Reflective Essay:
Looking back on the last semester, I can confidently say that Facing History and Ourselves has been the most beneficially class I have ever taken, both as a student and as an individual. I came into the class with no level of expectations and actually expecting nothing at all, as I do at the beginning of all my classes. The class sounded like a Holocaust studies class that would probably be interesting and would possibly keep me enthralled. Little did I know that the class would not just teach me more about the Holocaust, but rather open up a whole new perspective on the world around me and who I am as an individual. I found myself reviewing my morals, judgments, and outlooks on my life and how I may affect the lives of those around me. While much of the material we discussed was from the past, I learned that serious situations where people are acting wrongfully still happen today. The course taught me that it is each and every one of our obligations to stand up for others and even ourselves when support is needed and to never sit back and coward away from a situation where help is needed. Being a bystander is as bad a crime as being the perpetrator.
One film we watched that was very meaningful to me was “Uprising”. The film uncovered the heroes of the Warsaw Ghetto and how hard the Jews actually fought to try and save their lives. The two men who led the revolt in the Ghetto are true heroes. I never knew before watching this film that the Nazis faced any resistance from the Jews. Right before we watched “Uprising”, we saw a segment of the film “The Pianist”. One short clip from this movie, I noticed, has s tuck with me since. When the Nazi guards came into the apartment of a Jewish family living in the ghetto, they told them all to stand. One elderly man, probably the grandfather, was incapacitated and in a wheelchair, therefore restricting him from standing. The Nazis dealt with this dilemma by simply picking him up and flipping the chair upside down over the balcony. That one single scene has not left my head and even today still continues to disturb me. This film intrigued me so much that I actually went home and immediately ordered the movie on Netflix, so I could see the rest.
Another extremely meaningful moment came towards the end of the semester when we watched the movie “The Boy In The Striped Pajamas”. Mr. Gallagher had warned us before he started the movie that the next week or so would, for many of us, be an “emotional rollercoaster”. This film specifically had the greatest emotional effect on me out of any movie I have ever watched. I felt such a strong connection with the young boy named Bruno that I could not bear to think that he actually died. When the film ended, the entire classroom remained silent for the credits. Nobody stretched, stood up, or even talked. I could tell that every other person in the class had felt as empty as I did at that moment. Throughout the rest of that day, I could not get the movie off my mind. In a few of my other classes, where I was with other Facing History kids, I noticed that we were talking about the movie and only about the movie. It was simply impossible to imagine that what I was viewing on the screen was just an example of the realities of this time.
The last couple class periods were perhaps the hardest hours I’ve ever experienced in school. First, the “Auschwitz Album”, containing pictures that the SS Nazi guards had taken during the times of the concentration camps. The pictures included men, women, grandparents, and children, all walking towards their imminent death. Having just visited the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camps a few weeks prior, I recognized the locations of nearly every one of the photographs. When I was standing on that very ground, I felt it was hard to imagine what once went on there. But, as I viewed the photographs, it all made more sense to me and I felt as if I could better comprehend the true horrors that occurred on that very ground.
After viewing the photographs taken at the camps by the Nazis, we watched the videos taken at the camps by the Americans, just after each camp’s liberation. This forty-five minute period of watching the footage easily the most sickening experience I’ve ever encountered. I thought after watching and learning all I had about the Holocaust through the course that I knew everything the Nazis did. Then, I found myself watching the USA’s footage after liberating the camps, and noticed that the details were more disturbing than I had first understood. The Nazi’s completely dehumanized their prisoners and forced them into situations that are unimaginable to comprehend. What you could call the games or tricks that the Nazis played with their prisoners were absolutely horrible. However, the lasting images that I will never in a million years be able to get out of my head were the scenes of the corpses lying out in the middle of the camps; thousands, if not tens of thousands of bodies just lying in the middle of the walkway. I am certain that I will never forget the sight of those corpses piled up as if they were not even humans.
Facing History and Ourselves has meant more to me than any other class that I’ve ever taken. Not only did I obtain a much-needed knowledge about the horrors of the Holocaust, but I also learned how to act as an individual today. The course will challenge you as your own person and force you to question some of the decisions you’ve made in your life. When a class can benefit one as both a student and a person, it deserves the highest regards.
