Facing history has benefited me in more ways than I could ever
say. This course expanded my views more and more with each day I spent watching
and reading what humans are able to do to each other. Not only did I see what
humans were capable of I also learned lessons that I will carry on with me once
I leave the high school. This course also showed me that we all need to look at
ourselves and try to ask ourselves who are we really. By asking myself these
questions I was able to learn more in this class than any other class I have
taken before. These self-reflective questions were prompted by watching films
that portrayed the horrors of history without any censorship.
One of the films
we watched this year was titled the Grey Zone. This movie followed the twelfth
sander commando unit in their last few days of working before they were
executed. This movie did not focus on anything but the horrible conditions that
the Jews were faced with in Auschwitz. One interesting theme that I pulled from
the movie was how far gone some of the Jewish people were. By this I mean that
some of the Jewish sander commandos were so accepting of death many of them did
not mind the idea that at some point in their future they would all be
murdered. In the end of the movie after the commandos successfully destroyed
one of the crematoriums they were lead out into the court yard by armed guards.
They were then ordered to lie down, one by one they were all shot in the head.
What surprised me about this scene was that the Jews were so ready to move on
they just let the executions happening without putting up a fight. Before
watching this movie I would have found this bizarre that people would allow
someone to take their life without fighting back. After having watched what
these men had to does every day made me realize that sometimes death is not the
worst punishment. Finally I came to the conclusion that the sander commando
units were almost like shells of humans because after completing their work of
burning bodies all day and leading thousands to their death every day they
became incapable of showing emotion.
Another
movie we watched in this course that had a great effect on me was called the
Boy in the Striped Pajamas. This movie’s plot was about two young boys during
the closing months of the war. One boy named Bruno was the camps commanders’
son while the other was a young Jewish boy who found himself in a working camp.
This movie focused on who the innocent were even taken advantage of during the
holocaust and how little kids were gassed. This movie was extremely sad at the
end when both young boys were gassed. After the boy’s father figured out he had
been gassed he seems to know some of the pain that he is causing the other
Jewish families. The ending was almost bitter sweet because after the boys are
killed the German commander of the camp gets a taste of what pain is really
like. But in addition it is still so sad because two eight year olds are dead
for no logical reason.
Another film we watched this year
that had a great effect on me was the film recovered from the death camps.
These films changed me and made me look into the eyes of the people stacked in
piles and those being unburied for autopsies. These short clips of each film
tied together everything that we had been learning about since day one. What
made these clips different from everything else that we have watched is that
everything before this involved actors, or it cut out before the violent
scenes. These clips put the view face to face with real people who were really
dead which was hard for me to process in the beginning. In addition to these
films showing the atrocities of the camps it also made it a point to show how
local German towns people were forced to dig new ditches and graves for the Jewish
people who had been killed in the camps. Another way they punished the Germans
for their horrific crimes were by giving them tours of the camps and making
them view the bodies of the recent dead. By the end of this film I was turning
my head trying to avoid looking at these real faces looking out for some last
hope and finding nothing. I can honestly say that this film changed me and has
really made me think twice about something’s that I normally don’t think about.
This course has definitely been one of my favorite classes of all times. The
main reason why I loved this course was because unlike any other classes during
our discussions we were all able to share freely without having to worry about
what others might think of us which might sound weird but for me this was a big
deal. This allowed me to get a feel for what other people thought about history
and themselves and it made me start to ask myself some questions of my own. One
of these questions was one that we have been covering all year, am I a
bystander or someone who will stand up for others who can’t stand up for
themselves. This was only one question of many that I found myself thinking
about as we watched some of the movies focusing on the holocaust. The title of
this course History in Ourselves is definitely appropriate because it not only
is this history class it also gives everyone in this class a chance to do some
self-searching and attempt to just skim the top of finding out that we really
are as a person.
Another film we watched this year
that had a great effect on me was the film recovered from the death camps.
These films changed me and made me look into the eyes of the people stacked in
piles and those being unburied for autopsies. These short clips of each film
tied together everything that we had been learning about since day one. What
made these clips different from everything else that we have watched is that
everything before this involved actors, or it cut out before the violent scenes.
These clips put the view face to face with real people who were really dead which
was hard for me to process in the beginning. In addition to these films showing
the atrocities of the camps it also made it a point to show how local German
towns people were forced to dig new ditches and graves for the Jewish people
who had been killed in the camps. Another way they punished the Germans for
their horrific crimes were by giving them tours of the camps and making them
view the bodies of the recent dead. By the end of this film I was turning my
head trying to avoid looking at these real faces looking out for some last hope
and finding nothing. I can honestly say that this film changed me and has
really made me think twice about something’s that I normally don’t think about.
This
course has definitely been one of my favorite classes of all times. The main
reason why I loved this course was because unlike any other classes during our discussions
we were all able to share freely without having to worry about what others
might think of us which might sound weird but for me this was a big deal. This
allowed me to get a feel for what other people thought about history and
themselves and it made me start to ask myself some questions of my own. One of
these questions was one that we have been covering all year, am I a bystander
or someone who will stand up for others who cant stand up for themselves. This
was only one question of many that I found myself thinking about as we watched
some of the movies focusing on the holocaust. The title of this course History
in Ourselves is definitely appropriate because it not only is this a history
class it also gives every one in this class a chance to do some self searching
and attempt to just skim the top of finding out who we really are as a person.
