Grappling with the Facts

I could not tell you when I first learned about the Holocaust nor what my initial reaction was, but I do know that after the initial lesson about World War II and the Holocaust, I kept learning about it in rather the same way. In seventh grade, we watched Schindler’s List and I was mortified, but I remember we actually had one of the survivors who had been on Schindler’s List come and speak with us. He was only a boy when it all happened and was one of the last to get on the list, but hearing him made it all the more real. I was never clear how it all came to be. I mostly understood the policy of appeasement and certain historical facts here and there, but for the most part no teacher had ever really delved into the time period, had never analyzed Hitler the way this class did and I think that’s a really important aspect of it.

We spoke the other day about how understanding the “how” of the matter paves the way to understanding the “why” at least to the extent it can ever really be understood, and I agree. I think it is of essential importance to know how Hitler and the Nazis gained power, how they were able to systematically mass murder millions of people without any resistance really, essentially to have some grasp on how it all was. All the books we read, especially Kershaw and Browning, were so thoroughly researched and genuinely insightful. Perhaps I would have never read Mein Kampf had it not been for this class. I have thoroughly enjoyed this course mainly because I wasn’t just taught the facts of the situation, I was taught about the circumstances from all angles, facts, theories, explanations, and really analyzed what it all must have been like then. I don’t know if we will ever really understand why it all had to happen, why so many people let it happen, nor how so many could be driven to do such horrific acts, but at least we can come to understand some of it, at least we can find some clarity amidst all the facts and people that culminated into one of the worst historical moments and I think that’s really what this course achieved.