Essay

What Facing History and Ourselves Meant to Me

           

            We walk the halls everyday making the choice to smile at those who we wish to or turning our heads to those we don’t.  We sit in class and laugh when a stupid mistake is made or when somebody trips.  We talk behind each other’s backs and tend to enjoy the feeling of bringing someone down, feeling the gain of power over another individual.  We live in a society of constant media.  Have you checked your Facebook lately? Who’s bashing who? Who’s ripping somebody else to shreds by typing words on a screen?

            I have never cared much for Facebook; I don’t feel a need to put every waking minute of my life on the internet; however I often get a laugh reading what everyone else is doing.  I cannot say that I have never partaken in any of the things from above however I am proud to say that I have never torn anybody to pieces whether it be in person or over the internet.  I rather enjoyed the conversation we had in class about “cyber bullying”, it pertains to the lives that we live today and I think that it was good for all of us to have a chat about something that we see every day.  We often go through our days not thinking about every little word we say or type and what we often do not realize is that something that does not matter to us might matter to someone else.  Over the time that I have sat in class learning about the Holocaust I have had a lot of time to think about myself and who I am as a person. 

            Through studying the Holocaust and the events that took place I realized that ignorance played an outstanding part in the process.  While watching the “Boy in Striped Pajamas” I was deeply angered at the attitude that the family members of the officer held.  I could not believe the looks that they would give the Jewish servant in their own home, the example that they were setting for their children was awful.  And the thought that they could stand there and tell their children it was okay because “the people on the farm were not like them” or “they aren’t actually human” was unthinkable.  Through watching movies like this I began to think about the example that I set for both my younger brother and cousins whom live next door to me.  I realize that even though it may not seem like it, they do in fact watch everything I do whether it be what I say, or a facial expression.  I would never want to have the ignorance that the family did in “the Boy in Striped Pajamas” so I made a point to be more careful with what I say and do around my younger family members.

            During the Holocaust Morals were often thrown out the door especially by members of the Nazi army.  How could one change so quickly from an innocent young boy to a mass murderer.  Even after all of the brainwashing and propaganda that we saw I would sit there hoping that somebody would have the confidence to stand up and say this isn’t right.  That very thing happened in the movie “Amen”, where an S.S. officer witnessed what was happening with the chemicals he was creating that he thought were supposedly being used to kill vermin but instead were being used to gas the Jews.  This officer was outraged at what he had seen and tried to stop what was going on, he went to all the high powers that he could yet nobody would listen to him or for that matter believe him.  I struggled to watch as this man helplessly went from person to person pleading for help in saving the lives of millions.  And in the end it was him who ended up dead and the master minds behind the whole thing being rewarded.  Even though it was not the ending I had hoped for I was glad to know that there were some men who did not believe that what was going on was right and were able to maintain their morals throughout the course of the whole thing even though it did not benefit them in any way and in fact most likely got them killed.  Watching a movie like this made me think of my families own morals and the things we say and do in the comforts of our own home.  When a family member says that our government should simply shoot anyone who is coming over the border illegally I find myself responding by saying something like “and who are you going to find to do that job, what person in their right mind is going to stand at the border and shoot anyone who tries to cross” instead of agreeing with them or even worse saying nothing at all and sitting in silence. 

            This course has showed me both who I am as a person and who I strive to be.  I am very thankful that I had the opportunity to take this course especially with such an excellent teacher like Mr. Gallagher.  I believe that this course has made me a better person and a better member of our society.  I can only hope that one day when my own children attend school that they will have the same opportunity that I did in taking this course.  It is a course that I wish everyone could take, I think we could have a better country as a whole if everyone saw what was shown during the duration of the course.  This course makes you judge every aspect of your personality and it only allows you to improve it and make yourself better.  Even though we live in the age that we do I know that I personally was able to watch the films and say to myself, this is what I hope I would do if I was ever in that situation.  I can say that I now walk the halls acknowledging those I might not have before, and even giving a little smile to someone I may not know, even if they turn their head to me.