In what ways did the course benefit you as a student and as a person, this class made me a better observer of the world around me. It has opened my eyes to the atrocity that have taken place through history. It has opened my eyes to the struggle that the African Americans have endures throughout history. The class has opened my eyes to the mistreatment that the United States has treated the African American people. The class has showed me that the civil rights act was a very hard thing for African Americans to go through. The movie showed me that they were non violent yet white people still treated them as if they were hostile. These documentaries made me realize that if a collective amount of people put there minds together to accomplish a common goal then they can achieve anything that they want. This class also showed me how the world hid the fact that the Armenian genocide took place. The class when father Bohesian talked to us really showed how the world had covered up what horrific act has happened to these people. That experience made me feel sad about what mankind can do to one another for pretty much absolutely no reason at all. This incident was awful because of how many people were killed and how it almost wiped out a race of people. It also made me sick that in some instances they through people over the cliffs or shot them when they were too weak to walk anymore. The Jewish people also had a similar ordeal with the holocaust but a thousand times worse. The Jewish people were pretty much exterminated and wiped off the face of the earth. This makes me mad because of all the people that stood around and did nothing to help the Jewish people that were being mass murdered without the help of the world. This class expressed to me how hard it was for Jewish people to escape what the Nazis were doing in Europe. I was in disbelief when I found out that the United States turned away ships full of Jewish refugees back to Europe. That really mad me mad because the United States known what was going on to an extent at the beginning where Jewish people were being exiled from their land and they just watched. It really showed that no one really cared what happened to the Jewish people until they started being exterminated. I was also shocked when the priest went to the Vatican to enlist help and he could only get one other person and that they could not get anyone to listen to them. That frustrated me because he was from Germany and worked with the Nazis he obviously wasn’t making this up and still no one cared. In all the documentaries that we watched on the holocaust they all opened my eyes to how horrible and horrific the holocaust really was and that it should never happen again. When I saw the videos on how people said they never would allow anyone in the world to do this again I immediately thought of Africa because in many countries there are mass genocides that take place like Rwanda and nobody even bates an eye about it. I believe that the world should do something in Africa because millions of people are being wiped out because they are a different tribe and the class made me realize that. This class focused a lot on the holocaust and I believe that it opened many peoples eyes to the fact that what the Nazis did should and will not ever be forgotten. This class has helped me get a better world view. It has made me a better student because I learned to question something if I didn’t agree with it. Before I would always believe the teacher no matter what they said. I have since learned to go to the library and look up the facts to find out if the teacher was correct or if I was correct. This class made me a better student because I care more about facts then what teachers tell me without backing up the facts. Now I learn to trust the facts. It also has made me a more caring person. This class really gets you in touch with your morale side that you probably don’t get to see a lot of. It really challenges who you are morally. This class makes you think what you would do in every situation. It really emphasizes what would you do would you be a bystander, victim, perpetrator or resistance. The course puts you in the shoes of someone are in Nazi Germany at the time of the holocaust and make you think how you would act. This class is also a great class because everybody walks away from the class with something different. I took a lot away from this class as so did everybody but being Jewish I think the holocaust and Nazis hit me a little more at home then some others in the class because I had family that was in concentration camps and had one cousin who escaped. This class has made me a better person because I can now connect with people on a more morale basis. This class showed how horrific and savage other human beings can actually be to one another if given the opportunity. The videos that we have watched have made me realize that in life you can not be an observer if you see somebody being wronged then you have to stand up for those people. It also has let me learn that everything isn’t always black and white as described in school. The class has allowed me to see the grey area in the world. I am also a better person in a way that this course has changed me from being a bystander in many situations to being the resistance or help. When we talked about being bullied I have always thought it was just kids being kids but now I know the harm it can impact, so now if I see it happening I will stand up for the kid being bullied. In essence this class has made me a better rounded student and a more knowledgeable human being.
