Intro

            My name is Kevin Van Dam, and I am a senior at Westborough High School. This year, I took part in a course called Facing History and Ourselves. The course looks at the history of the holocaust and Nazi Germany, and puts the students in the shoes of the German people at the time and asks them “What would you have done?” We watch historical fictions set in Nazi Germany, as well as documentaries on the holocaust, and other documentaries relating to human nature to see if there was in fact any truth to the Nazi slogan “we were just following orders”. It is a very meaningful course taught by a man who loves his job and his students and wants them to know who they are and what they would have done. I took this course because everybody in the past who had taken it has absolutely loved it. I haven’t talked to one person who didn’t absolutely love this course, and now I understand why. I never thought that a class could open my eyes as much as this course did. I now have a better understanding of who I am as a person. I know how I can make a difference and I know that good can always triumph over evil. This course put life into the holocaust to me and I have a greater understanding of quite possibly the worst event in human history, and a much greater appreciation for the plight of the Jewish population.