Introduction

Facing History and ourselves is an offered elective at Westborough High School. Its an elective that’s based on the Holocaust and the happenings before, after and during. It’s a course that takes you on a rollercoaster of emotions and events. There were many times throughout the course that I would shutter away from the screen at the horror that was being displayed. Facing History is a class that is based off of truth. The class wasn’t easy at times but was always informational and informative. Each lesson that is done or movie that is shown there is a direct meaning from each that makes you stop and think and truly reflect on what you had just learned but also it would make me think about myself in relation the lesson. Being a senior and about to graduate I have had a lot on my mind and I think that this course has made me keep a sense of reality and the larger things in life. Facing History has reminded me of many values that are instrumental to have in life. Perseverance, desire, trust, love, hope, and will, just to name a few. I think that all high school students should have to take this course as a required course as a junior or senior. Not only to better understand the Holocaust better but also for the lessons that this tragedy has to teach. One of the lessons that I know I won’t forget from the class is the lesson about grouping people and passing judgments on others. Over all this was a extremely informative and insightful course.

What Facing History meant to Me

Kelsey Beron

Facing History           

Period 7

What Facing History means to Me

 

 

 

Facing History is like no other elective that I have taken before. When it came time to sign up for senior year classes, I would as for advice from the previous seniors for which classes to take. If the person had taken Facing History, they recommended it. When I would ask why they would respond with the simple answer,” you need to take the course to truly understand”. I now understand. Going into the class I knew three things, it’s a course on the Holocaust, it should be taken very seriously, and all that we will be told and taught is true. Something I really enjoyed about the class was the layout; I found the movies and activities that we watched to be extremely powerful. I knew going in that there were a lot of movies that we watch, but I had no idea that there wouldn’t be any lecturing, which was different and creative I thought.  Also I found that each facet that we watched or lesson that we did had an individual message and piece to the puzzle of the Holocaust. The three facets that affected me the most were, “The bear that wasn’t”,” The Grey Zone”, and “The Uprising”. Each of which had a different intention to fulfill.

           

 

“The Bear that wasn’t” was the first activity that we did in class. The meaning of the book and message that it gave was about judgments and stereotypes. The book was about a bear that knew he was a bear but was continuously told that he was just a silly man dressed in a fur coat and was lazy and didn’t want to work. The message this delivered was not to judge others or groups of people because of stereotypes or first hand assumptions. I think that all high school students should have to read this book and go through the lesson. After this lesson is when I really became excited for the course because I had realized flaw in myself and decided to change it. In high school I have seen that there is a fair amount of judgment and stereotypes that roam the halls of Westborough High school and really do insult and over all negatively affect people. I didn’t realize while I was reading the book, but it relates to the Holocaust in more ways than one and in retrospect it was the perfect lesson to start the course off with. Because as I later learned in the class, the Holocaust started with judgments and stereotypes which completely spiraled out of control. Over all the book made me step back and look at the way I group people and unfortunately I had been guilty of doing so.  

            The movie “The grey Zone” affected me a lot. It was the first movie I had seen that showed the brutality of the Nazi’s, yes we had read about the happenings but to actually watch the happenings of certain situations that happened daily had a much more severe impact on me. A scene from the movie that I’ll never forget and will remain with me forever is the scene when they are about to put the people in to what they are being told is a shower when really it’s a gas chamber. A older Jewish man asks the working Jew where they really are going and the working Jewish man responded by telling him that he was about to shower and then would be reunited with his family. The older man begged for the truth, but the worker Jew had heard enough of the harassment and beat the man to death while his wife watched in horror, screaming. This was a difficult scene to watch and harder to comprehend. I do admit that there were a few scenes of the movie that I couldn’t bare to watch, but listened instead, and even just hearing the horror was enough to understand and impact. The picture below is of one of the gas chambers.

           

 

After learning more and more about the Holocaust a question continued to arise with me, “why wouldn’t the Jew’s fight back?” And the movie, “The Uprising”, answered that question for me. This was a movie that I really enjoyed from start to finish; the courage that the Jews had to fight back was astonishing to me. And it made me ask myself what I would do in the situation. Would I run? Would I fight back? Would I give in? These thoughts ran through my head. I would like to think that I would stay and fight but I honestly don’t think I would. And still can’t comprehend the bravery that the people had. I also found it unique and creative how they made underground homes and tunnels to be used for the resistance. Also the way that people communicated with each other through letters in baskets and through word of mouth.

            Over all I found this course to be extremely informative and eye opening for me. It made me realize ,ant flaws in myself and gave me the motivation to change my ways. I will definitely recommend this class to anyone and everyone, it’s truly an experience.

Works Cited

Works Cited:

Gas chamber. Google images. Image.19 May, 2011

Hitler. Google images. Image. 19 May, 2011

The Bear that wasn’t. Google images. Image. 19 May, 2011

The Uprising. Google images. Images. 19 May 2011

The Grey Zone. Google images. Images. 19 May 2011