WHAT FACING HISTORY MENT TO ME

         Facing History and Ourselves should be a required course for all high school students. It consists of the most important topics to all of American culture, specifically, the Holocaust. There were video clips made by BBC that most people have never seen before that exposed the Nazi way of thinking and allows the viewer to get a better understanding as to how the Nazi's worked. We watched movies that were as historically accurate as possible in order to show a younger generation some of the things that stain our history's past that should never be over looked or forgotten. I believe, that the more our class “learned” about the Holocaust, the more the class realized we really knew nothing of the horrors the Jewish people actually went through. The class was well designed in that the lessons were done with many different styles of teaching in mind. We watched movies and documentaries, we read articles, and we had group discussions. Watching these videos and sources on the holocaust really opened my eyes and struck me down to my gut. On top of all the information, I personally feel that I was able to gain even more from the class because we had Mr. Gallagher who put so much time and his heart into creating the class and putting everything together to expose us to as much as possible. Facing History and Ourselves would be a totally different class without Mr. Gallagher, however, the class is still very vital to students and I think it should be a requirement to take as part of a history elective in the curriculum. I think that the movies shown in the course stuck with me the most because it burned the images into my mind that I will never forget. Movies like Uprising, The Grey Zone, and the Boy in Striped Pajamas where very emotional, and made me realize how horrible the holocaust really was, and that I will never really understand it because I was not there. Some things are too terrible to even begin to comprehend or try to imagine what it must have been like to be in one of the concentration camps just waiting for your turn to be next to die.

            The Uprising was a really interesting movie because I was not aware that the Jews were able to fight off the Nazi's for such an extended period of time. They lasted almost a month, which is much longer than I ever would have imagined. This group of Jews who had been crammed into a small ghetto, starved for several months, and then watched their family and friends be shipped off to the death camps still had the courage and strength to rise up against the German military trained soldiers and fight them off in rebellion. It’s truly remarkable. Another movie that hit me hard was the Grey Zone. The Grey Zone is about the true story of Dr. Miklos Nyiszli, a Hungarian Jew chosen by Josef Mengele to be the head pathologist at Auschwitz. These Jews were about to start the only known rebellion at Auschwitz but the plan was put on hold when they discover a young girl who had survived the gassing. This was one of the more emotional stories for me because it was such a realistic production of what the death camps actually looked like and how they were carried out and run. I can’t even begin to imagine what it was like to be put into one of those camps where you are literally living in death.  The Boy in Striped Pajamas was historical fiction but it was a terrifyingly sad story. It was until an SS officer killed his own son, that he realized how horrific the Nazi crimes against the Jews really were. The last video we watched was probably the most powerful. It didn't tell any heroic stories and it was all historical fact. It went through all of the different death camps and showed the aftermath. There were corpses everywhere, and nothing was censored I think because the film wanted to show how appalling the Holocaust really was.  It’s just a sick feeling that overwhelms you after viewing the gruesome images and you ask yourself how morally one could possibly carry out these crimes let alone even think up such a horrid idea of mass genocide to a group of people. As well as all of these movies portrayed the Holocaust, I think Mr. Gallagher really wanted us to realize that we will never understand the Holocaust completely. Even he said that coming into the course he thought he knew a lot about the Holocaust, but after beginning to teach it, he realized he really knew nothing because he was not there.

            Facing History & Ourselves was more than just a history class though. I feel that a majority of the students in our class, including myself, have become stronger people in general. We have become more individualistic, respectful, and have even talked about how harmful things like bullying can be to other people. We learned not to be by-standers. These are the reasons why I can honestly say that I have learned more valuable things in Facing History than I have in any of my other classes. Some of the things I learn in school, I feel as though I may never have to use again, but in Facing History we learn lifelong lessons every day.  I am very glad that I decided to take this course and also grateful that I had the opportunity to do so. I knew full well what I was getting myself into as far as the content when I signed up and now that I have experienced the class, I truly am thankful for all that Mr. Gallagher has done for us as far as preparing every lesson so that we as students are able to be exposed and capture as much details and truths about the holocaust and how the Nazi’s created and ran the death camps.