Introduction

What is Facing History and why is it so important to study it? The course in a nutshell is to share a very valuable lesson about life, and those who made living day to day even worse during such occurrences in the twentieth century. Now to many this may seem like a good answer, but it doesn’t quite explain what the course is actually about. To get a better explanation we must see who I was prior to the course and the effect of it afterwards.
My name is Aidas Rudis, a current senior of the Class of 2012 at Westborough High School. Coming into the class of Facing History seemed to me like every "extra" class of every year, something new to learn and soon forget. I did after all just take the course, just to fill in my schedule. However the first time that we actually began class after all the hoopla of the senior events of the past few days was when I got to experience it all. My teacher Mr. Gallagher had us essentially sign our life away on a contract. I read this and had to do a double-take on what he had written. It seemed as if it would be the easiest and best class I ever took in school. There would be no tests or quizzes, participation was minimal, you could literally say anything you wanted (including the F-word) as long as it didn’t offend others, and all you had to do was post a comment on his blog website for homework. Yes, this subject would boost my GPA average and seem like the best class ever that is until we actually started the material. What we would be taught here and be witnessing as students is only what 1-3% of all Americans get to see during their lives. This is the hard raw facts and videos of Nazi Germany, the holocaust, and possible survivors/survivors stories.