Thursday, January 17, 2013

Why I love and Hate History


I just finished watching a movie called The Judgment at Nuremberg for an American Heritage assignment, and I’m left with this uneasy feeling. The thing about history is it’s fascinating and important, but it isn’t usually a happy subject. And how can it be? Even though there is so much good in this world, we have to recognize the evil that has always been out their fighting against that goodness. Recognizing “The Human Predicament”- as my American Heritage teacher calls it- and the human history of brutality,  is history’s specialty.
The Judgment at Nuremburg was about the trial of judges who practiced during WWII in Nazi Germany that sentenced countless citizens and stood by as unjust laws were set in place under Hitler’s reign. In the film they kept saying that “they didn’t know” what was going on, but in the end one of the judges said that although they may not have known everything, they just didn’t want to see what was right in front of them. It scares me to think about what we are all capable of sometimes, but I am grateful that history is there to help us learn, even if it is a hard lesson.

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