Introduction

I’m a senior at Westborough High School; here I have grown throughout the years. Walking in the front doors as a freshman, I didn’t know what to expect or what I would learn. Now, leaving as a senior, there are some things that I have learned that will remain with me forever. The course, Facing History and Ourselves teaches the Holocaust for what it is, it’s not bias or one sided. You will learn things you probably wish you didn’t learn but it will make you think of what you would do, if you were in certain situations. I chose to take this course because I have always wanted to learn about the Holocaust in detail. I was confused of why it had happened; I thought there was more to it than the fact that the Jews were prosecuted just because they were Jewish. This course goes heavily into detail of the cruelties and horrific events that the Jews were faced with. You will leave many of the classes with tears in your eyes and anger in your heart. You will want to possibly even punch someone after watching the videos of how tortuous the Nazi’s were to the Jews. You will see photographs and actual videos of inside the death camps and you will have to look into the faces of little boys and girls and see their solemn expressions. One thing that was very hard for me during this course was the feeling of being so incredibly sorry for the Jews and everything they had to go through. But what hurt more, was that me being sorry would never ever change any of these horrifying events. Overall, I am glad that I took this course because I have learned a lot more that I expected. I know now that there is always going to be someone on there in the world, who is going to have it a lot tougher than me. This course made me thankful for a lot of things. There’s one thing for certain though, I am proud that I am Jewish.