History

Description

A photo I took at a concentration camp in Germany. Dachau was the first concentration camp established by the Nazi Party. This photo is of the "Intertwined Skeleton Sculpture", a memorial built on the roll call ground of the camp.

Sociological Interpretation

When I first viewed this statue, it sent chills up my spine. At first glance, it looks as thought it is a sculpture of barbed wire fences, depicting feelings of coldness, war, trapped and scared. When approaching closer to it, you realize it is a mixutre of barb wired, and frail human bodies. It right away sent me back in time, to think about the prisoners and victims who were kept there, tortured there, or died there.

The topic of the Holocaust and World War II history greatly interest me and I find it important to know the history of our world. When I spoke of the Holocaust in Germany, reactions from Germans were, maybe not what I expected. The topic is though it is taboo, no one talks about it, and no one cares to engage in any type of conversation about it. I had the sense as though it was still fresh in their minds, it's still a very familiar topic to them, maybe beacuse there are still people around who had witnessed it. This did not bother me, it gave me a sense that it was perhaps regretted, and embarassing that the event ever occured. It was such a major part of their history that it should not be forgotten, and therefore it is taught and talked about to all generations in school.

I think that world history is a very important topic, and should be addressed to students in Canada as well. It is discouraging to know that we have it as an option, but it is not mandatory. I believe our society and education system has changed, to think too far into the future, and not address the past events as much as we should. You hear of new technology, what is to come, and where we will be in decades, or centuries. What about how the past has shaped who we are today? How has our global history, national history, or even the history of our own city, made us who we are today? To understand our past, would perhaps allow us to understand the wrong doings of others. I was never taught about either of the World Wars, and am saddened to say I could not tell you a lot about Canadian history either. The only Canadian history I have been taught is that of the First Nations, but I know there are many other factors which brought us to where we are in society today. Such as the history of the RCMP, Japanese concentration camps, our participation in wars, and the settling of the Europeans.