What Facing History and Ourselves meant to me

Facing History for me has been a learning experience unlike any other. I remember distinctly at the beginning of the course one discussion we had. We were all separated into groups of three or four, and were reading a few passages on social Darwinism and having group discussions afterwards. Later all the groups were sharing their opinion on the readings, and while a girl in the class was reading, Mr. Gallagher stopped her. He turned to the class and asked us a simple question. “Why should we listen to what she’s saying?” he continued, “She’s a girl, why does what she thinks matters?” As he stared across and a speechless class, it made me think. “Why doesn’t anyone have an answer to this?” such a ridiculous question must conjure up many heated responses from students, but to my surprise it didn’t. It was at that point I understood what the course was going to be about. We’d be asked very difficult and controversial questions, and put in very difficult hypothetical situations and have to ask ourselves, “What would you do?”

            A few months into the course, we watched a film called Uprising, a film about the revolt in the Warsaw ghetto, and the events leading up to it. This film was very interesting for me because I had read about ghettoes of this sort in textbooks over the years, but never really looked into it to see the details; the actual conditions under which these people were forced to live. The fact that the Nazi’s quarantined an entire sector of the city of Warsaw to dedicate to the containment of the Jews was amazing to me. Prior to watching this film I had been aware of attempts of an uprising in the Warsaw ghetto, but I never really looked into it. I didn’t know any of the details about the size of the uprising, what weapons they acquired, and how many people were involved. This movie brought to light all of the aspects of the event that I was completely unaware of. The movie seemed to be a fairly accurate depiction of the conditions they were living under. It was a constant state of fear of the Nazis, who were unrelenting in their harassment of the Jews.

The Jews were packed into the ghetto like sardines, with little room to roam and live. The uprising itself was a complete surprise to me. I was very impressed in the organization and tactical ability of the rebels.

The manor in which they smuggled in the weapons was genius, carrying them through in body bags and other such methods. The bravery and courageousness presented by the rebels was very honorable. One thing that I found very depressing about this film was that the rebels did everything in their power to protect their livelihood from the Nazis, but no matter how hard they tried, their efforts were futile. The Nazis would continue to send more and more troops and firepower to silence the rebellion, there was simple nothing they could have done.

            Another film that had an impact on me was the film Saving Private Ryan. For years now I have been interested in joining the army, I knew that war was a terrible thing, but every veteran I’ve spoken to is glad about the fact that they served in the army. Watching this movie helped me understand a bit more what war was like, obviously this is one of the more gruesome war operations in history, but it really captured the feel of the battle. The movie showed the uncensored horrors of battle, and really captured what it feels like to be in the line of fire, and watch a man die by your side. I truly feel that it is impossible to understand the horror of D-Day without watching this movie. Sometimes in history events will occur where soldier will perform seemingly unnecessary acts of cruelty against the opposite side. This issue was addressed in the opening scene when the Nazi soldiers tried to surrender, but the Allies shot them anyway. You see the lack of sympathy for the Germans, because it is hard to feel bad for someone who just but a bullet through your friend’s head. After watching movies like this, I often reconsider my ambitions about joining the military. I hope to soon see the whole movie, as the beginning scene was incredibly moving in its own right, I can’t imagine the effect the rest of the movie could have on someone.

            The last film I’d like to discuss was the final movie of the course. This was the movie cut by the Americans of raw footage following the liberation of countless Nazi death camps. The thing I really liked about this film was that it was unaltered by Hollywood, and it was not made to be entertaining. I also liked that the movie seemed much unbiased, and really only presented the facts of the situation. The condition that the allies found these prisoners in was unbelievable. These people, who for the most part committed no crime, simply practicing the wrong religion, were punished to an unimaginable extent. It is simply terrible how the Nazis were able to exterminate all these millions of people, all without making headlines and without opposition from anyone. What I thought was interesting as well was that the local townspeople who were not involved in this process were forced to take a tour of the camps, many of them completely oblivious to what had been happening in their own back yard.  It was interesting to see their facial expressions change from happy and excited to see what their government had been doing, to horror and disbelief as they exited the camp. It was also incredible to see how the ringleaders of the camp could go through the entire tour without even a hint of sorrow. This course was incredibly beneficial in more ways than one and I’m extremely glad I decided to take it.