Introduction

Facing History and Ourselves is a course designed to educate students on racism, bias, and discrimination in a historical context. This course covers the history of genocides and the Holocaust to compare history with the moral and ethical decisions we make every day of our lives. This course provides awareness to diversity and discrimination of different societies throughout the world. The first section of this course, Identity, covers how national and self identities are formed. The next section, Membership, covers how members of a specific identity can contribute to stereotyping and conflict without conscious. The third section covers History, such as the Holocaust and human behavior. Judgement, Memory, and Legacy is the next section that this course covers. In this section students study the concept of guilt, judgement, and responsibility. The last section of the course is Choosing to Participate. This section shows how the past connects to present day issues. Throughout the course students will discover more about the person that they are themselves.

 As a high school senior I chose to take this course because I’ve always been interested in history. Unfortunately, during my core history classes we never went into detail about certain genocides or the Holocaust so I wanted to educate myself more on these subjects. I’m so glad I decided to take the Facing History and Ourselves course. I’ve become more aware of the type of person that I am by taking this class. I believe that every high school student should be required to take a class such as this. If everyone is educated on the events that occurred in the Holocaust we can make sure nothing of such extent could ever happen again. I have to thank Mr. Gallagher for bringing this course to my high schoool and for being such a great teacher.

Make a Difference Essay

What Facing History and Ourselves Meant to Me

Adolf Hitler

 After taking the course Facing History and Ourselves my world has been greatly impacted by what I experienced throughout the semester. Before entering the class I knew what the Holocaust was and I knew that many Jewish people were killed but I never really learned much more than that. This course forces you to look inside yourself and identify the type of person that you are. When we watched movies about the Holocaust and read about different peoples experiences I tried as best as I could to try and put myself in those people’s shoes. During every experience I never could. It is impossible to understand what the victims of the Holocaust went through and as much as I can learn through their stories and the history of the Holocaust it is still impossible for me to put myself in their shoes.

The Milgrim Experiment

 One of the first movies that we watched in class was The Milgrim Experiment. The Milgrim Experiment was an experiment that tested how much a person in power can influence and manipulate someone of a lower status. In the experiment authority figures forced average citizens to give another human beings electric shocks. Many of the shock givers asked if they could stop projecting pain on the person but when the person of higher power told them they couldn’t stop the shockers listened. This lesson showed me that it is very easy for someone to back down under the pressure of an authoritative figure and follow their commands. I believe that many Nazi soldiers and citizens of Nazi Germany fell under the authoritative power of Adolf Hitler. It was easier for the citizens and soldiers of Germany to follow his commands and believe in him because if they didn’t follow Hitler, they would be killed. Also, because so many people believed that the Jews were less than human, it was easier for others to believe so as well and get involved.

Mrs. Elliot's Third Grade Class

 Another one of our first lessons was about the film A Class Divided. This film followed the school day of Mrs. Elliot’s third grade class. Mrs. Elliot courageously taught her third graders a lesson in racism. The classroom was divided into blue eyed and brown eyed people. One day the blue eyed people were the superior race and the next day the brown eyed people were. The students learned what if felt like to be discriminated against and what it felt like to be an African American or a Native American during that time. The students of Mrs. Elliot’s classroom learned that judging people based on race was wrong from a very young age; even after they had grown up the students had applied the lessons of racism Mrs. Elliot taught them to not only their lives but their children’s lives as well. I think Mrs. Elliot’s lesson affected me as well because it helped me understand the racism of those times. Children learn from their parents and when they grow up learning that other races are inferior to their own it’s easy to believe that that is true. This lesson taught me that you can’t always trust those of higher authority and that you cannot judge anyone just because they are different from you.

Children boarding the Kinder transport

 This semester I was fortunate enough to see a video of my classmate, Gabe Stahl’s grandfather. Mr. Jahoda was a child during the Nazi’s reign in Vienna. Mr. Jahoda was separated from his parents and fled to England on a children’s train. Listening to Mr. Jahoda speak was difficult to hear knowing that his own family was in the room. It took Mr. Jahoda many years to finally open up to his family and explain to them his family’s history. Just listening to Mr. Jahoda you could hear how difficult it was for him to tell his story. I can’t imagine how difficult it would be to leave my family at such a young age, and then move to a foreign country; that’s unimaginable to me. When Mr. Jahoda left for England he had no idea whether he would ever be able to see his family again. I think I was so greatly affected by Mr. Jahoda’s story because knowing his grandson made everything more real for me. I’m very close with my grandfather so it was hard for me to imagine my grandfather going through such a traumatic event. Knowing that he was someone else’s grandfather made me more emotionally attached to his story.

The Boy in the Striped Pajamas

 The movie The Boy in the Striped Pajamas was another movie that was particularly meaningful to me. There are so many moments in that movie that pull on your heart strings. The characters of Pavel and Schmuel especially touched me the most. They were both the most innocent of Jews that I could think of. Pavel was this sweet, brittle, old man who used to be a doctor and now did chores around Bruno’s house. I couldn’t stand watching Pavel being beaten to death especially later when innocent Bruno asked when Pavel would be back. The story of Schmuel and Bruno is what hit me the most. They’re two very innocent boys who don’t understand what’s going to happen to the Jews in the Concentration Camp. When Bruno went underneath the barbed wire of the Concentration Camp to help Schmuel look for his father I could not stop the tears. The two boys did not see the differences in each other; they didn’t consider one to be too more superior to the other, they looked at each other as equals. Bruno’s mother also pulled my heart strings at the end of the movie when she found Bruno’s clothes and began to scream his name. I could not hold back my tears any longer. This movie showed that there really was no superior race and that Jews and Germans were equal. Jews were humans too and unfortunately the Nazi’s didn’t understand that; and in Bruno’s father’s case, he didn’t realize that until it was too late.

Map of Death Camps and Concentration Camps in Germany and Poland

 The last day of class we watched a film about all the different concentration camps under Nazi rule. I honestly could not watch most of this movie. This movie showed real unedited footage of the concentration camps. It was so hard for me to watch scenes of those victims who had survived and those who had unfortunately been murdered. I was moved to tears during one seen when the American Red Cross put a victim onto a stretcher and the victim clasped his hands and praised to God. He was someone’s son, someone’s best friend; he was a human being just like my father. It is so hard for me to believe that there are such cruel people out there in the world. This movie also showed the different ways Nazi’s tortured their victims. I could not watch these demonstrations, I could only listen to the narrator describe such actions which was still hard enough to hear. This movie gave me insight into what the Nazi’s actually did do to the Jews and their other prisoners. I cannot fathom how so many soldiers took part in such sick acts and that any amount of people could come up with such disgusting ideas. Seeing this movie really opened my eyes to what the Jews suffered and made me want to make sure no one could ever take advantage of a different group of people again.

 This course changed the way I view the world today. This course helped me to discover more about myself and more about the person that I am. There is a common phrase that states “history repeats itself”. To my understanding there is no reason that any event such as the Holocaust should ever happen again. I think that every high school and college student should be able to take this course. I have such confidence in my generation and I believe that if we all educate ourselves in history such as the Holocaust we could make sure that such events would never happen again. This course can expand anyone’s knowledge and can affect anyone in many different ways; but no matter what everyone could learn something and everyone can be affected. I’m so fortunate to have this course offered at my High School and I greatly appreciate this course.

Works Cited

Adolf Hitler. Google images. Image. 17 May 2011.

The Boy in the Striped Pajamas. Google images. Image. 17 May 2011.
Children boarding the Kinder transport. Google images. Image. 17 May 2011.
Map of Death Camps and Concentration Camps in Germany and Poland. Google images.
     Image. 17 May 2011.
The Milgrim Experiment. Google images. Image. 17 May 2011.
Mrs. Elliot’s third grade classroom. Google images. Image. 17 May 2011.