies lay scattered about the streets, food was extremely hard to come by, and SS guards would occasionally execute Jews for no apparent reason. We also got the opportunity to watch a movie called “Uprising”. The movie was about the Warsaw Ghetto uprising, where SS and police units deported 265,000 Jews to the Treblinka and murdered around 300,000 Jews just within the camp. Jews came to terms that they were probably going to die but figured that it would be best to go down on their terms rather than be sent to a concentration camp where they would be starved to death. The movie liberating in that, the Jew’s resisted until the death where my admiration for their toughness is unquestionable. They orchestrated numerous attacks on the Germans and even sent people out of the Ghetto to smuggle supplies back in.
In facing History, we got the chance to watch a video that was shot right after the concentration camps were liberated. It’s probably the most disturbing thing I have ever had to watch, I can’t comprehend what it’d be like to see in person. Human beings have a difficult time putting numbers into relativity, so hearing the six million Jews were killed doesn’t quite capture what that really means. The movie captures everything that I needed to know about what the concentration camps were all about. The movie showed bulldozers moving bodies, ash pits have half burned Germans and death holes filled with hundreds of Jews. The most disturbing thing to me was seeing the faces of individuals that were dead. The movie zoomed in on the helpless faces of the dead a few times, images that will stick with me for the rest of my life. I also couldn’t believe how skinny everyone in the concentration camp was. Jew’s were herded into the concentration camps like sheep, denied all the basics of life, forced to work every day with minimal food. In addition, many twins and children were sent to Dr. Mendeleev to be tested on at Auschwitz. Many of the tests were absolutely horrible experiments, were kids had their genitals cut off, they watched their twin die, had legs amputated, and there was no Novocain used for any of these procedures. For me, I honestly can’t comprehend how anyone had the morals and could put someone through what the Jews were forced to go through.
My favorite movie that we viewed was The Boy in the Striped Pajamas. This movie was different because the point of view is a Nazi child’s perspective on the Holocaust. Bruno journeys from innocence to find that his father is the leader of a concentration camp and is not honest with his family. I found this movie very interesting for the accurate portrayal of the death in the concentration camps as well as Bruno’s struggle between what he knows is right as an unbiased young boy versus following what his father is doing; which he knows is wrong. Bruno can be compared to the unknowingness of much of Germany to the treatment of the prisoners in its own government’s camps. Ultimately, Bruno paid with his life, just like the German citizens did as the Allies bombed their cities to get Hitler and Nazi Germany to surrender. This film allowed me to question: Would I have said anything even if it disagrees with what I know I should do? After partaking in this course and watching all of the films, I have discovered that I can’t sit back and watch others suffer if I know that is wrong. This course has changed my perspective of Nazi Germany, showing me both sides to the Holocaust. I came to understand Hitler more, learning about his background and the influence he had over the people of Germany. This course has allowed me to expand my knowledge about Nazi Germany, but more than that I have been able to learn about myself. I am not a bystander and I have made a choice that I will stand up for what is right. The lessons I have taken from Facing History and Ourselves will continue to guide me as I made choices which impact the formation of this world.
Facing History and Ourselves has been one of the most meaningful classes I have ever taken. The class has enlightened me on facets of history that I thought I knew, but in reality could not possibly fathom when I learned the truth. There’s the saying that you can only learn from your mistakes, where, I think this is most important thing I learned from Facing History. I have a very difficult time understanding how the events that occurred during the Holocaust happened, but knowing that those events actually did happen, shows how dark human nature can be at times. Although, it also will never be forgotten, I think this horrific event has taught a lot of people about how power can corrupt, how responsibility can be thrown at other people, and revenge can bring out some terrible demons in most people. So in some lights, one can look at the Holocaust as a learning experience because it taught people about human nature and you can be sure that something like this will never happen again. This was the most moving course I have ever taken, I’m thankful for the opportunity to take it.
Introduction
My name is Daniel Triana and I am currently a senior at Westborough High School. As a sophomore I had Mr. Gallagher as a teacher and never had I been so inspired by a teacher who really cared about his student's future, not only in the classroom but in the real world. Mr. Gallagher always informed us about the importance of speaking properly and encouraged us to act like adults and treated us as such. Not only did he teach us about U.S. History but the way he taught us was also preparing us for college. Mr. Gallagher clearly enjoys being a teacher and loves what he does and that makes his students such as myself, work hard to make his efforts worthwhile. I had heard from many of my upperclassmen friends, that Mr. Gallagher's Facing History class was a very unique class that I needed to take. I knew that it was something I was interested in since I had always been intrigued on finding out more about how the Holocaust happened and why. Facing History became more than just a class that teaches us about the Nazis and the Holocaust but it also encourages its students to stand up for others against bullies. It teaches us not to be bystanders; ultimately bullies and bystanders are the ones who let the horror of the Holocaust occur. I especially enjoyed the course because it gives us the freedom to speak our minds and share our thoughts without the fear of being judged by our classmates. This class teaches us the importance of speaking our minds and not being silent, silence is our worst enemy. The course is also laid back in the fact that it has a light work load therefore there is nothing that discourages us from coming to class fearing long essays or bunches worksheets. This course has opened my eyes to one of the scariest thing in the world; anyone of us could have done exactly what the Nazis did if we we're in their place and it has been proven. That is why I hope that one day this gained knowledge can push me and inspire me to help those who suffer and encourage little children to love and not to hate to understand and not discriminate.
What Facing History and Ourselves Meant to Me
Living in this small town surrounded by a helpful loving and accepting community it is easy to forget how hard it can be to be human. Unfortunately not all of us have the blessing to live in such a wonderful place and watching these videos full of violence, hate and discrimination can be hard to understand and to believe. One thing that I was able to get from watching these films is that it is our duty to share the love that we have received with those around us. As growing adults it is our job to inspire the younger generation to love and to keep all the poison of our society away from their innocent little minds. Unfortunately our society that they grow up in is responsible for what they become, we are the ones who teach them how to discriminate how to doubt and how to hurt others who we don't like. Our influence on young children is so powerful that children as young as seven years old already have so much hatred in their persona. This became very evident in the movie A Class Divided which records Mrs. Elliott's third grade class who is split up and one half is convinced that they are better than any other half and vice versa on the following day. In both days the children quickly begin to discriminate and show hate towards the "dumb" half. Not only that but surprisingly the "smarter" half also improves their grades when they are convinced that they are smarter and their grades worsen when they are on the other side. This movie was vital to this course because it shows us that anyone who is convinced that they are better than someone else can quickly begin to feel in control and can willingly apply pain to the others physically and emotionally, just like the Nazis did to the Jews during the Holocaust.
I took Facing History because it was recommended to me by my guidance counselor and many former students of the course. I quickly learned why so many people had enjoyed the class, because of what the course stood for and the safe environment it provided. This class taught me how to be a better person and how to try and make others around me better people as well. When the course first started I soon realized that the class was all about becoming an individual by not being a bystander and not always going with the group or popular belief. I now believe that you always have a choice about anything that you do, that you can always choose to do the right thing and stand up for yourself or others. This course not only taught me to be an individual but it also taught me much of the history of the horrible things that people did to each other in the Holocaust, the Rwandan massacre and others. Teaching us students about the horrors of these events and educating us about how genocides happen is a good way to keep it fresh in everyone’s minds to never let something like this ever happen again. This class was hard to sit through at times because of the things that were shown about the holocaust, but in a way that is a good thing because if people aren't shown or told what really happened than they might shrug the holocaust off as nothing or no big deal and the whole thing will get swept under the rug and forgotten about which is bad because we must never forget. This class also gave me a personalized experience when we brought in a picture that had sentimental value or meant a lot to us and then we were told about how the Jews brought many pictures or memories and experiences that meant a lot to them and then were stripped of those pictures and memories.
One of my favorite lessons that we had in class was the electric shock experiment that some scientists preformed on a couple of subjects to reveal a lot about human psychology. The basis of the experiment was one person chosen as the student would be in a separate room answering questions asked by the teacher who then would shock the student if they got a question wrong. There was also a scientist who pushed the teacher into continuing the experiment once it was made clear by the student that the electric shocks were hurting his heart. Although the student wasn't actually getting shocked and was in on the experiment the teacher had no idea so he actually thought he was administering pain. This experiment revealed a great deal about the psychology of us humans, it shows us that we don’t want to hurt people, and we absolutely don’t want to cause serious harm especially if we have a choice. Most of the people would refuse to continue the experiment once they were aware that the student getting the shocks was having some serious problems, even when the scientist pushed them to continue with the experiment. These people who refused to continue to harm the student are the strong people, they aren’t the bystanders, they stand up for the helpless. But the ones who continued the experiment are the weaker ones, they are the bystanders, they are the ones that will do what ever they are told, and these people are the reason that Holocausts happen. These people who will do anything just because someone in a higher power tells them to, even if it is wrong and goes against their beliefs is the reason that so millions of innocent lives were lost. Because no one would stand up and tell them that what they are doing is wrong, they just went with the group.
Introduction
My name is Amy Kaiser. I am currently a senior at Westborough High School and this is my Facing History and Ourselves blog. I chose to take facing history and ourselves this year because I had heard it was an intriguing course from friends who had taken it in years past and was interested in knowing more about the Holocaust. I thought it was important for me to be educated about history such as this in order to prevent things like that from happening in the future and to learn how not to be a bystander. Although I have read books and seen a few movies regarding the Holocaust before, I still had many unanswered questions. It was difficult to believe these events actually happened, and after seeing things with my own eyes in that class I am much better informed. I recall Mr Gallagher saying “I don’t want you to assume anything” which is an important statement and an excellent goal for a course regarding events as serious as the Holocaust. I was very impressed by this course and I truly believe it changed me as a person. The various blogs and films made a lasting impression on me that I hope I and everyone else who has taken this course will pass on to generations to come. I also enjoyed the blogs and felt it was extremely beneficial to see my classmate’s thoughts and opinions. Although the videos were difficult to watch at times, I feel that it was necessary to have the effect on me that it did. I loved this class because it taught me so much but had so little homework and time commitment outside of class. Even though I rarely had homework, I was thinking about things we learned about long after leaving the room. In addition the fact that this is a half year class really says a lot about both a course and a teacher that so much can be taught in so little time.
The reason why humans hurt others is once again explored in the Milgram Experiment which was an experiment in which one person was instructed to give another volunteer an exam to test their concentration but every time they got an answer wrong the instructor was to apply a electric shock to the volunteer taking the exam. The scientist would sit behind the instructor so that whenever the instructor no longer felt comfortable continuing, the scientist would encourage him to continue the experiment so without being pushy or forceful. Surprisingly many of the instructors continued and listened to the orders of the scientist who told them that it was completely safe to continue. This experiment revealed that it is in our nature to believe that as long as we're following orders we believe we are not responsible for any consequences of our instructed actions. This was the same explanation that many Nazi leaders gave at the Nuremberg trials in which they convinced the judges that they were not guilty because they were simply following orders and therefore they were not to blame for what occurred at the concentration camps.
Not only were Nazis pleading not guilty but also many Germans believed and convinced themselves that they were completely innocent to what happened to the Jews. Whether they were bystanders or directly hurting the Jews they were all responsible for what happened because they all either kept quiet and let it happen or they helped the enemy. For example in one of the films that we watched in class there was a German elderly woman who when confronted about her alleged contribution to the death of her Jewish neighbor laughed as she tried to disconnect her affiliation to the crime. She convinced herself that she was completely innocent and had nothing to do with that death when they clearly had the letter that she sent and signed to the SS, she herself even accepted that it was indeed her signature but she refused to take ownership of her contribution and she said she wasn't guilty because she didn't kill anybody, the SS did.
One movie that was a little different than the rest and was actually inspiring was the film Uprising which was about a group of Jews in the Warsaw ghetto who decided to fight back the Nazis. This movie was special because as Mr. Gallagher said, it showed that not all Jews were weak and walked into the camps like sheep. These Jews knew that they were going to die but they much rather die with pride instead of dying of weakness. The Jews in this movie were strong both men and women fought hard to push the Nazis away; it wasn't until the Nazis brought in big military artillery that they were able to control the uprising from the Jews.
The movie that was hard to watch was The Grey Zone. This movie gave an insight of what the life of the Jews was like inside the camps. The thing that I found the most disturbing in the film was the fact that the Jews were the ones who worked the camps and helped to exterminate their fellow Jews. Just like the German citizens they too felt like they were simply following orders and therefore their actions could be forgiven. I found it hard to believe that anyone would take part in following Nazi orders in hope of one day living through the hell that they were a part of. Personally I couldn't live with myself if I was part of the group that was bringing so much pain to my people. I was surprised at the fact that some of the working Jews still hoped to get out a life to live again. I don't think their lives would ever be the same nor would it be much a life considering the reality that they would have to face if they ever had the chance to get out alive.
Another one of my favorite experiments performed by Jane Elliot that revealed a lot about human psychology was the experiment with the young third grade kids. The experiment simulated discrimination by Mrs. Elliot giving either the blue eyed kids or the brown eyed kids a bandana, and whichever group had the bandana was inferior and not allowed to do all the things that the other kids could do. Immediately you could tell that the kids wearing the bandanas were upset, and the kids without them were much more happy. The sickening part came when the kids without the bandanas started picking on the kids with them just because they could and they were allowed to. Kids were punching each other and over all just being rotten to one another. I think the part that revealed the most about human psychology that probably wasn’t noticed as much was how quick the kids were to give another their bandana when Mrs. Elliot told the kids to give their bandana to a kid who didn't have one. This just goes to show that even though the kids with bandanas had felt terrible all day, they were so quick to put that burden on another person, they didn't want to save their classmates from that torture they wanted them to feel just as bad. This reveals a lot about how people are selfish and will be bystanders and want others to feel how they felt if they had felt bad. Not only did this experiment work on little third graders, it worked on adult teachers. It just goes to show how easily discrimination can happen and you might not know it.
Watching the film “The Grey Zone” was good because we got to see the side where the Jews were fighting back, where they weren’t being bystanders, they were actually standing up for themselves and fighting for freedom. This goes against the typical stereotype that the all the Jews just gave up and submitted to the Nazis. Before watching this film I honestly had no idea that Jews tried to fight back, and I’m not sure why those facts are so suppressed and how I only learned that so recently. I think it might be that the public and the media doesn’t want everyone to know that the Jews didn't give up without a fight, they want everyone to pity them, but I feel that’s insulting to the people who didn't want to be pitied they wanted to fight back and be free. Not only did the film show the gruesomeness of the holocaust but it really showed the whole evil behind the Nazis where they used Jews to trick the other Jews into going into the showers. The fact that the Nazis manipulated the Jews by getting them to trust them by using Jews to speak to them in their own language and make them really believe that everything will be okay, and I believe that is the real evil. This behavior by the Jews in charge of tricking the incoming prisoners all ties back to being a bystander and not sticking up for them. I also had no idea who Dr. Mengele was before I had seen this film and read about him in the packet. It seemed like something out of a science fiction horror movie, I can’t wrap my head around the things that he would do, and all to children. The course wasn't afraid to discuss the worst parts in the holocaust and I think thats important to understand the full impact of what really happened.
To understand the Holocaust we must first understand how Adolf Hitler came to power. I had a vague idea of how Hitler had come into power but I don't think many people knew the full story of how he came to be. He had a tremendous skill at public speaking where he could talk for long periods of time without any note cards, really captivating an audience. His speaking got people to admire him and trust hime and really believe what he was saying. We saw many people talking about Hitler and how much they admired him and trusted him, but they had no idea what was in store for the future with Hitler. Germany was in trouble and people looked to Hitler to bring them out
This course taught me many things that I didn't know about our history and about the Holocaust it's self but one thing that I learned that has resounded with me is the fact that the United States initially did very little to help and even kept the Jews from escaping Nazi Germany. It's understandable that maybe the United States didn't know much about what was really going on but once they did they still kept quiet and with the support of its citizens kept the Jews out. I have come to realize that at times it may be hard for a government to give a helping hand to those who suffer in other countries but if enough people get behind the cause and push the government to help we could save a lot more lives when these genocides take place. It is our duty as citizens of a great country like this to share the blessings that we have received by helping those who are not so fortunate.
The Boy in the Stripped Pajamas was one of the last films we saw in the course. This film was very emotional, even though it was a fictional account, because it showed how much one person can do to help another. Bruno was an innocent German boy who knew very little about what was going on around him therefore he had no prejudices against the little Jewish boy in the camp. They became best friends because they had no poison in their minds, in their eyes they were both human they were both equal. This movie had a powerful message because it showed how there really is no difference and we really are all the same our differences are set by ignorant people who have hate in their hearts and feel that they have the right to put others down.
All of these films shocked me in one way or another but they all kept bringing me back to one problem, how can we change the world that we live in, how can we stop these mass genocides, how can we ever end all this hatred and work together as one specie. Unfortunately it seems almost impossible considering the fact that like the films have shown me some people are just born and grow up believing that they are better than the rest. Sometimes all it takes is one person to inspire others and encourage them to discriminate certain others and that is all it takes for the hate to build and develop into wars, genocides and loss of deaths. How can we change our society and find new ways to work together instead of finding new ways to hate? All these questions can become very depressing when we look around our world and realize that there is hatred all around us. The way I see it, we have to work on ourselves first before we can change others. We must learn to love and forgive, to work on understanding those who view the world differently and never discriminate others. Once we can achieve that only then we can teach others to follow us, only then we can encourage everyone to love and to help each other.
What Facing History and Ourselves Meant to Me
Facing History and Ourselves is a course that I will always remember taking. In this course, I have been exposed to various historical documents, films, and discussions that have been so eye opening and left me with a lasting impression. I feel as if that is essential in a course and that for someone to truly take something away from a class is a rare occasion these days. Not only the effect of the material we covered, but the effects of a teacher who is passionate about what he teaches have been profound. Before taking this course I knew about the horrors of the Holocaust, but not to the extent in which we covered it. I have seen with my own ideas the evils man is capable of and truly wish to prevent anything of this nature from reoccurring in our country or any other country.
Seeing real footage of concentration camps with their victims and survivors is something I will take away from this course and images which will never leave my mind. I will never forget how angry I felt watching the Nuremburg trials and seeing Nazi officers go to the stand and plead “not guilty”. With an event as revolting and just unbelievable as the Holocaust, I think its important people be shown footage such as this. Otherwise people will have doubts many years later about what actually occurred, and we owe it to all the millions of people who died there to inform the public and prevent this from ever happening again. Seeing thousands of dead bodies being bulldozed into a pit is an image I will take with me from this class. This heightened awareness and taking away something from a class is not something I can say about any other course I took this year. Not only was I close to tears at many points during this film, but it was difficult to keep my eyes on the screen. I admire Mr Gallagher’s courage to watch this film over and over again. With the effect it had on me after watching it just one time, the effect of watching it several times a day would be unimaginable.
of peril, and along with people’s trust came more trust for the Nazi party. People soon were so enthusiastic for the Nazi’s and Hitler that anything they would do anything that they said almost blindly. We watched a film about Hitler’s artwork and how he was actually a talented artist and a big admirer or artwork, which I had never known before. What came with Hitler’s love for art was the Nazi’s practically outlawing many pieces of art, if the artwork didn't correspond with the style was acceptable than the artist was ostracized and they were in trouble. I knew that the Nazis burned books but had no idea that they destroyed art. But this doesn’t surprise me at all because of all the other terrible things the Nazis were doing like killing mentally handicapped people for basically no reason.
I think the lessons I learned from Facing History and the skills I have gained will stick with me for a very long time, I’m really glad that I took this class. Facing History not only educated me about the holocaust but educated me on how to be a better person in general which is a very good skill to have in life. Learning about the human mind and the psychology of discrimination and choices really helped me to understand how the holocaust happened and how many other things happened and how we always have a choice. . I now believe that you always have a choice about anything that you do, that you can always choose to do the right thing and stand up for yourself or others .This class taught me how to respect others and stand up for people who cannot stand up for themselves which I learned a lot about helping the helpless with the electric shock video. Another part of the class that I really enjoyed was learning about the Neil’s trip to Rwanda and how they helped so many of the kids and people who lived there. Learning all about the Project Rwanda really made me feel proud to be a member of Westborough High School and a student of facing history. Seeing all the glowing and smiling faces of those underprivileged kids when they were given supplies and toys made me feel really happy because I know how much those things mean to them, even if they aren’t considered valuable to people here in the United States. The whole fundraiser was a big success and it was evidence and an example of people not being bystanders, they stood up for the needy kids in Rwanda and actually did something about the situation. I hope that my upcoming siblings that will be freshmen next year will take the class when they are able to as juniors. I feel that having taken this class I am left with many valuable skills that I will try to apply for the rest of my life. And I just hope that my brother and sister can gain these skills and knowledge as well because I feel that everyone should have these. I will definitely highly recommend this class to people because I feel that the more people who take this class and are educated about the subjects that we talk about in Facing History than the better off the whole of society is. This class not only taught me a lot facts and events about the Holocaust but it also had given me a very personalized experience when we brought in a picture that had sentimental value to us. The only bad thing about this class is that I can’t take it next year as a senior which I really wish I could because I really enjoyed Facing History. Overall I won’t ever forget this class and everything that it taught me and will take the values and beliefs I learned throughout my life.
Introduction:
My name is Sarah Foley. I am currently a senior at Westborough High School, and I was actually placed in the Facing History and Ourselves unknowingly for second semester of this year. I did not request it during the course selection process, but I can honestly say I am so grateful that I was chosen to participate in such an extraordinary class. This course primarily seeks to teach students about the Holocaust while simultaneously attempting to instill important life skills and moral and ethical ideologies. Facing History explores topics such as the dangers of bullying, bystanding, racism, and ignorance, and how each of those things played a key role in the development and execution of the Holocaust in Germany. Though the class is not academically challenging, what with minimal homework and no tests or projects, it is certainly emotionally difficult to handle. By diminishing the workload, the students are able to focus on the essential aspects of the class: what it means to be assertive as opposed to passive, the importance of sticking to your morals and beliefs, and what our duty is as human beings to fellow human beings, all in an attempt to understand how the Holocaust was able to happen and how to prevent it from happening again. Through a number of videos and discussions, Mr. Gallagher is able to strip away all of your preconceived notions about the Holocaust, and he presents all of the details as they are: raw and real and disturbing. Facing History changed my perception of life as well as taught me how to be a better person. I am incredibly grateful to have had taken this class and I am determined to take all I have learned and carry it with me through the rest of my life.
How Facing History and Ourselves Has Benefitted Me:
It is the summer before senior year, and I’m looking at my schedule, a little bit disappointed. Psychology is on my schedule for the first semester of the year, just as I had requested, but Facing History and Ourselves is the course listed for second semester. Though I had heard many good things from fellow classmates who had already taken the course, I could not help but feel sad that I was not placed in Sociology like I had initially wanted. I was contemplating majoring in either Psychology or Sociology in college, and taking those two courses was supposed to be my version of testing the waters in terms of what those two subjects had to offer for me. Little did I know that Facing History would end up teaching me more about the tendencies of humanity than any Psych or Sociology class ever would. I came into Facing History with not a clue as to what to expect. To be honest, I didn’t even know it centered around the Holocaust. My first impression of Mr. Gallagher and this course was that they were going to be incredibly serious, but I had a peculiar feeling from the very beginning that this course would end up having a profound effect on me.
Our first look into what this class was all about was reading the children’s novel, The Bear That Wasn’t, by Frank Tashlin. The story was of a bear that one day wakes up from hibernation to find that his beloved woods have been overrun by humans. To make it worse, they repeatedly tell the bear he isn’t a bear, finally convincing him he truly isn’t and therefore causing him to lose his identity. This story, one of the many we encountered during the semester, stuck with me.
Perhaps it is because it is the very first thing we looked at, or perhaps because I feel it relates, on some level, to what it means to be a teenager, and therefore relates to me personally. High school is infamous for being a difficult time for many students, filled with peer pressure to be someone you’re not: the pressure to conform. This novel reminded me of how hard I’ve tried to stay true to myself and my values but also of those who I’ve seen deviate from what they truly believe in. Of course, the pressure to conform is one of the greatest influences responsible for the Holocaust, but I found this story to reflect a more personal aspect of my life, and it reminded me to stay true to myself, even when the desire to give in to someone else seems overwhelming. It was not until later on in the course that I truly understood how large a role conformity played in Nazi Germany.
After that initial book, the course began to discuss more specifically the Holocaust and Jewish history, each video getting more and more intense and disturbing as we went along. Two of the videos we watched this semester focused on the effect of the Holocaust on the children and young adults of Nazi Germany, those two movies being “The Boy in the Striped Pajamas” and “The Swing Kids.” Again, these two movies resonated with me, both emotionally and personally. It saddened me greatly to see the highly impressionable minds of young kids filled with racism and hatred starting at such a young age. “The Swing Kids” portrayed the dangers of both conforming and not conforming as well as how Nazi Germany broke down many friendships and camaraderie among those struggling with the choice of supporting the Nazis or not. It is both frightening and saddening to see how easily influenced many of the Germans were at this time: how easy it was for Hitler to convince them that his ideas and plans for a future Germany were the right ones. I was moved by the bravery of those young adults who refused to give in to the Nazi Party, knowing full well what kind of treatment awaited those who were not supporters. This too, like The Bear That Wasn’t, left me with a desire to never stray from my true ideals and my morality, no matter how terrifying the repercussions of not caving in may be. On the other hand, “The Boy in the Striped Pajamas” demonstrated a slightly different story of young children during the Holocaust. The two boys in this movie are much younger, about eight years old, and have struck up a fast friendship despite the fact that one boy is Jewish and the other German. It is this innocence and purity between the two that greatly affected me: how great and strong their love for each other was. So when they both died in the gas chamber together, holding hands in an effort to comfort one another, I was moved to tears. I was angry at the power the Nazis had to destroy the innocence and love if young kids and my heart ached at the end of that movie more than I could try to describe.
Three other films had a profound impact on me, but for very different reasons. The brutality and horror of “Hotel Rwanda,” “The Grey Zone,” and the footage from the concentration camps after liberation are things I will never be able to erase from my mind. “Hotel Rwanda,” for starters, was a powerful reminder that horrific events such as the Holocaust have happened since the Germans were defeated and will continue to happen if people do not learn to respect differences as opposed to fear them.
In accordance with the video, this year was also the twentieth anniversary of the massacre in Rwanda, and Mr. Gallagher’s personal effort in trying to raise money to support the improvement of Rwanda has inspired me to actually act in the future, as opposed to just sit around thinking about how terrible things are. He is truly an inspirational man, and his passion for helping others is unlike anything I have ever seen before. This fundraiser, in combination with watching the film about the recent killings in Rwanda, reminded me that racism and intolerance is very much present in this day and age. Racism and ignorance did not end with the Holocaust and will not end if we do not attempt to put a stop to them. However, the only way we can put a stop to them is if we fully understand what occurred. Therefore, watching “The Grey Zone” and the concentration camp documentary is essential in understanding the conditions of the camps themselves.
Both of these movies put into perspective for me exactly how horrifically the Jews and other minorities were treated in the concentration camps. I was finally able to grasp how low the Jews were viewed by the Germans: lower than even rats and vermin. The treatment the Jews suffered, both in life and in death, is enough to make anyone’s stomach churn, and I was certainly disgusted and disturbed by what I saw. Jews were beaten, starved, experimented on, murdered, and worked to death, as if they were not even human beings. Working Jews were forced to perform tasks such as cleaning up the gas chambers, piling up the bodies, burning the dead, and calming fellow Jewish people in order to disguise all that was truly taking place at these so called “work camps.” This fabricated illusion was probably what disturbed me the most. I could not understand how Jews could look their friends in the eyes and tell them that they were only going to go “take a shower.” I think “The Grey Zone” perfectly captures how calculated and cold the whole operation was and how purely angry many of the Jews became at being part of the illusion. Even in death, their bodies were mistreated and disrespected. Bodies were tossed around, thrown on top of each other, burned to ashes, and buried without ceremony or respect. It was horrifying to watch, and it was not until I actually saw the treatment firsthand that I understood exactly how hated these minorities were. Later, when we watched the footage from all of the German death camps post-liberation, I finally completely understood how horrendous conditions were for everyone to the point where I would imagine everyone alive would prefer not to be. I could scarcely believe that the survivors found in the liberated death camps were even alive they were so thin and disease-ridden. While I was certainly disgusted beyond belief at what these people endured, I was also filled with joy that some were able to be rescued. This documentary filled me with the desire to do everything in my power to prevent anything like this from ever happening again. I cannot fathom treating fellow human beings as though they are lower than animals, and I will not tolerate anyone else putting others down to make themselves feel more powerful. The last few movies we watched were definitely the most powerful and the most moving and had the greatest effect on me. It’s one thing to hear and learn about the conditions, but it’s something entirely different to witness the treatment everyone went through.
I have benefitted from this class in more ways than one. I was taught both history and ethics in one class: something I never expected when I stepped into this classroom for the first time. I have been given the incredible opportunity to evaluate myself as a person at a very young age, and I am more grateful for that than I can express. This course has allowed me to identify both my strengths and weaknesses as a human being and how I can improve myself for my benefit and for the benefit of others. I have learned about the importance of standing up for what I believe in. I will not allow myself to be pushed around, and furthermore, I will not allow others to be pushed around in my presence. This course has taught me about the power and the danger of racism and ignorance, and, if I could take away anything from this, it would be that I refuse to be a bystander. Though this class is not for the faint of heart, I would advise everyone to take it. The intensity and disturbing quality of most of the videos really does tug at your heart strings and causes you to reevaluate yourself and what you stand for. Do yourself a favor: sign up for Facing History and Ourselves. I guarantee you will not regret it.
Out of all the movies we watched about the Holocaust (not including the real footage), The Boy in the Striped Pajamas had the most profound effect on me. This film follows a German family that moves from Berlin to right outside a concentration camp so their father can continue his duties as an SS Officer. The young boy is outside playing in the woods one day when he discovers the concentration camp and befriends a Jewish boy on the other side of the fence. It was absolutely heartbreaking to see not only the two boy’s friendship and how it ends in both their deaths, but to see how oblivious German children and wives were to the monstrous things their government was doing. I thought the German boy’s fate at the end was devastating, although ironic because his father was an SS Officer. It really emphasized that these Nazis truly did not see the Jews as human beings, which I had never completely realized. It was so sad to see how easily these boys related and just the idea that these two sides could’ve found common ground and prevented these horrible events. I almost wish that all SS Officers could know what it felt like to lose a child to the gas chambers, or at least realize what they were doing to them. Another part I found surprising was the film in which they portrayed the camps as being fun and harmless. Before taking this course I never knew the illusion to which the rest of Germany was under and feel as though its an important piece to this event that I was missing. Not all Germans are to blame for the Holocaust and I think its essential to note that many were oblivious to the atrocities that their government was performing on innocent people. This was elaborated on during the real footage we watched where German citizens were taken to the camps and forced to view their conditions.
Introduction:
“On the contrary, the Germans who ran the death camps seemed to be ordinary ‘decent’ citizens, with consciences no different from those of any of us. How could they have blinded themselves to the clear injustice of what they were doing? More generally, what motivates the unethical acts of ordinarily decent people?”(Manuel Velasquez). Facing History and Ourselves is a class where questions such as the ones above from the article Conscience and Authority are acknowledged and analyzed every day. The course begins with examining yourself as an individual, your peers, and the five key words to the course: Perpetrator, Victim, Bystander, Rescue, and Resistance. In order to witness the brutality and unmerited acts of the Holocaust, racism, and genocide, each student must be able to know themselves and enough knowledge on the subject in order to recognize a certain concept to its full extent. Throughout the course a variety of primary documents, photographs, documentaries, and films are shown and discussed, each relating to that of racism, prejudice, World War II, the Holocaust, and genocide. With each class, the material grows increasingly more difficult to watch and understand, but the underlying message of being a conscious and active individual in society, pieces together, inspiring students throughout the course.
Another movie that had a lasting effect on me was the Freedom Writers. In this film, a young white female teacher begins work at a school where it was mostly other ethnicities. Each ethnicity had their own exclusive group and was very hostile to those in other groups. The other teachers and faculty looked at the teacher as naïve for wanting to make these children relate to eachother . She also wanted to enforce an education on them, which many of the other teachers had given up on doing due to their lack of effort and rebellion. I was so inspired by the teacher’s persistence with her students and came away with the idea that if I try hard enough I really can achieve anything. I even went home and told my family to watch this movie because of the effect it had on me. I hardly ever get excited or inspired by school and my parents were pleasantly surprised to see me stimulated by this film. Although not the main message of the movie, I thought it was important that these students despised each other before their teacher helped change their mind, and over the course of the year they discovered how much they could actually relate to each other. From this I took away that you can never judge a book by its cover and although someone may have a certain stereotype or reputation, it may very well be worth it to get to know them. I now try my best to never judge someone before getting to know them, and hope to never miss out on meeting a great person because of preconceived ideas of them.
What Facing History and Ourselves Meant to Me:
I took Facing History and Ourselves, because history is a class I am genuinely interested in, and also because I heard so much praise for the course. My Papa was Jewish, and was a pilot and doctor in WWII for the United States. Had he still been alive I would have been very interested in hearing what he had to say about WWII and the Holocaust. I’ve talked to my mom a lot about the course throughout the semester and it’s been so interesting to me. My great grandparents, the Ferber’s were from Germany, and I know I have a distant relatives there, I’ve always wanted to try and connect with them to hear more stories about my family’s personal experiences. One story I’ve been told from my mom is that is interesting is that, both my grandparents were of German decent, but my Papa was Jewish and my Nana was Christian, and during the Holocaust, my Nana’s family (Gerdts) was Nazi, while my Papa’s family (Ferber) was persecuted during the Holocaust. Facing History is by far my favorite class this year because, what I like about history is beyond the text book, it’s the personal experiences and stories that we talked so much about in Mr. Gallagher’s course. Since I don’t have that opportunity to speak with my grandparents anymore, I have found it extremely fascinating and motivating to take this course with Mr. Gallagher, one of the most respected teachers at Westborough High School. Although the course was intense, I could not see it being as impactful any other way. As teenagers, we’re always zoning out or caught up in our own lives, I watched this course bring my entire class to attention day after day. We were all brought down to the real world by the shock of this course, challenged to think about deeper meanings and larger issues than ourselves.
Though it is not over yet, I already feel more conscience and aware of the people and events going on around me. This course continues to spark interest in me, and I have continuously been online searching for other documentaries and information pertaining to the Holocaust all semester. I am so fortunate to have been able to take this class for Mr. Gallagher’s last year and I can’t imagine anyone more influential, or with more dedication to teach my generation it’s civic duty as human beings. Many times in class I have looked up at the five words looming over the class on the side wall and thought about what kind of person I am and what kind of person I want to be. For me, Facing History has caused me to look at life from a new perspective, and stay conscience of the world around me, causing me to become and active advocate for what I believe in in order to benefit the world around me to the best of my ability, and be the person I want to be.
Even though I had seen it freshman year, the movie Hotel Rawanda is an excellent film which I will never forget. After years of preconceived hatred, the Hutu group decided to attempt to exterminate anyone of Tutsi origin. Needless to say, this slaughter effort was difficult to watch. Especially the scene where a Hutu officer tells Paul the main character who is a Hutu that he and his family can survive if he shoots an entire group to Tutsis who reside in his neighborhood. Seeing him struggle with this choice made me thing what I would do in that situation and the lengths I would go to in order to save my family. Its thoughts like this that made this course so memorable for me. It was so sad that these groups despised each other solely because their ancestors did and had no concrete reason. Even if they did have a plausible reason for this hatred, there is no excuse for the beatings and mass killings that occurred. I was inspired by Paul’s courage and how he used his hotel as a refuge for Tutis on the run from the law. He didn’t let prejudices and the hostility of the Hutis override his friendships with Tutsis which I feel is very important and highlights Mr Gallaghers idea of not being a bystander.
Another film that affected me was The Swing Kids. It was a story about several teenagers who were peer pressured and conformed by societal pressures to join the Nazis Before watching this film, I had no idea anyone, especially anyone our age rebelled against the ways of the Nazis. I was shocked to see that even just certain kind of of music made the Nazis mad. I also didn't know that music made my Jewish people was banned and anyone who listened to it was punished. I thought the film did a great job at showing what life was like during this time for someone our age. It shocked me to see how easily people turned on their closest friends. This film was also important because it showed me that people had a choice. These teenagers were not threatened, paid, or in no means forced to join the Nazi’s. They simply conformed because their friends did. I was extremely inspired by the main character and how he rebelled against his friends choice to join the Nazi party. He made this choice when he discovered that he had been unknowingly delivering ashes in books to Jewish families. That’s when he realized he wanted no part in that and I realized that they could say no. This film was another excellent example of how it was possible to not be a bystander during the Holocaust. It taught me to not go along with everything my friends are doing because although it may seem harmless at the time (such as delivering books) it could be causing more harm than you initially thought. It also added to my opinion that not only the Nazi’s were responsible for the Holocaust. I truly believe that anyone who stood by and knowingly let these tragedies occur is to blame. I was also affected by this movie because the producer emailed Mr Gallagher saying he read our blog and appreciated our comments and that his film was still being showed in school. This enforced my belief that it is essential for this knowledge and films like these to be passed on to generations to come, in order to prevent events like this from happening and to prevent people from being bystanders in general.
By taking this course I truly believe I have changed from a “bystander” to someone who would never stand by and let a person be treated as inhumanely as the Jews were. Not even taking it to that extent, I feel like I have become a person who would now speak up if a person were called a “faggot” or some other hurtful term. Before taking this course I would probably have just minded by own business, but now seeing the effects it has on people and what that says about me if I let that happen, I would definitely stand up for that person.
Towards the beginning of the semester, when we first began to get into anti-Semitism, we watched the section of a documentary, “Gestapo”, and many thing surprised me. When Regis was interviewed I learned a lot about what the times were like in Germany under the Gestapo and Nazi rule. The Germans felt so superior that they considered it their civic duty to rat out anyone who was different in order to preserve their ‘pure race’. Regis claimed she could not remember writing the letter to the Gestapo about her neighbor, even though her address and signature were correct. Obviously she was either in denial and ashamed or she was too embarrassed to admit it. She later said "I didn't kill anyone" when in reality she instigated a woman's exile to a concentration camp and ultimately her death, all because the woman was different from herself. I was also extremely disturbing to hear that children with disabilities were also being exterminated from German society. They were so conceited and brain washed that doctors were given the power to choose which babies and children were allowed to live and who should die. It was an entirely different aspect of the Nazi's rise to power that I had never learned nor thought about until the day we watched this documentary. Just thinking about being Jewish or of a different sexuality during the 1940s is terrifying because everyone would be on the lookout for you because difference in the German society was not tolerated, it’s almost like a dystopian society when in actuality they were aiming for a utopia.
After watching a few documentaries on what the Nazi’s were all about, we watched one on where and when the hatred of Jews was rooted from. “The Longest Hatred" taught me a lot about Anti-Semitism. Previously I didn't even know what it really meant but through this documentary I learned much about the phrase. I hadn't known that Jews were blamed for the killing of Jesus. It surprised me that even after all these years they are still used as scapegoats. I learned that there were many massacres and crusades on the Jews which the Nazi's were influenced by. They also used the Jews as scapegoats to their modern day problems, such as the depression Germany was going through. The Nazi's even used the same idea of marking the Jews with the Star of David, much like other Europeans would make the Jews with symbols. I learned that because many people lived under Roman rule that the Romans could not be blamed for much of anything since they had the power at the time. I really had no idea that Jews were persecuted that far back in history but now that I do, the rise of the Nazi's and Hitler and how the holocaust could have happened is coming together. Like the first interviewer of the documentary said, Jews are made to be perceived as everything society doesn't want to be, even though some of the most prominent artists, scientists and writers were Jewish. Jews have been given a very bad place in society for hundreds of years through stereotypes, and individual beliefs being treated as facts which made it possible for them to be suppressed throughout history without just reason.
I was very intrigued by the film; 'The Pianist' and I did learn a lot about the Jewish ghettos that I did not previously know. When I used to think of the Holocaust, I only really thought about the concentration camps, I never took into consideration how bad the ghettos actually were. I had no idea that they actually built a wall around the entire Jewish section in the major cities in Poland, and across Europe. This movie definitely made that horrific idea come life. I was particularly disturbed by the fact that Nazi soldiers stormed into random houses and killed people, almost for fun. It was horrifying to watch the man in the wheelchair get thrown out the window and it made me think of what I would have done in that situation if I saw it happen. I learned that the people living in the ghettos had to endure extreme hardship and death every day, some could not handle it and actually went insane. I can't even begin to imagine the stress of watching people die around you, and not being able to help because you could be given the same fate. I learned that people valued work permits, and the particular family in the movie thought it would keep them alive and not sent away. I was also surprised at the amount of relocating they were made to do, they didn't even have time to really settle in, and as the years went on they were sent to places with worse conditions than the last until they were ultimately sent to a work camp. I admire the will power and the perseverance of the family in the movie because they were surrounded by people who had lost everything and they themselves had lost everything. I realized from this movie how easy it could have been to give up because the Nazi had the power to break even the strongest people. The part that genuinely terrified me, was when the man in the wheel chair was told to stand up but couldn’t, so they threw him out the window. This affected me so much because earlier in the year, I volunteered at Crossroads, where people with disabilities and physiological problems go for support, and I couldn’t help but think what the Nazi’s would have done to them, and how scared and confused they would be. After watching part of it in class, I couldn’t help but go home and finish it on Netflix and it was extremely sad to see the main character try to survive on his own and never seeing his family again. Stories like 'The Pianist' make a tremendous impact because they didn't give up even with the odds against them, and that's the bravest/only thing they could have done in their situation. I hope that if I were ever to face anything as horrible as the ghetto in my life, that I would remain strong as well.
In all, this class has probably been one of the best classes I have ever taken in my life. I learned the right from wrong, and how the society today in 2014 still very much relates to the society 60 years ago. The Holocaust was such an important time period, that I feel everyone should learn more about. This class finally opened my mind up, to think more, and to reconsider some of the things I’ve though before. Now I feel like I am less of a bystander, and want to help people out more. The reason for this is because I feel that is what should have happened to the Jews. I also realized that to not let anyone take advantage of you, no matter who they are for any reasons at all. I feel as though I put all of my ideas and my life together and see who I really am. As you may know, teenagers tend to think a lot about themselves, and how they feel about things. After seeing the people walking to the gas chambers, I wanted to go back in time and stop the Nazi’s from doing that. I am a helper amongst other people, I have always been. But now there is a special part inside me that I now know about that I would have never known if I had not taken this class. It is very hard to explain, but it always makes me feel more and more sympathy for the Jews who got killed and a better understanding to what extent the camps got to. Now I know how it feels to go through this course and find out as much as I can feel about the loss of life in the camps. When I started learning about these events in 6th grade, I like everyone else said “that’s so bad”, and later just went on to do something else. Now I feel I have dug a new meaning into myself and have a sense of sympathy of what happened that will never go away. In my opinion, people in today’s society have to work together more, and find out the right problems in a situation. Also, that everyone should take a Facing History and Ourselves class in their lives. I can guarantee it will change them a little bit, and make them a better person. If this is the case, we can make a big positive change to the place that we live in. This class forever changed me and my thinking, and I hope to encourage others to take the class as well, to feel how I feel.
When we took a break from the Holocaust to watch, “Hotel Rwanda” I had almost no idea what it was about, but now that I do, I’m grateful to Mr. Gallagher for showing it to us. It was interesting to compare and contrast the events of the Rwandan genocide to that of the Holocaust because both were ignored for years. It was powerful that it was based on a true story, a real family just trying to survive, and doing whatever it took to do so. This movie moved me because they seemed more to really highlight the gruesome truths of what occurred in Rwanda, instead of covering it up. I think it is amazing and important that this movie is out there for public eyes because people need to know about it. It's unbelievable to me that the genocide as extensive as it was, almost a million people hacked to death, would be so untouched by any of the outside governments. People all around the world could witness the situation going on from their television at home, yet nothing was done. It was hard to watch people struggle to survive day after day in the movie, when in reality if European countries or the United States had intervened so many lives could have been saved. I also noticed, as we talked about in class that the genocide that occurred in Germany had similar numbers to the Rwandan genocide, yet other countries went to deal with the obedient Nazi's rather than the somewhat unorganized Hutu who may have been easier to stop. You can very well argue that the countries went to war with Germany not because of the genocide but over territory in the case of England and France or because of Pearl Harbor for the United States. Even though these countries knew about the genocide long before going into World War II, it was not their main objective. Therefore I think that in regards to intervening when genocide is occurring, it's usually based on what that country will get out of it, rather than doing the humane thing. I think people are scared of genocide, so the governments try to ignore them in a way, thinking that it's not their problem, and it's nothing to start a war over. Obviously some other advances need to be taken in the event of a genocide, but it's a tough call to make, but it's even worse feeling the regret of not doing something to save almost a million lives when the government of a country knew they could have. This movie caused me to really want to help the people of Rwanda on the tenth anniversary, therefore I participated in Project Rwanda and sold tickets. I thought it was a great idea for Mr. Gallagher to promote and run that fundraiser because people do need to be reminded of issues like genocide because they often push it out of their minds because it’s disturbing and gruesome, but it’s also the world we live in and the more we know about it, the more we can learn from our mistakes and prevent it from ever happening again.
The experiments done by Josef Mengele were the ones that I found to be the most disturbing. Mengele along with other top researchers of his time were doing experiments on Jew children that were twins. He wanted to search about the secrets about heredity. The Nazi ideal of the future would benefit from the help of genetics. His experiments were done mainly for the future of the Nazi’s, and to get a good name out of himself so that he could get a great career out of what he was doing. Both him and the Nazi’s wanted to see in Aryan women could give birth to twins who were sure to be blond and blue eyed. In this case, the future would be saved according to them. As he would follow through with him experiments, they would consist of daily taking blood from the children to be tested. Even the youngest kids would have to go through this process, which would hurt them the most because of their physical condition. Each twin was forced to strip down, and lay naked right next to one another. They would undergo surgeries, and numerous injections which caused several new diseases that many eventually die from. When I first heard about this, I was absolutely shocked. I could not believe that any mind could possibly thing of doing such these UN human experiments on another person as if they were rats. I feel a lot of anger for those doctors that did the experiments. All this reminds me not to be a bystander, and encourages me to pursue the Criminal Justice degree, so I can protect people, and help others out.
The Nazi’s, otherwise known as the Gestapo were the worst military force in history. Not because of their tactics, but because of their philosophy. The fact that they used special tactics to control everything of the Jewish race is just absurd. They wanted to set forth a plan to dominate as much as possible. They first tried by killing Jews. September 1, 1939 was the year Germany invaded Poland. Soon later, the Gestapo captured millions of Jews and threw them into concentration camps to be killed. As this was going on, they reached out to other countries and got more Jews only to kill. The camps were all set up in a similar way, by the due processes and the layout. Trains would head over to the isolated camps carrying thousands of closely packed Jews on box cars and always were on time. After they got off, they waited upon one soldier to tell them to go to the showers, or to go and do labor. It was all luck at this point. If the Nazi said to go to the shower, you would die. If he said to do physical labor, you would most likely not go to the showers for maybe at best 4 months. What surprised me the most was the amount of Jews that were put into the gas chambers. 2,000 men, women and children were ruthlessly killed in less than 20 minutes by gas that makes you practically go insane. The Jews were squeezed side by side with one another, leaving very little room to move. They would climb on the walls and tear each other apart as if in a living hell from the effects of the gas. After they were killed in the shower, other Jew prisoners were ordered to clean up the shower rooms, and transport the dead bodies to the furnaces that would burn the bodies leaving only the hip bones and skull which would later get transported to another creamery to get permanently turned into sand, or disposed of. The human ashes were later moved onto a truck to another site to get disposed of by other Jews. The Jews were treated like slaves, or criminals who had committed crimes and were being punished for what they had done. Except in their case, they were innocently taken from their homes and put into those camps for no legit reason at all; all of this makes me madder every time I hear of a story like this about these events. I think the biggest point that came across that showed the extent of what happened at those camps was the bulldozer pushing all of those dead bodies into a pit.
“The Grey Zone” was another movie that put me on edge and left me in of a daze of disbelief. I learned a lot about Auschwitz from watching that film that I had never understood prior to it. Before watching the film, Mr. Gallagher passed out worksheets about Joseph Mengele, which felt like I was reading a science fiction novel. Everything about what he did to innocent children was so wrong it made me cringe to read about his various unethical and useless experiments. The whole point of them was to find a way to have women have blue eyed, blonde haired twins, so that the Nazi’s could build their army and take over the world—pure insanity. It was so much for me to bear that I brought the article home and told my dad to read it, thinking I was hallucinating or something and it said something different. He had heard of Joseph Mengele before because he’s a huge history buff as well and reads all the time, but he’s also a scientist so I was interested to see what he would say, he was speechless as well. When I think back on “The Grey Zone”, the word that comes to mind is deception. It was unbearable to watch innocent people enter the gas chamber expecting a shower. It’s so difficult to believe that human beings were actually manipulating these people and killing them with consciences clear as day. What really surprised me is that the working men in the camp would have to wash the chambers and repaint them for the next group. The entire film my mind was running in circles trying to find a plausible reason for how this could have happened, and gone on for so long. I felt very ashamed to be American, or even a human being because the brutality shown in the movie, was animalistic behavior, but with guns.
“Sophie’s Choice” was one of the more thought provoking and intense clips we watched in Facing History, and it ultimately left me speechless. I’m not a mother, obviously, I’m a 17 year old girl, completely unconnected to the woman on the screen, yet I was bombarded with emotion and stunned by the choice she had to make—she could keep one of her children and if she did not choose, they both would be taken from her. Feeling this from a just movie made me realize the fear people during the Holocaust must have had to deal with every day, wondering what choice they’ll be given, if any. I am not a decisive person in general, so choosing which one of my children I’d have to kill—I can’t even wrap my brain around that monstrosity. The SS guards who forced these life or death decisions on people could not simply have been brainwashed to dehumanize Jews, they could not have been human themselves…could they? As I watched the clip, I was so full of anger, watching something as horrible as that, you just want to trick yourself into thinking “it’s just a movie” but that was the reality of millions of Jews during the Holocaust. When I went home that day, I told my parents about the clip, my dad had seen the movie years ago. I asked them the same question Mr. Gallagher had asked us in class, which child would you choose to save, which one would you give up? Neither of my parents answered my question, but I could tell I had gotten them to think about it. It was important for me to get them to acknowledge the choice Sophie had to make, as I did in class, because they’re a lot less educated than I am on the Holocaust, because it wasn’t talked about in schools as much as it is in Facing History, I’m so fortunate to have had the opportunity to go in depth with this information because I feel it’s an extremely important part of our history that people often refrain from talking about.
Facing History and Ourselves was and empowering class for me, and it is, and will continue to be one of my favorite courses I have taken at Westborough High School. I learned so much, not just content wise, but about myself as well. Facing History is a truly unique course, which opens the eyes of students to see the world and themselves a different way, something that can’t be taught from a text book. Since starting Facing History, I have changed into someone Incan be proud of. I have been inspired to do an extensive amount of community service, including Crossroads where I support people with disabilities, Building Bridges where I mentor a six year old, Project Rwanda, and soon volunteering at Umass Memorial Hospital. I have a newly found desire to do my part in this world, and it is so rewarding to feel like you’re making a difference instead of just sitting at home, not accomplishing anything. I am a very quiet girl, but I want to devote myself to making a difference anyway I can, and stay conscience of my actions in order to be an active human being, instead of a bystander. The world doesn’t need people to sit and watch, that doesn’t help anyone, it needs people to watch and act based on the simple idea of doing what is right. It is so easy for people today to get caught up in their own world, I was like that before taking Facing History. I now feel like my eyes have been opened and I can acknowledge the world for what it is and how I am going to effect it and do my part. Thanks to Facing History, and Mr. Gallagher, I, and my generation is changing and growing into mature adults who are able to see things through various points of view, and contribute to this world in a positive way by being active in society, helping others, and sticking up for what they believe in. Facing History and Ourselves is a course that has created leaders, not followers.
The Holocaust was one of the worst events that occurred in human history. Hitler wanted to take over the world; he started by killing Jews for no reason at all and tormenting cities. He ran the Nazi’s who helped him carry out his mission by running concentration camps to destroy people only based on their religion. I was shocked to learn more and more of what he was doing to gain power. Hitler was selfish, who probably always put himself first especially to gain power. What I found very interesting was that his hate for the Jews could have come from a man who rejected him for some type of job opportunity. The man happened to be Jewish. There is no proof if that is the case why he started the killings, but I would say it is a fair estimate. When the concentration camps were going on, countries around the world did not like what he was doing. Germany was pretty much its own world in the way that no country was supporting them in what they were doing. The Jews were treated as nothing, like rag dolls being experimented on for no apparent reason. What upsets me the most is how the Nazi soldiers did all of those terrible things because they were ordered to. They couldn’t make a decision on their own, or realize what they were doing was the worst thing to do beyond anybody’s imagination. In the classroom, watching the films were disturbing to see. They made me more upset the more I saw them, and made me wonder even more why all this happened. From the five words in the room, “perpetrator, rescue, resistance, bystander, and the victim”, the ones who were the bystander was the world for many years, because they watched it all play out, and did not take immediate action to try to stop the ruthless killings. The perpetrators were the Nazi’s, causing trouble. This was when they started all of the concentration camps. The bystander was the world, by lacking to intervene onto the Nazi regime for several years. Resistance goes to the Jews due to the fact that they were getting the beating from the Nazi’s and could not do anything about it because they did not have anyone to back them up, and were weak. Jews were the victim as well, because many were put to death, and could not save themselves. Finally, the rescuers were the countries who invaded Germany to stop the Nazi regime, which was the U.S, France, and Britain. We may not notice it right away, but we come across any of the five words every day, any people are oblivious to it. What I think needs to happen, is for more people to become more aware of what they are surrounded by in society and to understand the values they get. Had it not have been for these countries, and let Hitler get more and more powerful, this world would have been a very different place. All of these events and ideas relate to today’s society in 2014 which greatly amazed me.
I am currently a junior at Westborough High School, and I love the subject History. Anything that has to do with it I’ll immediately sign up for the class right away. I want to seek Criminal Justice as a degree, and maybe do ROTC. My goal in life is to be a criminal investigator. Now I can use the things I’ve learned from this course and apply them to the things that I love.
When I first walked into the classroom, I only though that this course would teach about the Holocaust, and a little about World War II. In fact, I was very wrong. Not only did it teach me about those events, but it taught me something greater than I can even put into words. Mr. Gallagher put the class curriculum to think about how society works today, from those major events and to realize the impact it has. The five words displayed in the room, “perpetrator, bystander, resistance, victim, and rescue”, are all words that were a part of the society during WWII, and still represent the society today in 2014. The classroom felt like an adventure, gradually going more in depth with learning. If there is one thing that I really got out of this class, it is not to be a bystander. Seeing all of the Jews being killed ruthlessly by the Nazi’s for no apparent reason and how it took the world several years to put an end to it is absurd. Had the world not been a bystander during that time, millions of lives would have been saved. When I learned this about not being a bystander, I soon found myself learning everything about me. This course took me way farther than just the factual data about these events; it was a journey through learning what I am made to be. I also learned not to be taken advantage of. Through my childhood life, I would let people have power over me for just stupid reasons to fit in with a group, or to have a good laugh. Now, I can see the effects of what can happen when you are the resistance, and vow to stand up for myself. I’ve become more aware on how the society works, and how to help others out more. My junior year was probably the year that I learned the most about myself, and relations within society. From history with Mr. Obrien to Facing History and Ourselves, I learned that our society will be a lot better if people thought things through and not make assumptions; not being bystanders; by helping out other people. I was amazed to see how the five words all relate back to one another, and from then and now.
Another important facet of Facing History was all the documentaries we watched to provide information about judaism, the Holocaust, and the Nazis. A documentary we watched was called the Longest Hatred, which discussed why jews had been hated for thousands of years. I learned a lot and was surprised by what the documentary said. I never knew that the Bible clearly blamed Jews for killing Jesus, and god. Its impressive and hard to believe how many Catholics don’t seem to know this. I never knew because of this belief Jews were depicted as partners with the devil, sometimes shown eating feces. I was also surprised it took thousands of years for the church to forgive Jews of this accusation. I had learned that people believed Jews drank the blood of children, but it still shocks me that people think that could be true. I never knew Nazi’s actually measured the lengths of people’s noses in the streets. I think its insane that people have tried to exterminate the same group of people multiple times, for essentially no crime. Its horrifying that people can reach that level of hatred without knowing why they actually hate someone. We also watched a series of BBC documentaries that provided a lot of information about the Nazis and Europe at the time. I believe these documentaries helped me improve greatly as a student because I became significantly better informed about World War II than I had ever been. I think the wealth of information provided by BBC’s documentary was essential to the class because before one can understand how a genocide can occur they have to understand every aspect of the society and political environment at the time.
The last film we watched is a film I will never forget. It was footage of post-liberated Concentration Camps shown at the Nuremberg Trials. The horrific nature of the film was unimaginable, and even after watching it I am struggling to believe its true. In the documentary there was footage of thousands of bodies, mutilated and burnt, thrown into piles. The people who survived through liberation weren’t much better of, some too hungry to move. Although this documentary was deeply disturbing and it was hard to view I believe it was the most important film I viewed in the course. I believe it was the most important because it provided irrefutable proof that the Holocaust occurred, and it showed how bad it truly was. I don’t think it is possible for people to fully grasp the magnitude of Nazi crimes until they view this footage, because it is truly unbelievable. This film was the most important to me because without it, it is likely the Holocaust would have soon been forgotten or said to be not as bad as people remember. I think that people have a responsibility to never forget atrocities that humans have committed throughout history, and because of this I am very glad I took the course and bettered myself as a student and as a person.
The next film that affected me, “The Children’s March” was one of the more uplifting and positive films in the course, yet it was also one of the most powerful. The film was very eye opening and moving. It shows the importance and power resistance can have if they try. The documentary showed how thousands of African American students performed a boycott with intent of being arrested in hopes of filling the jails so that the attention of the Federal government could be drawn to the incredibly racist state they lived in. As i was watching the film, and the scale and success of the resistance shown i was shocked i had never heard of the event before. I knew the Civil Right’s movement used marches as a strategy for boycotting, but I never knew of the Children’s March. I also never knew that hundreds of children marched with the intention of being arrested. It was amazing to watch how willing they were to put themselves in danger, and that they grasped the importance of what they were doing. I think it was interesting how all their parents advised them against going, but their strength in numbers was essential to their success. It was also inspirational to see how persistent the children were, going back to jail after being released, and marching again after being violently attacked. It was rewarding and important to see at the end of the film that their marches resulted in success. The film was very powerful because it showed a massive group effort in resistance, sparked by a few powerful voices, successfully creating change. I think this film showed one of the central themes the course attempts to teach, resistance is important, and can be successful.
The next film that had an effect on me was again one of the most powerful films I have ever seen and I believe everyone should see it and absorb its message. The film is titled “Mrs. Elliot” and it is a documentary of an elementary teacher who conducts an amazing experiment with her students. She told half the class they were superior for a day based on eye color and filmed how they acted. I thought the experiment was amazing and incredibly powerful. I was impressed by the experiment because it was a creative and great way to get people to experience actual segregation first hand. I thought that Mrs. Elliot was an amazing teacher for realizing that she couldn’t just talk to her students about the current events, she needed to do something to get them to actual feel what was happening in the country. She was right, few white people could ever relate to the daily segregation we put people through by being racist. I also liked how she chose a generally meaningless trait, eye color, so her students realized skin color should also be meaningless. I was even more amazed by Mrs. Elliot after she performed the experiment with adults and it had a similar result. The film was amazing because it clearly irrefutably shows that racism is based on ignorance and prejudice. I think anyone who sees the experiment in the film could be moved to open their eyes and realize there is no reason at all for racism to exist.
What Facing History and Ourselves Meant to Me
Taking this course taught me a lot of things I would have never believed and changed how I viewed the world. Some films were emotionally powerful, some were interesting and educational, some were angering, and some I am still in disbelief that what was shown was true, but every one I believe had a positive effect on my character. The course was instantly interesting and powerful, when Mr. Gallagher had the class read “The Bear That Wasn’t”. Reading it was quickly made interesting because any student could start a page, they then read to the end and a new student started the next page. It was very interesting to see how long it took for someone to start the next page. “The Bear That Wasn’t” showed an important message about identity. The struggle the bear in the story goes through in his search for identity parallels to the struggle countless people go through, trying to find a balance between yourself and who people tell you to be. Initially when the bear wakes from hibernation he has complete confidence in his identity, nobody had tried to change him, and he simply knows he is a bear. As the bear is continuously told by people of power that he is not a bear, he grows increasingly confused, but is able to maintain that he is a bear. However, after other bears even tell him he is not a bear, the bear lets them change his identity and believes he is not a bear. Fortunately, when the bear is alone, trying to act like a human, he realizes he is truly a bear, and he ends the story having found his identity again. This story teaches an important lesson, it shows how difficult it can be to find your identity, especially when countless people will try to change it. After we read this story I thought a lot about what my identity means to me, and I know that in the future I will look back to the lessons I learned from the story so I can maintain that I know who I am and others cannot change that.
The next facet of the class that resonated with me was watching a film titled “After The First”. I had seen the film once before in Hebrew school but it had a greater effect on me the second time i watched it. I thought the film “After the First” raises many interesting points about societal and cultural practices and their effect on new members of the society. In the film there is a boy who is about to undergo a coming of age ritual with his father in which he goes hunting and kills his first animal. The boy is excited about the day because it is a major part of his culture that he is yet to experience. The boy and father assume that since the father enjoys the culture, there is no way the boy won’t embrace it. This idea is quickly challenged by the boys values when he clearly has a problem with his dad killing a rabbit. After the boy sees his dad kill a rabbit he begins to struggle, not knowing if he should hold onto his values, or if his values are even worth having, since his dad clearly has a different point of view. The boy decides to let go of his values when he makes the moral choice to shoot a rabbit. The boy probably did it to see if he would be happier once he was a part of his father’s culture, but he quickly regretted his decision. The boy was even mad at his dad for pressuring him to do something he didn’t believe in. The film also showed how cultures can make people desensitized to violence, so they stop realizing that their actions are morally wrong. This film made me realize I need to question more actions that are considered normal in our society because they may be having a negative effect on me or others around me. The boy’s reaction showed that it is okay and important to fight against a part of your culture if you feel it is immoral, and people like that boy are people who refuse to be bystanders.
Ben’s Facing History Blog
May 22, 2014
Introduction
My name is Ben Lazarine, I’m sixteen years old, and I am currently a junior at Westborough High School. I was born in Texas, moved to Utah, and I have now lived in Massachusetts for eight years. I am jewish, and have taken part in my congregation all the way through conformation. I was confirmed last year. Although I’m not very religious, I am glad my parents raised me as a Jew, and there are things it has taught me that I will never forget. One year of Hebrew school I will particularly remember is seventh grade, where we spent the year learning about the Holocaust. This was the same year I had my Bar Mitzvah, and had a large impact on my identity. I have been a part of cross country, indoor track, and outdoor track since I was a freshman. I initially joined cross country because my brother, Ari, had been a runner since he was a freshman as well, but running quickly became a large part of my life.
I knew about this course because my brother took this course, and after hearing him talk about it and recommend it I became interested in taking it. I also chose to take the class after hearing people say the teacher was amazing, and the class was unlike anything they had done before. In the course Mr. Gallagher guides us through genocides that have occurred, focusing on the Holocaust, with the intent of putting us in the time period and allowing us to feel what citizens felt. The course attempts to place you in the time period to allow you to fully understand how millions of people can be slaughtered, and the importance of someone standing up to say stop. The course mainly consists of powerful movies and documentaries that all work together to deliver the message the course tries to get across. Through out the course the only assignment is to maintain a blog on film we watched in class that day, I think this is important because instead of focusing on what will be on a test we can fully absorb what we are watching then share our thoughts on a blog. Initially reading this description one may think this is an easy class with no work and movies everyday, but this notion couldn’t be farther from the experience students receive in the class. Mr. Gallagher quickly became one of my favorite teachers, not because he was relaxed, but because he was a man who demanded respect. The very first day I knew that I had walked into a life changing course. Mr. Gallagher said he wasn’t there to teach us, but to be our guide as we learned for ourselves the true effect of prejudice and racism. Even though I had heard the films were powerful, nothing could have prepared me for what I saw and what I learned. Students who take the course will leave with a different outlook on the world, and I know I am glad I experienced it.
Before I took this course, I had heard a lot about how intense of a course Facing History is and the way it changes your view on the history of the world. I took this course because I was interested in learning more about things like the holocaust and other historical events, because I felt that I had been receiving the “PG” version of these stories. Being in high school I feel that kids our age are old enough and mature enough to learn about these gruesome and horrible events that occurred in our world history and I think that schools must start teaching kids the specifics of what goes on during these times. I think most people my age know that the holocaust occurred, but I think some kids do not know the specifics of what went on during it, the ways in which people were treated/killed, and the reasoning behind the killings. Kids like myself (before this course) know that the holocaust occurred, but I really did not know the ways in which Jews were killed, and how they were treated like they were not even human beings. I think this whole course revolves around the concept of whether people are willing to take action, or be bystanders. In almost all these inexcusable historical events like the holocaust and the Rwandan Genocide, you find a large number of people and countries that sit back and be bystanders as millions of people are being killed. Even our own government was a bystander to the Rwandan Genocide, and did not take proper action in helping these innocent people. When you look at these types of situations you wonder how these bystanders would feel if the roles were switched and they saw people who could help them not doing anything. This course teaches you that in any situation in life, if you see something wrong and you have the ability to prevent it, it would be cowardly of you not to go and stop it. To me, this was the most important thing I got out of this course that benefited me not only as a student, but as a person also.
The most notable event that we learn about in this course, in my opinion, is the holocaust and the war with Nazi Germany. Going into this unit I had known about World War II and the holocaust, and the fact that millions of Jews died. I honestly had no idea about the ways in which they were treated and killed. As the unit on the holocaust goes on, the more you learn about what the Nazi’s did, the more shocking and unbelievable it gets. When you learn about why the Jews were killed, you find it extremely hard to believe that people back then actually found the reasoning for the killings legitimate. There is absolutely no legitimate reasoning for killing someone based on the way they were born, simply because there is nothing that person can do to prevent that. Not only is the reason for the deaths of all these people inexcusable, the ways in which they spent there final months were just as worse. I knew that the Jews were kept separate from society, but did not know how horrible the conditions were and how they were left starving most days. Spending your last months on earth starving and living in horrible conditions knowing you’re going to die in the near future is something that I would not wish on anyone because it is such a horrible thing to go through. The movie “The Boy in the Striped Pajamas” truly displayed how delusional the Nazi’s were for doing the things that they did, and how none of what they were doing was reasonable. Bruno had no idea why his friend Schmall was being kept separate from him, and did not understand the reasoning for it. That was because there is no legitimate reason for him being in that death camp, because Schmall is a person just like Bruno. To me, this movie perfectly showed the ridiculousness of what the Nazi’s were doing and was also one of the saddest movies I have ever seen. The innocence of these kids and their strong friendship was ruined because they wanted to help Schmall’s father which led to them being gassed to death.
Kevin White Facing History Final Blog
May 21, 2014
Introduction
My name is Kevin White. I am a senior at Westborough High School and graduate June 7th, 2014. I plan on attending The University of Rhode Island located in Kingston RI. There I plan to surf and enjoy the social scene by the water. I plan on studying entrepreneurial management. After college I would like to move to Washington, DC and get a job at a small start up company. My whole family is involved in the business industry and being around it 24/7 has made me fall in love with it and pursue a successful career in the business world. Seeing how successful some people have been in my family has planted a seed that will grow and develop making me very successful someday. Junior year I was able to pick several business classes that I had not already taken to prepare me for college. But as I was looking through all the classes for my senior year I stumbled upon this history course and reading the description it really interested me. I talked to my close friends Kyle Lemack and Mike Power about the class and they said it was one that would really open your eyes and make you realize how severe the events in the past had been. Going into the first day of class I did not have any idea of what to expect but I knew the course was going to be a good one teaching me life long lessons.
What Facing History and Ourselves Meant to Me
Going into this class I didn’t know what to expect. All I knew was that a few of my close friends recommended that I take it. I was told that this class was not a blow off class but it was an easy one. I was tired of taking world history and US history because I am no history buff but decided to give this a try because I was told that it would teach you lessons that may last you your whole life. I wanted an easy class as my 6th period class senior year but still be able to obtain helpful information. That is exactly what I was able to achieve in this class. Going into the first day of class with my buddy Brian Bernard we were very curious as to what this highly talked about course would entail. The class started off slow just getting to know people and reaching deep down to see our true selves. We did several lessons that made us realize our true selves and see what we thought of ourselves along with seeing how our peers felt about us. The lessons learned will last a life time for me. The first lesson in the class that really meant a lot to me was the book about the bear that kept being told he was not a bear. It made me realize that one should be true to itself and no matter who tells you that you aren’t something that you actually are, be true to yourself. The book left a lasting impression and one that would stick with me for awhile. After doing this lesson I knew that this class was going to be beneficial to me and really open my eyes to the world around us.
As we moved further into the course we started watching films that carried strong means behind them. The first film we watched that had a very strong meaning behind it was the Mrs. Elliot Class divide film. It was about a teacher who split up her class saying that one group of kids were better than the other. She then watched as the better group of kids treated the other kids poorly and isolated them from everything. The other kids were treated very bad and had no idea how respond and take action against the better group because they weren’t as powerful it seemed. The next day Mrs. Elliot switched up the groups to see if the other kids would react the same. Sure enough when she switched the groups the better kids treat the other kids poorly. This proved that if one is told that they are better than another that they will keep following that order and do what ever it takes to make sure that they stay better than the others. This correlates direct with Nazi Germany who was “better” than the Jews. Day after day the Nazis were told they were better so they acted more superior which instilled fear in the Jews making them coward up and let the Nazis take control.
The next film that had a lasting impression on me was The Children’s March. It was about how in Birmingham, AL when Martin Luther King Jr. went to speak was arrested and put to a halt. The black children saw how this affected their families and decided to create their own revolt cause what were they going to do hurt little kids? The kids all band together creating a mass mob and marching through the center of town. This proved to me that if you get several people together to revolt you may be successful or at least leave a lasting impression. The way that this movie correlates with the Holocaust was that Jews with the same belief in the Ghettos were able to band together and leave a lasting impression on the Nazis by attacking them with their own weapons and killing and hurting many of their men.
All the films we watched had an impression on me one way or another. After The First was a film that stuck out in my head to having a good message behind it. It was about a father who wanted to take his kid hunting for the first time. He took him way back into the woods where his father first shot and killed a rabbit. After it was dead the kid just stood there staring astonished that his father took something’s life so easily. The father then gave the kid the gun so that he was able to shoot his own rabbit. Even though he didn’t think it was right to take something’s life so effortlessly he gave in and did what he was instructed to do. The kid just decided to follow in the lines of a group instead of branching out and standing up for what he believes in. This relates to the Holocaust because when the Nazi Germans were instructed by their leader to take the lives of Jews. In fact they did just that because there was no going against their leader even if they knew it was the wrong thing to do. The Nazis had no say whether or not that this awfulness should continue they just had to follow direct orders from the man in charge.
A movie that we watched that had a lasting impression on me was The Freedom Writers. It was a movie about a white teacher teaching a class that was full of delinquents in a low income area. She went into the class thinking that she would sale right through and excel at teaching these kids moral lessons. But it wasn’t that easy. She was given a class full of gang members, all different races, and then some white kids who were the minority in the class. At first she failed at teaching these kids and none of them had any respect for this white lady who was now teaching their class. They gave her such a hard time and didn’t give her a single once of respect. She then came to realize that it goes deeper than just the top surface. The reason these kids were so bad was because of the terrible environment that they grew up in. Some kids didn’t have fathers and others had terrible relationships with their families thus living on the street in total poverty. This was astonishing because after the teacher dug down deep to try and give these kids a better life she succeeds. This creates the lesson that if you fail at something you will succeed if you keep pushing until the end. And she did just that she pushed and fought until she got what she wanted. This relates to the holocaust because when the Jews were locked up in the Ghettos there were very few that believed they could succeed at fighting against the Germans. But the ones that did believe in succeeding did. They fought as hard as they could to take down the Nazis but in the end were compromised due to the much stronger force of the Nazis. It really proves a message to everyone that if you really want to succeed failure is not an option. You must push yourself to the end to be successful.
Another film from our holocaust unit that had a significant impact on me was the actual footage of the death camps during the Nuremburg trials. The footage of the dead bodies in the camps was one of the most difficult things I have ever had to watch, and was something that really hit me hard. Learning about all the deaths is something that is very hard to bare, but seeing the actual bodies and their conditions, and the mass numbers in which they were disposed of, is something you will not see anywhere else. That footage of all the death camps was probably the most disturbing and hardest thing I have ever watched in my life. Not only was seeing the dead bodies disturbing, but seeing the conditions of those who survived the death camps was just as worse. Most of the people almost looked like aliens because of the malnourishment and the conditions that they lived in. They looked like they were hanging on to life by a thread and could barely even move. I have never seen human beings in as bad as a health condition as these people were, and the fact that the German people did not think this was going just shows the amount of brainwashing Hitler did. These people are basically sheep, and they listened to whatever their government said because they felt the government had total authority over them. When in reality they could have opened their eyes and realized that what their government was doing was horrible, and they could have tried to do something to stop it. People pretty much being sheep and listening to whatever the “authority” tells them to do is something you find in all of these historical events we discussed.
The film “Hotel Rwanda”, is a movie that we watched for our unit on the Rwandan Genocide. I had first learned about the Rwandan Genocide earlier this year in my journalism class, but before then I had never known what it was truly about. Like the holocaust, all I knew about the genocide was that a large number of people died, but I did not know the ways in which they died and the reasoning behind it. I think that there are a lot of kids out there who do not know about the Rwandan Genocide, and I think it is disgraceful that an event where 800,000 people goes somewhat un-noticed in our worlds history. In my opinion, if 800,000 people were killed in the U.S. or in any other world leading country, we would still be talking about it a lot more today, but since it went on in a small country like Rwanda, a lot of people our age do not know about it. In this film, the most disappointing thing I learned was how horrible of a job other countries, like the U.S., did in helping these people. The U.S. without a doubt had a strong enough military to send people into Rwanda and save those who were still alive, but instead they only escorted the visitors in the hotel when they could have helped the people in Rwanda. This made me very disappointed in my government because they treated the Rwandan people like they were not important enough to be saved. They are human beings just like everyone else, and they deserve as much help as they can get in a life-threatening crisis. On a positive note, I think that what Ryan, Helena, and their families are doing is just awesome. For kids our age to spend most of their summer helping these people and living in the conditions that they live in is something that I don’t know if I would be able to do. I think I would be lucky to last a couple days living there, and I think that what they are doing says a lot about their generosity and their character. It is important that we help these people as much as possible and make sure they do not go un-noticed, and the Neil’s and the Wrights are doing exactly that.
Another film that we watched was the exam that a scientist did where people would receive money if they did a series of shocks on a person. They would ask the person who they were testing a series of questions and if they got it wrong, the people doing the shocking were told they would have to shock them in order to get the money. As the testing went on and the shocking got more intense, the scientist put in a voiceover to make it seem like people were actually being shocked when in reality they were not. So as the test went on the voiceover said that he was having problems and that the testing needed to stop, but if the people doing the testing stopped, they would not receive the money. This experiment just shows how sheepish people are towards authority, and how they feel they do not have any power to step up when something is going wrong. I think this experiment relates to everything that we discussed in this course and how people who don’t step up when something wrong is going on, they are being cowards and bystanders.
Another experiment that we watched was the brown eyed/blue eyed experiment that was conducted by Jane Elliot. This experiment took place in a 3rd grade class where one day kids with brown eyes were treated as inferior to people with blue eyes and vice versa. As the experiment went on, the kids who were treated as inferior got more and more visibly upset because they were being treated differently based on their genetics. They realized how horrible it was to be treated like this and Mrs. Elliot made the children realize what it was like to live in America as a black person. This was a brilliant experiment by Mrs. Elliot because it truly exposed the stupidity behind segregation and how even small children could realize that it was unfair. This whole experiment undoubtedly proved the obvious point that treating someone differently based on their skin color or the way they looked is completely unreasonable and has no place in society. This experiment showed how the beliefs of the Nazis, the killings in the Rwandan Genocide, and the segregation of blacks are all unfair and unreasonable because they are based off of things that people cannot change.
The film on the children marching on Washington is another thing I found to be fascinating to learn about. I think that the will of these children to march on Washington truly showed how important it was to them to end segregation. They were well aware that the likelihood of them being arrested or assaulted was very high, but they did not hesitate in fighting for their freedom. I was also very disappointed in our society at that time because they were so willing to arrest these kids and brutally assault them. Looking back to when I was 8 or 9 years old, I don’t think I would have had the courage to do the things that these kids did. Doing something that the police force did during this time nowadays would be totally unacceptable, which shows just how far our country has come compared to how it was before.
All of these events in our worlds history that we learned in this class all revolve around the concept of whether or not people want to take action and change something. The Holocaust, The Rwandan Genocide, and the segregation of African Americans all have people who have the ability to make change and are bystanders to these events. The main thing that I got out of this course is to stand up for what you believe in, and if you feel something is not right, don’t be a bystander and go take action.
After watching several films, it led up to the beginning of our journey through Nazi German and The Holocaust. The first led us into Nazi German was The Swing Kids. It was a movie about young adults being taken in by the Nazis and told that they are now under direct orders of Hitler. It surprised me that even the most mentally strong kids were able to be brain washed against their previous beliefs and told to follow their new found beliefs. I couldn’t believe how cruel the Nazi leaders were to the youth of German. The brain washed the poor kids and told them that Jews were the hatred race of the entire earth. After this movie I was astonished at the Nazis attempt to get the entire nation on their side.
A film that stuck out as extremely important to me was Hotel Rwanda. It was about the Rwanda genocide and how groups of people from the same nation band together to take down another group of people who were just different religions as them. I was astonished that humans could brutally destroy and beat another human being like the rebels did to the innocent people of Rwanda. It has a direct relation with the Holocaust because people from the same exact country had different beliefs and one group wanted to kill off the other group. The Nazis believed that Jews should not exist on this earth so they set out to rid Germany of Jews and then realized they had a lot more work to do. Its shocking how humans can be so cruel to one another and believe that they are better than another group. Just because someone celebrates different beliefs doesn’t mean its fair game to target that group and attempt to destroy them.
The final film that real hit me was the devastation of the concentration camps. It really opened my eyes about how terrible of an event that occurred. It shocked me that human kind had no issue attempting to get rid of people similar to them. Seeing how devastating this was shocked me and put a lasting impression in my mind. I will now never use a slang or derogatory term. This class has made me a lot better of a human being and has giving me life lessons to live by and stand by. The Holocaust was a terrible time and one that everybody should be informed upon.
All in all this class has taught me a lot about myself and the person I want to become. It has made it clear that I want to become a leader not a follower and if I believe something isn’t right with the actions of another human being I shouldn’t be a bystander and instead take action to put a halt to the situation at hand. I will now enter into college with the knowledge of this class and learn to stand up for myself along with stand up for others even if the issue has little to no effect on me. I’m excited to enter into the real world with the knowledge I now have from this class.
Currently, I am a junior at WHS this year. Last year, as a sophomore, I had the choice to sign up for Facing History so I began to ask people currently taking the class whether or not I should take it. Many people told me it was a class that we would watch movies in and there was no homework. I was immediately drawn in, but I learned the class was not as light as it seemed to be on the outside. I learned that the class had intense and sometimes emotionally difficult videos to watch. Often, it was said that the class didn’t feel like a normal class because they were learning life lessons and were constantly engaged in the lesson. Some of the most common words and phrases used to describe the class were “life changing” and “one of the best classes.” I wasn’t aware of the full extent of the lessons that the course had in store for me. I knew I wanted to be apart of the class after hearing the reviews I did, so I was thrilled to see it on my schedule in the summer. I knew that it may be difficult to watch some of the class material provided, but I also knew that it would be necessary to see in order to fully experience this class. As juniors and seniors in the class this year, we are nearing the point of our lives where we will be unleashed into the real world. Because of this, it is important to know who we are and who we want to be. This course offers just that. I can truthfully say that this course has made an impact on my life and I will never be able to forget the lessons I have learned from it.
Facing History and Ourselves is truly a life-changing class and is one I am glad I signed up for. One goal of the class is to be able to answer the question “who are you?” This question, however, cannot be answered until you have experienced the class in its entirety. The class focuses on, but is not limited to topics such as racism, human nature, the Holocaust, and the effects of being a bystander in order to answer the question. Documents, videos, and class discussions are some of the many resources offered to the students in order to assist them in their journey. The resources provide students with civic agency. Civic agency is a moral, intellectual, and emotional connection to the subject which allows one to put himself/herself in the time period. After reading a document or watching a video, the student should be able to put himself/herself in the shoes of someone in the event or time period, allowing the student to come to a conclusion or empathize with the people from the time period. Students also learn that the Nazi’s weren’t solely in power controlling the mass murder. In all situations there are perpetrators, victims, bystanders, resistance, and rescuers. After taking this course, students will learn to stand up and end incidents that can occur due to bystanders not taking action. Many of the incidents in history are allowed to happen because bystanders will say “it won’t happen to me” or “I’m too busy,” but this course teaches you to throw away those initial notions in order to prevent dark history like this from repeating itself. As you watch the movies, all you can do is imagine what you would be doing if you were in the same place as the characters/real people and faced with the same extremely difficult and morally challenging decisions as well. The value of a human life could never be fully understood until you have seen it totally disregarded in events like this, making you think twice about who are and who you want to be in life. Ultimately, after reflection upon the class, students will be able to answer the question and decide who they want to be in the future to hopefully end this history from repeating itself.
Facing History and Ourselves has been one of the most beneficial experiences for me. Everything about the course has been meaningful and it has been a long journey in what seems like a short amount of time. Only time will tell how this class has impacted who I am, however, I know for certain that I take the lessons into account in my daily life. I have learned a lot about myself through the resources we are given in class. One of the first videos we watched was “After the First.” In the film, Steve’s mother wanted Steve to wait until he was older and emotionally ready to go hunting because she didn't think he was ready to kill a living animal. Steve’s father wanted him to learn how to use a gun and “become a man” because hunting was a ritual that he participated in with his father when he was about the same age. This experience was a “coming of age” ritual that Steve could impress his dad with and because of this, he was excited to be able to hunt. He finds using the gun fun only when he is shooting inanimate objects. When the first bunny is shot, Steve immediately realizes that it goes against his morals to kill something innocent and becomes solemn. The father believes Steve will have fun hunting because he finds it easy to do now that he is desensitized to the killing, however, he shouldn't be so quick to judge Steve. Steve didn't want to shoot the second bunny, but due to the pressure his father was putting on him, he gave in and went against his morals. Without this pressure, Steve wouldn't have gone against his morals. By the end, Steve no longer wanted to hunt and said that he never would want killing to get easier “after the first” kill. Societal pressure causes an individual to conform even when it goes against his/her morals which relates to Nazi Germany and even people in everyday life. If you want to be accepted into a group, often an individual will conform to meet the needs of the group even if it goes against something they believe in. Many people joined the Nazi Party with morals, but they soon became desensitized to the killing in order to stay a part of a group who had complete control of Germany. From this video, I have learned that you have to stick to your morals and keep your individuality even if there is societal pressure.
“A Class Divided” was another video we watched in class and the lesson stuck with me. The documentary was about Mrs. Elliot who came up with an ingenious experiment. She told her students with blue eyes that they were superior one day, causing the brown eyed kids to have to wear collars. She told told the blue eyed kids that they were better and smarter, which led to some fights between the two groups. The brown eyed kids weren’t allowed to play in the playground with the other kids and the teacher would constantly undermine them to prove her point. Then, the next day, she told the class that the kids with the brown eyes were superior and made the kids with the blue eyes inferior. At a time when minorities had almost no rights, it taught the children to understand how it would feel to be in their shoes. The experiment taught the children that no one is “superior” or “inferior,” there are only prejudices that allow one to ignorantly believe that notion. This lesson not only taught the kids that prejudice is wrong, but also that you cannot just be a bystander in any situation. When Mrs. Elliot had argued with many of the blue-eyed workers during the workshop, no one offered to speak up and defend their fellow co-worker. I was inspired by the film because I believe that all of us have been on both sides of the situation whether you are the one judging others or the one that is being judged, perhaps judged unfairly. I began to wonder if I had ever judged anyone and if I had I hoped I would learn from it and prevent myself from making judgements in the future. This is one of the many videos that has made me wiser and more insightful. Now, I think twice about judging someone and I understand that everyone is equal, there are no superior or inferior people. Also, anyone who watches this would see that you cannot just be a bystander, rather you have to stand up for what you believe in even if the idea would be rejected by society. Ultimately, the video made me realize that I couldn’t be a bystander or judge people before I have taken the time to get to know them.
“The Milgram Experiment” was another captivating documentary to watch in class. I had never seen or heard about this experiment before we watched it in class. The experiment was a movie about authority and how people are obedient to someone in a powerful position. I think that people are obedient to people in authority because generally people believe that people in authority know what they are doing and it is human nature to want to be a part of a group. The people in the experiment had to hurt someone when they got a wrong answer, which sometimes caused them to laugh. The laughter, in my opinion, was due to nervousness and was used as a way to relieve the stress that hurting people was causing them. The teachers were simply “sheep” in the experiment and 50% of them followed exactly what they were supposed to do, even when the voltage was high and the actor was screaming. Some teachers refused to keep going when the voltage got high and the man said he was having problems with his heart. It got increasingly difficult to be a teacher because the man was getting hurt and their conscience was telling them to stop, but the scientist said to continue. Once one teacher learned that it would not be his responsibility if the man got hurt, so he continued to shock the man. Although he struggled with his conscious, he was obedient and followed every order given to him. From this, I learned people can easily be influenced by an authority figure because many people are followers that want to be a part of a group and if being a part of that group means ignoring your conscious, many people would do it. I was able to relate this back to the Holocaust because in the Nuremberg Trial many Nazis said they were only following orders. They listened to every order and said that they were just being obedient in order to be apart of the group. Authority figures like doctors were considered to be people who help others, but during the years of the war, they were just like everyone else - following the orders from another authoritative figure in order to remain apart of the group. From this documentary, I learned an individual will listen to an authoritative figure, in order to be apart of a group. I realized that it is more important to keep your individuality and stick to your morals/conscious when you know something is wrong despite someone telling you otherwise.
The movie “The Pianist” made the cruelty of the Nazi’s real for me. It was horrifying to see the man in the wheelchair thrown off the balcony just because the Nazis could do such a thing and they wanted to incite fear. The scene showed how the Nazi soldiers could ignore every moral fiber they had so they could obey orders. I was amazed that there were that many dead bodies on the ground and that most of the Jews died of starvation. It was sad to see people begging for food and water or trying to smuggle goods in so they could survive. I was surprised that Wladyslaw could be so desensitized to the boy dying in his arms and the woman that went crazy and was searching for her husband. The Jews were absolutely treated cruelly and I was angered when the Nazis made the Jews dance for their own cruel entertainment. I also learned that some Jews signed up to be in a police force where they enforced the Nazi rules in order to survive. I would like to believe that if the Jews decided not to be apart of the Nazi’s rules that maybe they could’ve helped each other out. I don’t think that I will ever be able to forget the horrible and heinous things that the Nazis did to the Jews, not just in Poland. but everywhere. The Jews that helped the Nazi’s were a mix of bystanders and perpetrators. They helped the Nazi’s in controlling the Jewish masses and they also stood by and did nothing because they were desensitized to everything happening in the ghettos. The movie showed the human condition during tough times. I learned that you cannot just be a bystander in any situation and that tough times don’t excuse a person for the choices they make.
I hadn't known much about the Rwandan genocide before watching “Hotel Rwanda,” but now that I have seen it, I won’t be able to forget the horrible and brutal things that have happened to the Rwandan people during that time. One thing that stuck with me was when Paul was driving on the street and it suddenly became bumpy, so he got out of the car only to see thousands of dead bodies on the ground. Not only was the mass murder of all those people disgusting and horrible, but it was also horrendous to see that they were just thrown there on the ground. I can’t believe that 800,000 people were murdered within 100 days and no help was sent from any country to help them. Even Bill Clinton had later said If we’d gone in sooner, I believe we could have saved at least a third of the lives that were lost... it had an enduring impact on me.” The US didn’t go in to save lives because they wanted to wait and see how it played out. The US didn't help the Jews when they wanted to enter the country, it wasn't till many of them were killed that the US intervened. Paul fought to save his family and the refugees even though he didn't have to. This shows the movie’s theme of standing up and not being a bystander.
“The Boy in the Striped Pajamas stuck in my mind because it offered a view of human nature when innocent and after affected by propaganda. Bruno was innocent and unaware that his friend Shmuel was in a concentration camp. His sister, however, was influenced by propaganda and became a devoted Hitler Youth. The father and daughter became staunch supporters of the Nazi Party after viewing and being taught propaganda, while Bruno remained somewhat resistant to the propaganda and stayed compassionate toward his friend. Bruno and Shmuel represent all that is kind and decent in humans as well as the potential that they have to do good. Conversely, Bruno's father and Lieutenant Kotler reveal man's capacity for evil. This reinforces the idea that hatred and prejudice are learned behaviours. The movie also shows the choice humans must make regarding how they treat others. The movie also showed how all humans are equal and without an outside force telling them otherwise, they can get along and be friends. In the end, although the two boys came from completely different situations, they ended up dying friends with their hand in the other’s because they were innocent and hadn’t been affected by the propaganda. From the movie, I learned the dangers of conformity and people's reluctance to take a stand in the face of adversity. Also, the movie portrayed how human’s are all the same and have many things in common that can lead to friendships if you don’t judge each other.
This class has had a lasting effect on me and who I want to be in the future. The resources helped answer the question “who am i” by teaching a lesson each time. Each lesson leaned toward themes of individuality and being a bystander to help us understand who we are and who we have been. “After the First” taught me that you have to stick to your morals and keep your individuality even if there is societal pressure. “A Class Divided” taught me that I can’t be a bystander or judge people before I have taken the time to get to know them. “The Milgram Experiment” taught me that it is more important to keep your individuality and stick to your morals/conscious when you know something is wrong despite someone telling you otherwise. From “The Pianist,” I learned that I learned that you cannot just be a bystander in any situation and that tough times don’t excuse a person for the choices they make. After watching “Hotel Rwanda,” I learned that you need to stick to your morals and you can’t be a bystander in any situation, otherwise awful events can occur. From the movie “Boy in the Striped Pajamas,” I learned the dangers of conformity and people's reluctance to take a stand in the face of adversity. Also, the movie portrayed how human’s are all the same and have many things in common that can lead to friendships, if you don’t judge each other. Civic agency helped in understanding these lessons. I was able to put myself in these situations and it was awful. This made me to never want to be the cause of the horrible situations and I realized I couldn’t be a bystander, I have to be an individual who sticks to my morals. I am truly grateful that I had the chance to participate in the class and I can say with certainty that I will never forget the lessons I have learned. Having a passionate teacher combined with life-changing lessons makes an unforgettable class. The class allowed for a closer look at mankind and myself. Although the documentaries and movies were hard to watch, I can never forget the lessons I’m grateful that I was able to learn. Also, I feel that I have matured from taking the class. I can say that I wouldn't feel right if I were to be a bystander, rather I would want to confront the perpetrator and stop awful events such as the holocaust from ever recurring. I can only hope that I have already started changing in accordance with the lessons from class and I hope I will continue to follow them in the future. Our fundamental history courses never fully touch upon the human condition during the time period we learn about, but this class finally offers the chance to look at it in depth. I am beyond thankful to have had this opportunity to be a part of the course and if I were given the chance, I would recommend this class to anyone who is willing to re-evaluate they way they live their life. I believe a quote once said by Desmond Tutu is the epitome of the class and the course’s lessons. This quote was, “If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor.”
Introduction
My name is Mads Fallentin and this is my final entry for the Facing History blog. I was born and raised in Scandinavia, Denmark to be specific, and moved to the U.S. at the age of twelve. Since then I’ve been traveling back and forth, completing my sophomore year of high school in the Danish school system, before coming back to the U.S. yet again to finish high school. I plan to move back to Denmark following this year, but hope to one day live in the U.S. again. I chose this course, Facing History and Ourselves, because of the numerous of great things I had heard about it. Friends of mine claimed to have been changed as persons, and I wished to experience this for myself (and indeed I did). This course revolves around racial oppression, segregation, genocide, manipulation and things of that liking, and focuses on what it means to be a bystander or a perpetrator versus being someone who fights back and refuses to let bad things happen before their eyes. The first few weeks of the course are spent reading small stories, as well as watching short video clips, and then discussing them in class. Then as the course progresses, you begin to watch more profound documentaries and film; first about the oppression of African Americans in The United States of America, and later about the holocaust. The films are in no way sugar coated, and can at times be difficult to watch, but it is the brutal honesty of these very films which help you see things in a different perspective; one thing is hearing about the horrors of the Nazi concentration camps, seeing them is something completely different. After every film, the students must write paragraph about what they saw in class, how it made them feel, and their general thoughts about the film, and then post it to the Facing History blog, as I am doing with this essay. At first, the thought of simply watching documentaries day in and day out may seem tiresome, maybe even non beneficial, but the things you get to see and hear about are things I believe every person in the world should see and learn about, because I can honestly say that the things I’ve witnessed during this course has changed the way I look at a lot of things in my life.
What Facing History and Ourselves has Meant to Me
After a year of U.S. history, which I must admit became somewhat boring at times, I knew I wanted something a bit more ‘worldly’ if you will, for this year’s social studies elective. I do like history, I find it quite interesting actually, so I wasn’t apprehensive about choosing a history course as one of my electives what so ever, and then with the tremendous positive feedback the course had gotten, choosing Facing History and Ourselves was by no means a tough choice. I have often get bored with the “nine to five” mentality of many classes, teachers perhaps, and find that I am doing the same work repeatedly over and over, and from what I had heard, I knew I wouldn’t get that with this class, so I eagerly signed up (that along with the promise of very little homework and movies everyday persuaded the lazy teenager in me).
“I will not drown in the rising tide of conformity. I will not play the minor keys like the majority”
Facing History and Ourselves is a course focused at taking a look at genocide and the holocaust. As a student, I got to further understand the bravery that individuals summoned within themselves to make a difference in the lives of many. Putting yourself in the shoes of someone in a concentration camp is completely impossible. I could never fully understand how someone faced death as they did every day. I took the course Facing History and Ourselves purely based on the fact that my best friend, Santi, told me the teacher of this course had affected his life. Santi and I were planning on taking the course together until life got ahead of us and circumstances were changed. I thought that without him in the course I would switch out and take something else. After the first day of class I had already changed my mind. My teacher opened the class by telling his students about himself. I don’t mean his favorite color and favorite food; I mean he told us his life story. Mr. Gallagher is one of those people that holds an audience with each word he speaks. I started to look forward to sixth period. School is not my favorite thing, anywhere but there basically. Although I don’t like school it has become an escape. I can leave my hectic family life and enjoy being with some people I love. Santi and I started to spend lunch in Mr. Gallagher’s classroom. I feel as though I more fully understand the role of ignorance in mass killings and more importantly how these genocides can be stopped at any point in the process if you yourself are not a by-standard. I fully understand now what having a voice means and how powerful my voice is.
This class is set up around readings/articles, class discussions, movies, and documentaries. The class is started with a CD of Mr. Gallagher’s and a piece of candy. I have been told by teachers before that Mr. Gallagher doesn’t turn down anyone from this course. I once heard a rumor that a student was turned down from taking the course; teachers were warning Mr. Gallagher that this kid wasn’t someone he would want in his classroom. From what I heard Mr. Gallagher went to the office and got the kid placed in the class. Westborough High School is the kind of place that teachers reach out to their students and Mr. Gallagher goes above and beyond the call of duty.
I usually don’t cry watching movies and documentaries, but a few of the films we watched in class really had me holding back tears. In eighth grade, the students had the opportunity to travel to Washington DC; it has become my favorite place I have been due to 3 trips I have now taken there. When I first went to DC I had the privilege to go to the Holocaust Museum. I was only 13, I wasn’t completely aware of the details of the Holocaust. After watching all the films and documentaries I feel as though I was cheated out of a ridiculous amount of information. I feel as though I went into the Holocaust Museum blind, and without an understanding of anything that the Jews were facing. The school I went to previously had never taught anything about the Holocaust. Anything I did know about I had learned from my parents and the novel Number the Stars. I haven’t been back to the museum since and I want to go as soon as I save up the money. I more clearly understand the history and brutality of the holocaust and I want to pay my respects. When I went to the museum I saw the shoes in heaps on exhibit and the pictures of bodies being thrown into ditches. These things barely fazed me because the school let me walk blindly.
Aside from the course itself, I had heard great things about the man teaching the course, Mr. Gallagher. My first encounter with Mr. Gallagher was my sophomore year. I was going to school in Denmark, as I explained above, but was back in the U.S. for a week or so to visit my friends. I decided to shadow my friend Daniel Triana, meaning I had to follow him around all day, which I figured would give me a chance to see more of my old friends. Third period, Dan had history, and that is where I met Mr. Gallagher. He shook my hand and introduced himself to me, the only teacher that day to do so. He seemed interested in what I had to say, and complemented me for looking him in the eyes. For whatever reason, that encounter stuck with me and I knew I wanted to have him as my teacher so when the opportunity showed itself, I took it.
The first film to have an impact on me, and grasp my attention if you will, was the documentary of Ms. Elliott and her second graders. The film revolves around a group of preschoolers who are made to believe they are better, or inferior, to others. Day one, the blue eyed children are told that they are better than the brown eyed children, and day two it’s the other way around. A lot of interesting but also disturbing points are made by this movie. The ease with which Ms. Elliott convinces the children that they are better than the others is quite terrifying and this film really stood out to me. It made me realize why things such as the holocaust can take place and still do, and that ultimately people can be made to think anything if they are manipulated at a young enough age.
My favorite film, movie, documentary of this entire course was Uprising. This made for TV movie follows a group of renegade Jews in the Warsaw ghetto who attempt to overthrow the Nazis. It was extremely refreshing to see Jews doing the killing for once, and I don’t feel as though people are made aware often enough, if ever, that Jews did attempt to fight back. I feel as though many people have the impression that the Jews simply laid down and let themselves be killed, and I think it is important to show people that this was not the case. This movie even made me go as far as to reconsider my view on gun laws. I have always been very anti 2nd amendment, but this movie made me look at it from a different point view. I don’t want to say that I am completely convinced, but I definitely see how, if the Jews had had guns, the Nazis would’ve had a much harder time, and this might be a bold statement, but it might have prevented the holocaust.
The last movie you watch in this course is by far the hardest to watch, the most touching, and there’s no doubt in my mind that it changed the way I think. This was the first time I actually got to see the horrors of the appropriately titled death camps, and it definitely put things in perspective. The filth in which the people lived and the injuries most of them had sustained were sickening. When the Jews described how they had been treated I cringed, and I often felt the urge to close my eyes, but I fought through as I felt that if they could endure to feel it, the least I could do was watch it.
.The movies that affected me the most were The Freedom Writers, The Swing Kids, The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, and Hotel Rwanda. Each of these films had a lasting effect on me and my thoughts towards racism, judgment, and bravery. I prefer movies over documentaries but three documentaries changed me in huge ways. The documentaries that were the most meaningful to me were Ms. Elliot’s Experiment, The Milgrarm Experiment, and The Children’s March. These documentaries really showed the disconnect and obedience of humans and their complete will to be by-standards. Another class discussion that hit me hard was the Sophie’s Choice clip, this clip really got me thinking about the hard choices that people were facing when being sent to the death camps. I don’t feel as though I will ever be able to put myself in the shoes of a Jew in Nazi Germany but I feel more connected to the world around me. This class changed my judgment and my confidence in standing up for myself and others.
The first movie that really changed my view on the course Facing History and Ourselves was The Freedom Writers. I have watched this movie in every English class for years. I never realized all the historical content that was laced throughout the plot. After learning about the Rodney King Trial and the Los Angeles Riot I watched the film in a different way. Previously I watched the movie as just a movie. After watching it in class I watched it with whole new light, the fact that the movie was a true story had never really stuck and this time it hit me hard. The faith that Ms. G put in her students is unreal, she didn’t let anyone crush her hope. Even the symbol of her pearls is a metaphor for trust. When warned by the department heads to take off her expensive necklace she doesn’t let it faze her. This movie gave a chill that made me proud to attend Westborough High School and be given the opportunity to connect with teachers on a whole new level.
Another movie that showed a movement of teenagers overcoming society views was Swing Kids. I can honestly say this was my favorite movie we watched this semester. I find it amazing that throughout the course of this movie Thomas’s views changed so dramatically and as a result he betrayed his friends. This movie highlighted the manipulation, propaganda, and brainwashing of the Hitler movement. The most important message in this film I believe was not being a by-standard. Arvid is quoted saying “You think just because you’re not doing it yourself that you’re not a part of it?”. This part really stuck with me because watching things happen and not doing anything about it is just as bad as doing it with your own hands. Throughout my short life I have stood by many things and just watched the consequence fall into place. This year I gained a lot of confidence and watching this film only pushed me stand up for others even more. Mr. Gallagher has watched me struggle against the school’s authority and try to push for something I believed in. What I was pushing for was not selfish and I don’t believe I would have been able to do this without watching other teenagers stand up for themselves. Swing Kids kind of gave me the extra push I needed to fight for something I believe in. I would not have the bravery to fight a Nazi soldier but what the swing kids did was pure bravery. This movie is all about changing your ways and not being a by-standard and not letting yourself be a victim.
The Boy in the Striped Pajamas showed the desperate struggles of a family being torn apart by the reality that Hitler was imposing on all of the German people. Bruno’s family made the difficult move to be closer to his fathers “work”. This move ended in Bruno’s death in a gas chamber. Bruno’s parents kept Bruno in the dark, gave him no information, and let him walk blindly into a concentration camp. I find it very important to let children formulate their own opinions when presented unbiased facts. In my family, my father let me believe that I was making my own opinions but his bias was forced upon me without choice. As soon as I stopped seeing my father, at the age of 13, and formed my own opinions on everything I no longer fit his “cookie-cutter image” of what his daughter should be. Bruno’s parents let him be brainwashed and manipulated by the Nazi propaganda just as they did. Bruno’s father betrayed his own mother by placing a Nazi book on her grave which was the most heartbreaking to me. Children are so innocent. I think the most important message in the entire film was that race is not a difference in physical appearance. Bruno becomes friends with Shmuel without a second thought. Shmuel's only difference is the clothes he is wearing. This movie honestly just further shows me how I will never parent my children. I have seen too many shit parents just like Bruno’s mother and father and I will never raise a child to cave to the views of society and be ignorant to the world around them.
The last movie that we watched that had a dramatic effect on me was Hotel Rwanda. Before we watched this film in class I was completely unaware of the Rwanda genocide that happened just a few years before I was born. I always thought of genocides as something of the past, something history books showed us, something that would never happen in our world today. Just twenty years ago 800,000 men, women, and children were killed fueled by hate and lead by ignorance and by-standards. Hotel Rwanda let me take a look at my life and where i live. I am blessed to be living in America and be protected by the violence. Even though I am protected in the United States this does not mean I can turn my back on people in other countries suffering due to violence and lack of government. I feel that our government has the responsibility to help other in need. This year the Rwanda fundraiser was held at our high school and I felt honored to be put in the position to help Rwandans first hand. This film opened my eyes to another genocide that is in the process in Syria. Mr. Gallagher stopped the movie part way through and told the class that there are eight stages to genocide. He stated that genocide can be stopped at any stage in the process. Why is no one helping the people in Syria right now? What can I do to help?
People in our society blindly believe that racism and prejudice have faded from our daily lives but the opposite is true. Prejudice is still very present all over our world. Just like I stated previously, children are innocent and easily influenced especially when it comes to the word of a powerful figure. All Mrs. Elliot had to do was state a “fact”. Immediately the children fell into place and segregated themselves based on blue and brown eyes. I can’t imagine turning on my friends based on appearance. I feel like this film most importantly showed the innocents of children and how willing they are to follow orders. I was surprised to see how quickly the children turned on each other. And after getting the treatment they were given could turn around and put these collars on one of their friends. It’s important to walk in someone else’s shoes before you make judgment based on appearance.
The Milgram Experiment was an experiment designed to impose the feeling of a free conscience. Obedience is the act of mindless following and ignoring someone owns opinions, emotions, and morals. When the word obedience is associated with humans the context seems bad. In the case of this experiment emotional ties between the teacher and student were cut off and the scientist volunteered to “take the blame” for the pain of the student. The results were staggering. Most people continued to harm the student even were told that it could potentially cause permanent damage to someone with a heart condition. I think this experiment further showed how the Nazi soldiers were brainwashed into thinking that because it was their order they were not responsible. This behavior forms robots, completely withdrawn from any emotional ties. I can’t even imagine myself causing physical harm to someone by completely my own will.
Sophie’s Choice was a clip that depicted a woman with her children entering a concentration camp. The choice she had to make held the weight of a life. This clip really impacted me and made me take a hard look at what the Jews in Germany were facing. Having to pick to save one life over another is something I hope I will never have to face. In my life the hardest choice I have had to make is whether or not to see my biological father. The weight of her choice is immense and I hope to never be put in that position. Not only is Sophie put in a bad position, the choice she must make is inhuman and cruel.
As the clock would approach 1:57 I would find myself wishing the film wouldn’t be paused and Mr. Gallagher would let the movie run for another 10 minutes just so I could finish it. As the semester comes to a close I am upset to see that my younger sister, Skyler, will not have the opportunity to take this course with Mr. Gallagher. I can’t imagine that the course would be the same without Mr. Gallagher as the teacher. I feel privileged to be able to take this course before his retirement. This class really did change me in a positive way. I gained a sense of what it means to step out of my comfort zone to stand up for someone else, to be powerful, to be brave, and to gain the self confidence that comes from such a high degree of person integrity.(2,387)
Introduction
My name is Julie Pham and I am a junior at Westborough High School. Facing History and Ourselves is a unique course that focuses on some of the most inhumane and horrific events of the past. Lessons are not taught but rather experienced and learned by the individual with guidance rather than a teacher. Through readings, videos, and primary sources, students are posed with the question that begs: How could this happen? I chose to take the class at the recommendation of a few of my friends and my brother. I had no particular interest in history but after the first day in class, I knew it was a journey that I wanted to complete. Though history may not be a topic of great concern for the typical seventeen year old teenager, the mistreatment of humans is something everyone should be aware of. I did not realize the severity and guilt of a bystander until I saw the responsibility and consequences they had. I believe that with the complete understanding of victims’ and perpetrators’ mindsets, a person can stop being a bystander and stand up to prevent what they feel is wrong.
What Facing History and Ourselves Meant to Me
Before this course, most of what I knew about the Rwandan genocide and the Holocaust especially was from a third person perspective that didn’t allow me to truly understand everything; I never completely understood people’s mindsets or pain until I was submerged into their worlds myself. Facing History and Ourselves was a course that took me into the realities of the time and let me experience almost firsthand the horrors that occurred. As said in Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, “You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view...until you climb into his skin and walk around in it." In the skin of these victims, I could relive what they went through and see the importance of fighting back.
The first step to understanding how such killings could happen was to see how one human could put themselves above another and consider others as lesser animals. This classification creates the “us vs. them” attitude that sparks negative feelings against the other group. From watching Hotel Rwanda, I learned how quickly tension could build as hate between the Tutsi and Hutu intensified. It was somewhat hard to grasp that people could turn on one another so quickly. These people had lived in harmony before and now they were suddenly slaughtering their former neighbors with machetes. This was only possible because people’s minds had become so corrupt and selfish. I saw many people do things to save their own skin or turn others in because it benefitted them financially or improved their own safety. The shallowness of these people was so hard to accept because they truly didn’t consider the enemy human. Like the Nazis, many of the Tutsi and Hutu people believed they were superior and could execute their actions with that mindset. I think that the same deep rooted beliefs were held by the Nazis and this took control of their lives and allowed the Holocaust to happen. When people think of the Holocaust, Nazis are probably the first offenders to come to mind. But America’s response, or lack of, aided the Nazis by allowing them to continue instead of trying to help the Jews. Being passive bystanders made America have some responsibility in the deaths that they could’ve prevented. I know there was a lot for the government to consider when deciding whether or not to allow Jewish refugees into the country; however, the government seemed passive of the subject. Rather than spreading the information and doing things in a timely manner, things were put off and information was withheld from the people. I think this is immature and wrong because people should be aware of what is happening in the world, especially if it concerns their country. Similarly, America watched as the Rwandan genocide unfolded and 800,000 people were killed.
In The Swing Kids, we watched brainwashed adults pass on information to corrupt the German youth. These swing kids who were once so close and loyal to each other were forced by an SS officer to join the Hitler Youth. Slowly, Thomas’s defiance and strong will broke down and he turned on his former friends, Peter and Arvin. I found it extremely disheartening that the Hitler Youth classes and leaders were able to break down teens’ mindsets and get them to turn against their friends and families to fight for the “greater good” of Nazi Germany. People were encouraged to rat out their families, friends, neighbors, and anyone who was not a fully patriotic German. This goes to show how people can be made to do anything or justify any action just by being drowned in propaganda and being told enough times that things are a certain way. I think that Resi Kraus is a good example of how the whole country was convinced that they were better. She is representative of the many that reported Jews, suspicious people, and anyone who was just undesirable or different. The attitude that Hitler created in these people turned them into monsters that only had trust in the government instead of each other. The fact that Resi denied her role in the death of a person she reported shows the long term effect and severity of the mental corruption that the Nazis encouraged. Denial was justified by Resi since she was just “being a good citizen.”
At the Nuremburg Trials, the accused pleaded not guilty as well. They claimed that since they were just following orders, they were not at fault. The denial of responsibility that these leaders had was almost angering because they had clearly played a major role in the deaths of millions. Their arrogance reminded me to some extent of the Milgram Experiment study. A startling percentage of the volunteers who administered the shocks to the learner (almost half) continued the experiment following the overseer’s instructions. They were well aware that what they were doing was hurting another person, yet they continued to inflict punishment with the justification that they were just doing as they were told. To have committed such crimes and then deny their responsibility is extremely disrespectful to the innocent who suffered but also appalling that they could think following orders excused them from being held accountable. It is almost impossible that these Nazi leaders and camp organizers were unaware that people were being killed as a result of their work. Most knew and yet were able to live with themselves since they didn’t consider the prisoners to be human. I do not know how the dehumanization of a group is possible, yet alone acceptable.
Watching The Boy in the Striped Pajamas was startling because it showed the physical dehumanization of the Jews and prisoners. This movie showed a typical German family and had me on edge from the beginning since I knew that there was no happy ending to the Holocaust. I think that the movie put into perspective the life of a child living through the Nazi final solution. The father represented the corrupt adults and leaders who truly believed that they were doing something for the greater good of Germany and the future of their families and the world. To them, this was their obligation to Hitler and their country. The father who was promoted wanted to do his part in purifying German blood. He had been made to think that Germans owed their service to their country and their loyalty was crucial to Nazi success. He reported another Nazi worker who did not fulfill his duty by not reporting his own father. To me, this showed the power of the Nazis in turning their people and country into a systematic machine. They really had gotten the people to abandon their individual ways of thinking to turn them into robots to execute their work. They spread their ways in all that they did and passed on to their children. I found this shocking because innocent children grew up in such a horrible world. Bruno was young and naïve and I pitied him for having to live in a world that forced him to grow up faster and ask questions that a normal kid his age wouldn’t have to deal with. I appreciated the way that the movie showed the difference between people who valued life and saw humans as the beings they are versus people who could dismiss the value of life and kill so many. I think that the friendship formed between the two boys represents how all humans are equal and should be treated as equals regardless of any religion, belief, or look. Once you see a person as a human, you appreciate and respect their life and treat them humanely. This was lost on the father who had been brainwashed and could be okay with the treatment of the people in the death camps.
At the beginning of the course, I was told to question everything and see events as if I was there. I put myself in the shoes of the Nazis and the Jews alike. Doing this really helped me see how such a Holocaust could happen. I don’t think that the intensity of the time can be felt unless you are experiencing it for yourself. The Holocaust happened because people let it happen. They let one person turn his idea into something that ran the government and eventually lives. Bystanders who watched the Nazis become powerful and cruel and who stood in silence as people were taken, beaten, and killed made it possible. Most people didn’t stand up against what they thought was wrong and didn’t speak up for their conscience. From watching people be passive to such crimes against peace and humanity, I am more aware of my role in the lives and events around me. People say you have to understand history in order to prevent it from happening in the future. After Facing History and Ourselves I finally see there is truth behind this. So many people today are oblivious or don’t care about what’s going on around them and don’t care to make a change. I believe that as a people we all have the obligation to help others and stand up to make a change.
Mr. Gallagher, I think that you are one of the most inspirational people I have ever met. It takes a lot of passion and understanding to teach this class. When I first came in this class, I was ready for a blow-off elective, like many others. It’s hard to find respect nowadays but you have mine completely; it is one thing to teach, but another to practice what you preach. Through your work with Project Rwanda and the interest you show in everything you say, I have found passion in myself to be bolder in the world. I wish that I could tell you right now that I have made a big difference in the world. I know that every little thing I do will contribute to something I can tell you that I will undoubtedly take this course with me through my life. There were times when the class seems unbelievable, but I can’t deny now that I believe everything I have seen and that you have said. I hope that you are proud of yourself for continuing this class and setting up a legacy at Westborough High School after you’re gone. I am proud of myself for having changed as a person and I want to make a change that you have. Being proactive is something that I wish everyone could do and I wish that Facing History was something that everyone had the chance to take. I know that this class has started a chain reaction that will be passed on through the students and I take comfort in that fact. Thank you.
My name is Yvonne Seline Langa. I am currently a junior at Westborough High School and this is my Facing History and Ourselves blog. The first time I heard about this class was when I was a sophomore and I got the privilege to have Mr. Gallagher as my first period US History teacher. From the first day he started teaching our class I fell in love with his way of getting through to most of his students easily. He motivated me every single day to be successful in his class and I did. After hearing about the Facing History course I wasn’t quite sure what he was talking about so I didn’t pay attention to it. Now during my junior year when all my friends around me started talking about the course I remembered vividly Mr. Gallagher mentioning it in my History class. After that a few days later I heard that it might be Mr., Gallagher’s last year in Westborough. So I went down to guidance right after midterms and I asked to switch my 6th period elective class to Facing History and Ourselves and was fortunate to get the last spot into the class. Facing History and Ourselves is a half year course that mainly focuses on the Holocaust together with various civil rights topics but also provides a personal aspect. In this class you would be evaluating yourself and the decisions you make and why you make them. As a student in this course you get to see documentaries and films about the Holocaust and the years leading up to it. The only homework associated with the course is a blog on the films that you watch in class and it doesn’t take more than just a few minutes of your time to do and you have 24 hours to compete it. Some of the videos and discussions in this class are intense and makes you so much stronger as a person when you start realizing what type of person you are. This course can bring the best out of you it is one hundred percent without a doubt life changing to most students who have ever taken this course. This course will make you rethink about your previous life decisions and will change how you think of things and people around you than the way you did before. It has made me more aware of what goes on among the students at Westborough High School every day. This course has given me a new perspective on life and I’m very grateful to have gotten a chance to be able to take this course.
What Facing History and Ourselves Meant to Me
In my opinion, every high school student should have to take the Facing History and Ourselves course. It is as beneficial not only as a person but especially as a student and young adult. This course made me step back and take a look at the decisions that I am making as a person. I have never been a racist or anti-sematic person but that does not mean that I haven’t witnessed it. Knowing what I know now makes me have literally zero tolerance for the jokes people make anything racist, especially about the holocaust. Of course this class has impacted me positively but at times it made me worry and second guess the person I am. I’d like to think that I would have made different decisions, I’d like to think that I would have stood up to the Nazis, I’d like to think a lot of things, but in all honesty, I can never be really sure what I would have done. I don’t think anyone in the class can be one hundred percent sure what decisions they would have made back then to save their own lives and the lives of their family members and it’s a horrifying thought. For this exact reason, I believe this course is extremely beneficial as a student. We can’t go back and change the past and we certainly can’t sit here and say “Oh I would have never done that” because who knows, maybe we would have, but we can change the future. This class forces you to relive the horrors of the Holocaust and stresses how important it is that this never occurs again. After each important video or story we read, we would have the task of blogging our feelings and thoughts on the movie that night. We were free to say everything and anything at all, so long as it was our true feeling on the subject. I found it interesting to read what my class mates had to say and a lot of the times I found myself agreeing with them or being exposed to new ideas that I had not thought of myself.
Many times during the movies I caught myself with my jaw hanging open, absolutely appalled at what I was seeing. It was almost hard for me to register that these were actual people I was seeing being pulled from their graves or stacked in a dirty old wood shed. These were actual, real life people, not just dummies, but real life Jewish, Polish, Russian, Hungarian. “The Boy in the Stripped Pajamas” was one of the best saddest fiction movie that we watched although it was very historically accurate. The way that Gretel became absorbed in the idea of evil Jews and the Nazi party showed how children became the Hitler youth and how they were groomed to be future party members. When the mother discovered what the father was doing to the Jews was incredible. She didn’t like Jews and just thought that they had been put into the work camps, but when she discovered crematories and realized that the Jews were being exterminated she began to see how evil the Nazi were and what her husband was actually doing as a soldier. I think that this showed how many people were unaware of what was going on with the extermination of the Jews. The young boy, Bruno, showed that putting bias aside made the Jewish people seem normal and not evil. He had no understanding of why Germans thought Jews were evil and therefore had no reason to believe so, which led him to befriend Schmuel and realize that Jews were good people. When Bruno went into the camp and no one identified him as a non-Jew it showed how they were no different and that even the Nazi’s couldn’t tell the difference between the two boys. For me this movie showed me how sometimes adults aren’t right and I don’t have to believe what I am told. I want to be Bruno in life and put aside everything I have been told so that I can make my own character judgments in life and not generalize an entire race.
The film on the “Milgram Experiment” has taught me that each and every person is capable of being a perpetrator, and doing what the Nazis did, and because I now know what I am capable of, I refuse to let it happen. The fact that anyone given power can and will abuse it to a certain point, even if that means the harm of other people, was astonishing to me. One would not think that people could be so cruel and obedient. Everyone just listened to the man in the lab coat not questioning anything he said, few people refused to continue with the experiment, and many went up to the highest voltage the machine could administer. The most interesting “teacher” was the man that only continued to administer shocks once the man in the lab coat said he was responsible for anything that happened to the learner. This was obviously untrue, that teacher had moral obligations, and if he had been administering real shocks and the learner died his blood would have been on not only the lab guys’ hands but also the teachers. I have learned that anyone can do bad things, but also anyone can stand up and do what is right. Every single one of the Nazis did not have to obey orders and listen to Hitler saying the Jews were bad and needed to be killed, and everyone has the capacity to be a Nazi. After learning this and becoming aware of how these things can happen I know that I will never allow it to happen to myself.
“The Triumph of the Will” showed me how people in German got to the state of mind making them think they were better than others. Propaganda is a very powerful thing and by using powerful propaganda the Nazi party got many German citizens to support the “final solution”. “A class divided” showed that by labeling people you are automatically making some people feel superior and others inferior setting the stage for discrimination. The Triumph of the Will did exactly that making Germans seem like the purest people in the world and made them believe that they were better than everyone else. These two films helped me understand how propaganda and labeling led to the holocaust. From movies like “The Uprising”, I have learned of the bravery, the courage, and the determination of the Jewish people and seen their blood, sweat, and tears. I have seen the suffering of people and their will to survive, and I have learned what it means to stand up for what is right. Throughout my education in Westborough I have learned of the Holocaust and the killing and oppression of the Jewish people but I had never learned of any resistance efforts. Each and every time I watched a movie of the Jewish people fighting back, I wished I could be right there fighting beside them, making a difference and willing to risk my life to stand up for what is right.
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