~Jimmy McLaughlin, Class of 2025
Remembrance
“History repeats itself, first as a tragedy, second as a farce.”
~Karl Marx
My name is Jimmy McLaughlin, and I was in charge of writing and editing our documentary. For me, teamwork was a huge part of making this project a success. The whole time, you’re working closely together against a deadline to try and create an artifact and documentary that come together to help viewers understand different parts of the holocaust. You needed to be able to trust that your partners were on task so you could finish the work you needed to.
From the very start, we knew this was going to be a challenge, especially the artifact. Anti-Semitism spans a huge chunk of time and isn’t just one event, which makes it difficult to explain in a short video and make a model for. After we contemplated several ideas, we decided that we would cover four different time periods: the ancient origins of Anti-Semitism, Medieval Anti-Semitism, Holocaust era Anti-Semitism, and contemporary Anti-Semitsm. Now that we had a plan, we needed to figure out how we could make an artifact that represented those four time periods. Eventually, we settled on a box where each side displayed a different time. The hardest part of building the artifact was figuring out a way to make it spin. Charlie and I tried different configurations of legos and discs, but nothing worked. To get our artifact to be able to spin, we ended up using two discs to make a lazy Susan. The documentary was straightforward, but very tedious.
Eben and I spent lots of time revising and editing the script as well as sourcing countless images and video clips to finish off our documentary. For me, this project shed light on some of the things we don’t realize about Anti-Semitism. The whole museum exhibit was specifically about the holocaust, however, our project ranged from 70 BCE to 2024. Most of the general information we learned leading up to the project was about the discrimination against Jews in Nazi Germany. However, after finishing the project, I have learned so much more. History makes Anti-Semitism seem like a problem of the past, when in reality, it has never gone away. Social media has enabled hate speech en masse, and when extremist groups get banned, there are many more to take their place.
Being able to work with a team for this long really helped me open up to others ideas and get better at working with others.
Nice job, Jimmy. In my group, I worked on the artifact, so it was very interesting to read about what the documentary was like and the process. Keep it up!
This is awesome jimmy, in my free time when I walked around the exhibit and saw yours it was amazing
Jimmy, this was a great reflection. I loved the photo you used that pictures a sign that reads: “those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” It’s a quote that will really make you think. Other than that. This was a well thought out reflection taking us through the process of completing your project.