Facing History and Ourselves is the best course I have taken in all my life. The course I tell everybody that they should take it. Mr. Gallagher is the perfect teacher to teach it. The course opened my eyes to History, the stuff we learned about the holcaust before this course is like a neddle in a hay stack compared to what we learned in facing history and Ourselves. The purpose of this course is to show us all the facts about the holocaust and other genisides in the world. And for us to internalize the information. Look at ourselves in the mirror and decide if were going to be a follower, bystander or stand up and believe in whats right. We saw the terrible crimes the german committed to the jewish race and it was heart breaking. To imagine that another human could do the things they did to another human because of there religion. Every history teacher tells you learn history to not make the same mistakes as past. So Mr. Gallagher grabbed the worst part of human history and broke it down.We learned the root causes and motives of the germans and other evil forces. On why they did such terrible crimes. In Facing History and Ourselves you go to class and watch a movie. The class sounds easy and all you have to do is blog about what you saw. You eventually have every week you and your class makes reflecting on what you saw. Everybody talks about the inhumane-ness of the Germans, or feels sad for the Armini's. The class teaches it self and you have Mr. Gallagher pointing you in the right direction. The class may seem depressing watching terrible film after another, but that is depressing. But we have to face it and realized what happened. So nothing like that will ever happen again.
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
Essay
Facing History and Ourselves was the most interesting and mind blowing class I have ever taken. I came into the class late, but as a senior and with fellow seniors, I knew everybody. But watching video after video and blogging about it after. We all felt the same, After taking this course it literally changed me for the better. And this transformation happened with everybody in the class. We went on a journey together and Mr. Gallagher was the captain of the ship. We watched videos on how the Germans became to hate the jews so much. And that it was because of the Christians during the crusades rounded up jews and killed them. It was because it happened before that it was allowed to happen again. We saw the motives of Hitler and the German people, they were all insane. The wanted to have a perfect race and jews were stopping them. The fucking leaders of the Nazi party looked nothing like the ideal German. They looked like criminals and slobs, One class Mr. Gallagher showed us pictures of the German officers and compared them to Holocaust victims photo's. The jewish people looked more like the ideal German than any of them.
One of the toughest things in this class for me was when I found out that The Christians rounded up jews and killed them. And killed thousands and thousands of jews. And that the hate of jews started with my Faith. Also during WW2 when theVatican Italy and Rome
Definitely the toughest and saddest part of this class is the last two months of this class. You learn about how the nazi's treated the jews in the Concentration camps. We saw this huge picture ofEurope , then the screen started filling up with names of concentration camps. It was scary how many there war, How many evil people are out there in the world. We saw a movie called The Grey Zone based on a true story. One jewish man had his daughter, wife and grandkid killed in one day. And he had to throw there bodies into fire when they were burning the bodies. And the part the eats at me a lot, is the germans used jews to work the concentration camps. So that the people coming off the trains would feel comfortable. The last movie we saw was actual footage of the holocaust. We had an a survivor tell us from one camp how they would be killed. Either by starvation, beat to death, cold water poured on them in the winter, burned alive or gassed. Read that line again, are you kidding me. We also had to read this article, that when the Showers weren't doing the job properly, or there was a surplus of jews. They would start a huge fire and have them get lined up. They would be shot once with a pistol and thrown into the fire burning alive. But what's worse than all of this to me is. The one thing that makes me burn up inside with anger and with extreme hate for nazi's. Was after a day of "work", they would get together and celebrate and have a beer and play an instrument. And put a fucking smile on there face, as if nothing they did happened. Women and Men, as if it was a party or something. Makes me wanna go back in time and kill every one of those motherfuckers. I'm sorry for swearing but its the way I feel.
Facing History and Ourselves is a sad course, your going to feel down after leaving that class sometimes. What happened is mind blowing and you cant believe that another human could do such a thing to one another. One of my best friends is jewish, and a Nazi wouldn't just kill him for being a jew. But torture him and make him not want to live anymore. Because of what he believes in. You watch these films and you realize that it all started from somebody else saying one mean thing to another. And it caught like a wild fire. I was telling you before about me questioning my faith in my god. I don't anymore, because I realized it had nothing to do with god or whatever. It was all about the us humans, making the right choice versus the wrong and standing for what was right. And we did, We saw the first twenty minutes of Saving Private Ryan. We saw according to a U.S Soldier, your teacher Mr. Gallagher. It is the closets thing to live combat that a movie can get. How Thousands of men risked there lives to stop this evil. After we took the beach and the Germans were surrendering. We shot and killed some of them. The soldiers who did were court marshaled. I thought to myself why, they weren't innocent. They had murdered their friends, our soldiers. And probably innocent jews as well and they are evil to their core. But we were setting an example, we had to know the difference between us and them. We are they good guys and there the bad and for us to murder them would be wrong.
This class connects with everything you do. It makes you literally look yourself in the mirror and into your core. Finds out your beliefs. This class i hope forever changes me. Mr. Gallagher you are the perfect teacher for this. He says the class teaches it self, it does. But when you see such a successful and amazing man, talk to you about this. It blows your mind. This class I don't think I will ever forget what I saw and learned. I will take the values of this class with me forever.
One of the toughest things in this class for me was when I found out that The Christians rounded up jews and killed them. And killed thousands and thousands of jews. And that the hate of jews started with my Faith. Also during WW2 when the
Definitely the toughest and saddest part of this class is the last two months of this class. You learn about how the nazi's treated the jews in the Concentration camps. We saw this huge picture of
Facing History and Ourselves is a sad course, your going to feel down after leaving that class sometimes. What happened is mind blowing and you cant believe that another human could do such a thing to one another. One of my best friends is jewish, and a Nazi wouldn't just kill him for being a jew. But torture him and make him not want to live anymore. Because of what he believes in. You watch these films and you realize that it all started from somebody else saying one mean thing to another. And it caught like a wild fire. I was telling you before about me questioning my faith in my god. I don't anymore, because I realized it had nothing to do with god or whatever. It was all about the us humans, making the right choice versus the wrong and standing for what was right. And we did, We saw the first twenty minutes of Saving Private Ryan. We saw according to a U.S Soldier, your teacher Mr. Gallagher. It is the closets thing to live combat that a movie can get. How Thousands of men risked there lives to stop this evil. After we took the beach and the Germans were surrendering. We shot and killed some of them. The soldiers who did were court marshaled. I thought to myself why, they weren't innocent. They had murdered their friends, our soldiers. And probably innocent jews as well and they are evil to their core. But we were setting an example, we had to know the difference between us and them. We are they good guys and there the bad and for us to murder them would be wrong.
This class connects with everything you do. It makes you literally look yourself in the mirror and into your core. Finds out your beliefs. This class i hope forever changes me. Mr. Gallagher you are the perfect teacher for this. He says the class teaches it self, it does. But when you see such a successful and amazing man, talk to you about this. It blows your mind. This class I don't think I will ever forget what I saw and learned. I will take the values of this class with me forever.
Works Cited
Works Cited
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" Google Image Result for http://openlettersmonthly.com/issue/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/nazis-at-a-recreation-lodge-near-auschwitz.gif." Google. N.p., n.d. Web. 19 Jan. 2011. <http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://openlettersmonthly.com/issue/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/nazis-at-a-recreation-lodge-near-auschwitz.gif&imgrefurl=http://www.openlettersmonthly.com/book-review-reich-war-richard-evans/&usg=__yaK87D1U48Po-eM3ILJnOY>.
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