My Holocaust Class Essay

Best class ever. Here's my essay I just wrote on a movie called Swing Kids:

The main lesson I learned from Swing Kids was the importance of people standing up and crying out against ideas they do not approve of. When the Swing Kids refused to join the Hitler Youth and defiantly attended dances where they could express themselves in ways not considered proper by their government, they gave others hope. They reminded people around them that not everybody was on the Nazi side, that not everyone was blindly following Hitler.

Once someone has been sucked into believing the idea, and, most importantly, believing that everyone else believes the idea, it is so hard to go back. Once Thomas started believing all the propaganda that was thrown at him about the Jews, and about his “fatherland” he forgot about everything he had ever valued. He was willing to watch Peter, his best friend, get sent to a work camp. Even Peter started to lose his will to fight on towards the end of the film, when he saw that his father’s fighting spirit had done little more than result in his death. But Arvid’s fearless spirit eventually woke Peter up to the world around him and Peter realized it was his turn to stand up in defiance. The most interesting thing I noticed while watching though was that the concept isn’t knew. I’ve seen it represented in numerous books that are totally unrelated to the Holocaust. If so many authors felt the need to express that point, it must be something we need to work on even today.

In The Uglies Series it’s called “staying bubbly”. A group of teenagers pull pranks to try to keep control of their minds. Their society performs surgeries on sixteen-year-old to insert lesions into their brains, which cause everyone to lose their sense of free will. Instead of passively accepting their fate, they risk their lives to get he world out about their government and eventually succeed in overthrowing it. Their fearless acts encouraged others to follow in their footsteps and resist.

In The Hunger Games, while in a fight-to-the-death competition, Katniss Everdeen uses every situation to proclaim her defiance of The Capital. While she could improve her chances of escaping the arena alive by turning into a bloody killing machine, she chooses to show the leaders of Panem that they don’t control her. She covers her dead friend in flowers, singing her to sleep, and she pities her opponents, knowing they are not the real enemy. Her defiance in the arena encourages everyone back home and when she emerges a full-blown rebellion has begun.

In The Harry Potter Series, during year five, Harry, Ron and Hermione refuse to sit passively and accept the rules their government has created to weaken them. They start up Dumbledore’s Army and Harry teaches their classmates how to defend themselves, a clear violation of Ministry policy. Along the way many are torured but the steadfastness of the trio encourages everyone around them and when they face Voldemort at the end of the book they are prepared. Two years later when the trio leaves the school, Neville, Luna and Ginny start up the organization, keeping everyone aware that not everyone approves of the status quo.

The recurring theme isn’t a coincidence, and free-speech America could end up like Germany all too quickly. The point of studying the Holocaust is to learn ways that we can prevent future tragedies. One of the biggest ways is to always strive to maintain our sense of independent thinking, and to be ready to stand up and shout our disagreement when faced with similar situations. Only through a combined effort can we diminish propaganda’s effects and start to convince the world around us that not everyone believes what is being thrown at them.

The last scene of the movie brought tears to my eyes: Peter being dragged away, still fighting, finally helped Thomas realize everything he was doing. Peter’s brother ran up crying and saw the horrible sight: his brother ending up with the same fate as his father. The Swing Kid movement lasted all the way through the war and Peter left his brother and his best friend knowing they would keep fighting. “Swing Heil, Swing Heil”