Facing History and Ourselves
Before this course, I would hear things about the holocaust and Hitler, about the horrors of the camps and the things the Nazis did to the Jews. I'd hear them, but that's as far as it would go. You cannot understand what happened without this course. You may think you understand it, but there is a difference between knowing what happened and feeling it. The course very effectively gives you a sense of hopelessness. I found myself wishing that at some point the Germans would lose. That a rebellion would actually be successful. That the characters and people we were exposed to would survive, but that never happened. Nothing is more horrible than wishing that someone is going to make it, but each story is just as sad and ends as horribly as the last.
This course has thought me a few major things. One is empathy. I can say that
I understand what was going through the minds of everyone at that time. No one would even begin to think that these horrible things could have happened and not many cared because for over ten years they were trained to do things like that. None of the Jews thought they were going to die either. They thought if they just complied that they would be okay and that if they tried to run, they would die. So they didn't do anything. The bystanders had a mix of this. They were use to Jews being treated horribly and were too afraid to step in. Many had such nationalism that they wouldn't no matter what. In the pianist, we really got to see how fast this regime took over. Before we could realize, the characters were stuck in a ghetto, just waiting to be taken to the work camps or the death camps.
Another thing I have learned is what people are capable of. Movies like the Milgrim expierment show us that anyone, when forced by authority, can kill. It takes a very strong person to resist authority on the basis that they know they are right. After this course, I know that I will stand up for what I believe in and not let anyone force me into something I don't want to do because it goes against my integrity. I have learned that this is one of the many things that caused Hitler to take over Germany and so to ensure this never happens again, there has to be people willing to stand up for each other.
I also have learned that the worst thing you can possibly be next to the person victimizing is being a bystander. I never want to be in a situation where I could have done something to help someone and know that I did nothing. People have been bullied to the point where they commit suicide. People have gun downed schools due to anger and depression which stems from being picked on. People have been sent in droves to death camps because the entire population was against them. If the mentality was that these are human being too, that everyone should stand up for them like they were anyone else then this may not have happened.
This course has affected me greatly and I know it will affect others just the same. People will not only gain an appreciation for history, but also the vital life skills I mentioned before. The more people who take this course, the better. This course will not get rid of bullying. It won't end evil. Instead it will affect the bystanders. The people who would have done nothing.
