Facing History and Ourselves is a class that I think everyone should be required to take. It teaches people why being a bystander can be so devastating by learning about the Holocaust. During the Holocaust, millions of people stood by and watched as their neighbors were violently forced from their homes and into death camps. They did nothing. Hundreds of countries and government officials stood by and turned a blind eye, acting as if they had no knowledge of the horrendous death camps. They too, did nothing. Thousands of Nazi leaders and soldiers stood by and watched as innocent Jewish people were starved and beaten, and then gassed. They too, did nothing. Everyone did NOTHING and because of that, more than 10 MILLION men, women, children, grandmothers, grandfathers, aunts, uncles, cousins and friends were murdered in cold blood. They did nothing to deserve the treatment they received in the camp and suffered from horrible disease, vermin and abuse. To me, this course was very important and unforgettable. It was a wakeup call as to how many people act as bystanders and watch people do horrible things to one another. It absolutely blows my mind as to how anyone could be okay with the extermination of Jewish people. Religion doesn’t make you any less of a person. The people who were murdered had families too. They had jobs and houses and friends. They had a life that was taken away because of arrogant people who thought they were better than everyone else. They thought that because they were Aryan and German that they had the right to kill these people and steal their belongings. How could that many people turn a blind eye as 10 million people were being killed? One of my best friends who I have been friends with since fifth grade is Jewish, and if we were alive and in Germany during the Holocaust, I know that I would have done everything I could to protect her and her family, even if it meant risking my own life. This course also taught me that judgments and assumptions can wreak havoc and cause such lasting destruction. A lot of people make assumptions and form opinions just by looking at someone. They may have never talked to them or gotten to know them, but form these impressions that are sometimes very negative. The Nazis wanted to exterminate the Jews because they formed these opinions that they were lesser than humans and didn’t deserve to live, as they were staining the pure Aryan race. In reality, many Jewish people were very wealthy and held important, high class jobs. They were just as human, just as clean, just as worthy of living as anyone else in the world. This class taught me to get to know a person before I make a judgment on them. It has also encouraged me to question other people when I see them make a judgment on someone they don’t know in an effort to get them to take the same path as me.
It made me sick to my stomach watching the Nazis beat people to death, hearing little children scream in fear as they begin to get gassed, and seeing how fearful the prisoners were of the Nazis. The silence after people are gassed is haunting. It is so disgusting that something like this was ever allowed to happen and that no one stood up to the Nazis until after 10 MILLION people were dead. People who were just normal citizens, people with jobs, families, and friends. This course defiantly helped me to understand who I am and the type of person I want to be. I learned to love myself and to not care what other people think. I have realized that I never want to be the type of person who would stand by and watch as millions of people are murdered. I don’t want to be the type of person who puts others down for my own self-satisfaction, or get enjoyment out of watching someone else be harassed. If I see someone treating another person as if they are nothing and don’t deserve to be as happy as everybody else, I will not just be a bystander. I will take action and stand up for the weakened person, even if it means I will then be made fun of. It doesn’t matter to me if I’m the only one standing up and putting a stop to it; I’d rather be alone in doing so then see someone suffer for no reason. From this course I have gained personal strength and learned to ignore negative, ignorant comments or opinions directed towards me. And with this strength that I have gained from Facing History and Ourselves, I will help people who don’t have any strength stand up and do the right thing.
I think that one of most important facets of this course was the short film about the dad and his son, and their experience while hunting. The dad was a fanatic about hunting and wanted to share his interest with his son. At first the son was very excited and eager to get out there, but when he saw for the first time his dad shoot a rabbit, his attitude completely changed. He seemed to feel sick and then when it came time for him to shoot one, he froze. He held the gun and it was right on target, but he couldn’t pull the trigger. His dad kept urging him, and he finally did it, but has soon as the rabbit was dead, he really, really regretted it. He became very quiet and seemed disturbed by the whole experience. He changed his mind on hunting and decided he couldn’t kill living things like that. I think it was a very important part because it taught us that you should always do what YOU think is right, not what other people want you to do or are influencing you to do. If you don’t follow your heart and do what you think is right, then you will always end up regretting your decision and unfortunately, most of the time what’s done is done and there is not much you can do to stop it. This story showed that even though it may be tough to do what you feel is right and do what is comfortable for you, as the regret could haunt you for a long time. The story helped build an understanding of myself and encouraged me to always do what I thought was necessary or appropriate. Another facet of the course that I thought was very important was the documentary about the teacher who experimented with stereotypes. She told her elementary school class that kids with brown eyes were better than the kids with blue eyes, and placed stereotypes on each eye color. Remarkably, it took only minutes before the attitudes and actions of these third graders changed. Brown eyed kids suddenly acted superiorly and treated the blue eyed kids like dirt. Many of the brown eyed kids were good friends with blue eyed kids, but despite this friendship they still treated them badly. They seemed to get this confidence and power just from listening to these made up stereotypes, and soon the blue eyed kids were completely singled out and made fun of. I think that this documentary is so important because it shows the power and strength stereotypes can be. If certain people think they are better than other, they feel as though they can treat the “lesser” people with less respect and as if they are not as human. It shows how dangerous one stereotype, such as Jewish people carry more disease, can become, because suddenly they are reduced to such unimportance and treated as animals. This documentary taught me to ignore stereotypes and not jump on the bandwagon and encourage the stereotype. It also made me want to put an end to stereotypes and the suffering it puts people through, because as we can see form the Holocaust, one stereotype can be forever destructive. The last facet of this course that I think was most important was The Boy in the Stripped Pajamas. It made me really think about how sad the situation was in these camps and how disgusting it was. The way Pavo was treated made me want to cry and help him, and it was unbelievable that he was once a doctor. I felt so badly for the little boy in the camp who was beat and has a gash across his face. This movie defiantly made the biggest impression on me and was when I made the realization of how horrendous the whole Holocaust was. It made me even angrier that people stood by and watched it happen, like Bruno’s father. Overall, Facing History and Ourselves helped me to get an understanding of myself and helped me learn to love myself. It also encouraged me to not be a bystander and to get others to follow my lead. I assure you that I will never just stand there and watch horrible things happen. I will do everything in my power to stop it, with the hopes that one day other will do the same.
