May 2001
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"W hat you have just heard is the best form of history," said teacher Ron Perry to his Eureka High class. "History from the people who lived it." Perry's history class had just finished taping interviews from a group of Humboldt County community members in the school's library. The students had taped the interviews for their class portfolios and for posting on a student-produced Humboldt History Web site. Eureka High seniors Andrew Frey and Ben Rizkowsky were recently recognized at California's first Student Technology Showcase for their ongoing work on the Web site. The students heard vivid firsthand stories about World War II, the Dutch resistance, the Korean War, and life at Eureka High School in the 50s and 60s. Dan Raymond spoke with students about flying bombing missions over Germany in World War II. "The entire Air Force was made up of volunteers, can you believe it!," chuckled Raymond. His time spent flying missions was described by Raymond as "boredom punctuated by abject terror." Students listened intently as Raymond described what it was like once the crew spotted the Luftwaffe. "You had less than six seconds to shoot at a German plane. After a while your nerves go." The Germans would erect a flak box (large groups of anti-artillery guns on the ground) around a city to try and bring down Allied planes. In 1944, 3,500 American planes were shot down. "If a crew didn't get killed in its first five missions, you knew you had a pretty good chance of making it," Raymond said. In 1938, Ruth McCardie was 10-years-old when she joined the Hitler Youth movement. "My father hated Hitler, he didn't vote for him. He said 'someday you may have a second look at Hitler Youth'," stated McCardie. McCardie learned a pledge that included the line "Our flag takes us into eternity." "We would have gone into death for our F*hrer," said McCardie. I n November of 1938, McCardie and her family were eyewitnesses to the state-sponsored violence of Kristallnacht, the night of broken glass. Kristallnacht is seen by many historians as the beginning of the Holocaust. "The storm troopers entered all the Jewish homes in Darmstadts and vandalized them breaking every single window and dish," she told the students. McCardie continued, "Our next door neighbors were Jewish, the owner of the tobacco store was Jewish, I had friends who were Jewish. Soon there were no more Jews in our town." For Dayl Hollenbeck, a junior in Perry's class, "listening to these stories gives me more of a connection into people's lives and their place in history than any history textbook ever could. It makes history seem much more real to hear their perspective and emotions at the time of the event." Perry's Humboldt History Web site can be viewed at www.hum.ipfox.com.
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