Facing History and Ourselves

Intro:
Facing history and Ourselves is a copurse not only for the typical History buff, its interesting enough to catch the attention of any person. I think that it can be taught in many ways but Mr. Gallagher taught it in the best way. He brought everyones soft spot to the surface and then let the films and material hit us like a ton of bricks. I like this way of teaching because it keeps the student on their toes because they don't know what to expect what is next. I had also heard from my friends that had already taken the course that it was amazing and mind blowing.The course concentrates on the Holocaust that took place all over Europe when Adolf Hitler took over Germany in 1934. The Holocaust was a genocide of people who were mostly Jewish or had affiliation with the Jewish people. The average person doesnt know how Hitler was able to take millions of lives. The course explains everything from begining till the end. From when Hitler was disliked and never heard of to when he killed himself while troops were moving in on his house. It goes over how he gained power by running in elections for a couple years until he got elected. For some people who don't believe that the Holocaust happened; it shows you graphic images and film that was recorded by American troops when the first found the prisoners at the concentration camps. I believe this course should be required to take in order to graduate highshcool.

I myself never really enjoyed history unless it had to do with military and/or wars. Facing History and Ourselves had both of my interests in one, but i did not expect it to be such a mind boggling experience like it was. From 8th grade untill I took Facing History and Ourselves I remeber sitting in History class thinking to myself how unnecessary all that information being given to me was. I would never need to know who the 7th president of the U.S.A was because they wouldnt ask me that when I became a police officer later in life. I would always get frustrated cause I would never pay attention and never remeber anything i was taught, it felt like i was taking empty notes and there wasnt anything that would make a difference. I just needed to drag my feet and pass the class. Then we talked about World War 2 Sophmore year and that was a moment in class where my interest sparked and i enjoyed learning. Although we never really spoke about Hitler I kept hearing about him and i knew he was see as a "bad man" who "killed many people" so Idecided to do research on my own and I then remebered the speaker that came to my school in 4th grade who survived the Holocaust. Then my bestfriend told me about a class he had just signed up for with Mr. Gallagher and how excited he was because he heard it was such a good class. The first thought that came to my mind was how in the world can class be fun? Then i finally got the chance to take the class and felt very lucky because there was rumorsthe class would be gone because the teacher was leaving the school.

I can honestly say after this course I am a different person and see alot of things differently because i now see what kind of things can come from hate. In "The Choice" I you get a sense of just how ruthless these german solidiers actually were. A woman who is not even jewish has just arrived at a concentration camp is in line with her 2 kids. A german officer makes some remarks about how she is attractive and so she tries to take advantage of the situation and tells her he can save her live but she has to make a choice. The officer then makes a woman pick between her two kids because in order to save herself she can not save both her kids. I think this is the saddest thing in the world, for a mother toi have to choose between her 2 kids who she loves so much. I think it was not needed for the officer to do such thing and that he did it just because he could. This film helped me realize that your loved ones can not be taken for granted because they might not always be there. And also that sometimes in life you are faced with some decisions that are next to impossible to make. When i have a hard decision to make i will forever remeber this film. Another film that changed me was The Uprising. This film was very interesting because i had absolutely no idea that the Jews made an effort to fight back against the Germans. I found it so interesting how they stayed so close together and were willing to give up their lives just like many solidiers,marines and other military branches around the world. Although they were never trained to do such things they fought with no fear and I think that took alot of guts and honor to do.This made me think alot about myself, because i joined the Marines and I honestly don think i have half of the bravery that those people had. I was so impressed with how they obtained guns and everything else, how they survived in the broke ghetto and how brave the women were to out themselves in gun sight just to bomb the germans. I sometimes think if i was in their position would i have done the same for my people or would fear take over.Then i realized these people had no choice, it was either fight or die and they decided they werent going to die for nothing and i knew i would also do the same for my people. i think no matter where i am or go when i shoot my rifle i will remeber those who did it to save their people who were in danger just because they were born into a certain culture. The Milgram Experiment was probably one of the most surprising films i had watched in the class at the time. In this film it showed two people who were voulinteers and getting paid to do it, on man would get asked questions and if he got the questions wrong he would get shocked. Everytime he got shocked it would go up in the voltage. At the begining the man getting shocked says he has had heart problems before. As the experiment goes on the man screams and begs to be let go. The person who is shocking the person asks the conductor is they should stop and they reply no just to see if they will keep going. At the end the actor who was being "shocked" plays dead and it shows the reactions of the people who were shocking them.I think that it was just crazy how a person would just continue to cause the other person so much pain just because they were told to. I found it ridiculous. I learned from this movie that sometimes you have to stand up to athourity figures if you feel what is happening is wrong. I also learned if you dont know why you are doing what your doing you should find out.

Concentration Camp. Google Images. Image. 25 May 2012
Auschwitz. Google Images. Image. 25 May 2012.
Adolph Hitler. Google Images. Image. 25 May 2012.
WW2. Google Images. Image. 25 May 2012.
Concentration Camp. Google Images. Image. 25 May 2012