Reflective Essay

What Facing History and Ourselves Meant to Me

                The course Facing History and Ourselves, has given me insight on what really happened with World War II without holding back any details on the Holocaust. I am grateful that my Jewish relatives had already left for America before all of the destruction that took place in Europe and Russia. Having taken this course and now reflecting upon it I realize how much I have benefited from this course as a student and as a person.

From this course I understand what it means now to be a victim, perpetrator, and a bystander. Understanding this has let me left me saying that I am better that and that I will never let myself be a victim or bystander, that I will help those or speak up for them when they do not have the strength to do so. I have also learned to respect my self and stand up for what I believe in and to not lose track of who you are from taking this course this point was brought out in The Freedom Writers(picture to the right(1)) one of the many powerful movies we watched and a reading entitled The Bear Story. The movie was about a new teacher and her class of mixed races trying to survive a racist society. She believed in them when no one believed in them and eventually got her class to believe in themselves and got them to stay in school even had them wanting to learn. She is a teacher who taught her students and the teacher of this course, Mr. Gallagher, taught us not just about the Holocaust but about civic agency, and how to face ourselves. The reading was about a bear waking up from hibernation to find a factory had been built on top of his cave. When he went into the factory everybody told him that he was not a bear because bears do not belong in factories. This was told this over and over again until he started to believe he was not a bear. This book shows that it is hard to lose track of who you are.

                Another way I benefited from this course is that I was able to see actually photographs of concentration camps that Mr. Gallagher provided for the class to see. When I was looking at them it was a little hard to believe that everyone and everything in the photographs were real. It is one thing to talk about the Holocaust but when you see real photos and footage from it there is no imagining how bad it was now it is only knowing how horrible it was. We saw footage from the concentration camps called U.S army Nazi Concentration camps. Seeing this footage made the course. To be able to see how horrific the camps were and to see the people that skinny with all their scars, I will never forget it (picture to the left (4)). Before this course I knew about the Holocaust and knew that it was awful but I did not realize just how terrible it was until seeing the photographs and footage of the concentration camps. I thought it to be very interesting, unnerving and a little sickening when we watched the documentary Scrapbook book from Hell (picture to the right(2))about the Nazi scrapbook they found and how all the Nazi’s were all happy and smiling at what they were doing the Jews and anyone who Hitler thought was impure.  This course has really opened my eyes to what really happened during the Holocaust and I am grateful for it.

                One of the movies we watched I thought was meaning full very powerful was The Uprising (picture to the left (5)). I found this movie to be inspirational in the way that the Jews fought back against the Nazi’s in such innovative ways to like the women on the rooftop running in circles throwing bombs down at the Nazi’s. Before I watched this movie I did not know that some Jews fought and when I learned some did I was over come by happiness, that they were not just going to let the Nazi’s push them around, that they were not going to let themselves be victims but warriors trying to stop the Nazi’s or a least put a dent in them. I thought this tied in really well with what had been discussed earlier in the course about not letting yourself be a victim and not being a bystander. They were not and I was inspired from this to not let myself be a victim or to be a bystander.

                Another part of this course that I thought was meaningful was when we would break up into groups and talk about the films or documentaries that we had just scene.  It was fascinating to here different peoples views particularly with the scene we saw from the film Sophie’s Choice (picture to the right(2)). The choice in the film was when a Nazi asked Sophie which one of her children she wanted to say with her. The choice was between her son and her young daughter an impossible decision to make. We were then asked if we were in Sophie’s shoes which child would we pick to say. I still do not know the decision that I would make and I am grateful that I do not have to make that choice. Other classmates said different things but it always came down to that it is an impossible choice to make. I really got a lot out of the group discussions even though I did not say much.

                This course Facing History and Ourselves has been amazing. I have learned so much from this course that it has made me a better person. I have learned civic agency, that I am better than that, not to be a victim, bystander, or perpetrator and most importantly I became aware of words, the Holocaust, aware of everything else. I will cherish this experience in this course and take it everywhere I go and I will speak up against those who need help and I will speak up for me. I will no longer be a victim or a bystander or even a perpetrator I will be a helper.