Alisa Raniuk's Blog

I am Alisa Raniuk and currently a senior at Westborough High School. In the fall, I will be attending Wheelock College for early childhood education and communications. I love doing things outdoors, especially on/in the ocean, and really anything else as long as it’s fun. While taking this course, I realized how grateful I am for the opportunities that I have today. I originally took this course because I heard it was amazing, inspirational, and a good class to take as a senior. Then, my outlook on life changed. I’ve always respected and honored my family and background, but seeing and hearing Polish people talk about the terrible experience of the holocaust that they survived, I felt like I was connected. My background is Polish and Ukrainian and my grandparents have survived all of this. Four years ago, when my sister was a senior in high school, she had my grandmother come in to her Facing History class and talk about her experiences in Ukraine. My grandmother tends to bring these stories up at the wrong times, like Christmas or Thanksgiving, and my dad and uncle would sort of blow her off in a way and tell her to stop because no one wants to hear sad stories during a happy holiday. I feel extremely guilty now. I know she’s getting old and all that she’s trying to do is pass her stories down from generation to generation. After taking this course, I want to hear more of her stories, because sooner or later it will be too late. This course doesn’t only teach you about how terrible the holocaust was, but it makes you figure out who you really are. You will have a deeper understanding of yourself for which you will be grateful for. When watching the terribly sad movies, it made me admire those who have survived and watching the people getting bulldozed made me feel like my family was being mistreated in the maximum possible way. This course isn’t about Hitler, which I thought it would be more about, but the tragedy that no one should ever forget that occurred in Europe and learning more about who you are through civic agency.

Facing History and Ourselves meant a lot to me. As I have mentioned in the Introduction, my family background is Polish and Ukrainian. All of my grandparents survived this terrible tragedy and during the films, I felt like I was watching my family getting murdered. I kept wondering if maybe somehow that person that just got burned in the oven was related to me. The emotional rollercoaster throughout the course really changed my feelings about, what I thought were my grandmother’s boring and pointless stories, but they are really pieces of history that I never fully understood. I never had a basic connection to my grandmother’s stories. I knew they were really sad and no one liked her talking about it, but I never completely understood why. All I would hear was famine, Hitler, and Stalin. Those three words have been implanted on me. This past September, I spoke for my grandmother at the State House in Boston. My church and many other Facing History classes were there to try and pass the bill on allowing the teaching of genocides in schools. When I made just about everyone in

the court room cry with my grandmother’s story, I knew I was missing something. After taking this course, I realize how moving my grandmother’s story is because now I have background knowledge about the tragedy. As a person, this course has benefited me in ways I wouldn’t have thought it would. Personally, I hate it when people misuse the words “retarded” or “gay”. It affects me personally because I know a lot of people who are either mentally challenged or homosexual. It bothers me so much I can’t even describe when someone bullies someone else by teasing them and calling them “retarded” or “gay”. A lot of my closest friends who I grew up with just happen to be homosexual and right from the beginning I’ve always felt offended when I hear someone misuse that word. In the beginning of this course, we discussed quite a bit about segregation and watched the film, “The Rise and Fall of Jim Crow”.

Calling someone the “N” word is just like calling someone “retarded” or “gay” in an inappropriate way. With segregation, people are defined as “we” or “they” which is completely uncalled for because it defines one being unequal to another group. Until this course, I can now connect a lot between segregation and bullying people and name calling them “retarded” or “gay”. For some reason they seemed like two totally different things, even though they are both terrible terrible things. With that connection, it builds up into the Holocaust which is the absolute maximum of bullying because it was straight up slaughter. I feel like this course has matured me and opened my eyes to the world. As a student, I feel like I’ve respected everyone a whole lot more than I usually do. I feel like I see things in a different way. I don’t really know how to explain it, but I feel like my attitude towards life has become more positive. It has inspired me to do more and help more. Honestly, this course may have been the reason why I decided to attend Wheelock College in the fall for teaching. It was between Wheelock and Norwich University, and with this Facing History course, I decided I wanted to teach and inspire others. I hope I can learn sign language and help kids who are deaf or to help kids with special needs. There are so many things I want to do to help as many people as I can, including being EMT certified, and if everyone helped a little bit more, then the world would be such a better place. Without this course, my future would have been heading in a completely opposite direction. “

Sophie’s Choice” is the one movie that is most meaningful to me. It was extremely difficult to watch because I have no idea what I would have done in the mother’s situation. That is a decision no one should ever have to make and it made me hate the Nazis so much. It was most difficult to watch because the audience knew what was going to happen to the little girl when the Nazis took her away from her mother. The sad part was that they didn’t know what was going to happen to them. If I was in the mother’s shoes I have absolutely no idea what I would do. I would like to say I wouldn’t leave my kids no matter what, but realistically I just don’t know. It was difficult to relate because as an audience, we know what the end result is and the fact that none of us have a child, we couldn’t fully put ourselves in her shoes.

That is just a heart breaking thing to watch and it is painful to think that the Nazis did that to many families and worse. Another film we watched that impacted me was “The Boy in the Striped Pajamas”. This was an amazing movie even though the ending was heartbreaking. The fact that Bruno showed his appreciation for equality without even realizing what prejudice is, proves that the Nazis were completely wrong and completely without a doubt out of line. In a way I wish this movie was true because with the father’s reaction in the end when he realized his son was murdered from the gas chambers it seemed like he finally realized that what he and the Nazis are doing is wrong. Unfortunately, this story is fiction. The thing that made this movie so powerful was the little boy’s innocence. All he wanted to do was make a friend and he didn’t care if the other boy happened to be Jewish. His innocence contrasted everything horrible going around them. For example, when they were both in the gas chamber, the camera zoomed in on the two boys holding hands which showed their friendship even though to other people, they thought it was wrong. Another important aspect of the Holocaust that we talked about is how people seem to be in denial of all of this happening. It 100 percent happened and whoever thinks it didn’t is either ignorant or stupid.

Who on earth would “act” this terrible event. In the picture I found in Concern.org, someone posted that the “Holocaust wasn’t real. These are just ACTORS”. There is no way on earth that these people were acting because there is factual information about the deaths and other terrible things that happened. It makes me ridiculously mad that someone would think this all didn’t happen. This course has meant so much to me in a million ways possible. I recommend every single person to take this course and I wish that us seniors didn’t have to leave early so the class would continue on longer.

Alisa Raniuk's Blog

Thursday, May 24, 2012

Introduction

What Facing History and Ourselves Meant to Me

Works Cited