Introduction

Introduction

When I was discussing my junior schedule with my guidance counselor last year around this time we were trying to figure out what electives I would want to take.  I was thinking back to what the seniors on my hockey team said about Facing History and Ourselves.  Whenever something incredible would come up in class, I would be sure to hear about it in the locker room after school.  I knew right away that I wasn’t going to wait until senior year to take this course, and have some of it cut out.  I wanted the full course so I knew I had to sign up this year and I did so without hesitation.

The course Facing History and Ourselves covers a broad spectrum of topics.  Although the course is mainly focused on the Holocaust and the insanity of the Nazi’s, there are also topics covered in the psychology of people.  For example, the Milgram Experiment was an experiment conducted to see if people would send shocks to people in another room who were answering questions wrong.  Even though the people administrating shocks knew it was wrong, they still continued because they were told that they “had to”.  Another topic that the course delves into is how people can make a difference.  Movies such as “12 Angry Men” and “Freedom Writers” show the student how one person can make a huge difference on the thoughts of a group of people they are up against.  Watching videos like these is what the course is all about.  Before we can make judgment on the people of Germany and their actions, we also have to understand where they were coming from.

I personally believe that I am a fair person to everyone I know.  Unless there is something you have done to me, I have no reason to be upset or unfair to them.  I never understood how the Nazi’s could do what they did to those people and that’s another reason I wanted to take this course so badly.

This is a picture of the main gate at Auschwitz I.  The German words at the top say “Work Makes You Free”.