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Why Does History Matter

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A question often asked is, “Why does history matter?” History is a subject taught to people all around the world and is essential to the survival of the human race. History matters because it connects things through time, helps present-day people to make better decisions than their predecessors based on past events, and teaches individuals about their heritage.
First, history matters because it connects all things throughout the fabric of time. People are like living histories because each has a rich past full of ancestors and events that brought them to the place they are in present day. History connects the past and present in many ways that most people don’t even see. Different communities speak languages that were created long before their …show more content…

It is important for people to know about their predecessors and how they came to be in existence. I have always been fascinated in the rich history of my family. Being first generation immigrant, I have witnessed the great move across the Atlantic firsthand and know how hard it is to leave your family and home behind to create a new life. My grandmother, on my mother’s side, was born in former Yugoslavia, present day Serbia, as Adelheid Amschlinger. In 1943 she had to flee her home because of World War II. Yugoslavia had been annexed by the Nazis in 1941 and was introduced to racial laws and persecution of Jews and other political opponents. People started uprising all throughout the Kingdom of Yugoslavia and the violence was enough to force my grandmother, her sister, and mother to flee. Adelheid’s father was captured in 1944, while they were trying to flee and was killed.They fled to Austria, in hopes of finding safety, and were forced to change their names. Adelheid, her mother, and her sister lived on the countryside for years in a place near the city of Graz. There they resided until my grandmother, then known as Jana Amschlinger, decided to move to Vienna, Austria and started a family with my grandfather, Michael Wisniewski. After having my mother, Sitra Wisniewski, Michael and Jana divorced. Both continued to live in Vienna and my mother grew up in Vienna, as well. My mother and father, both Austrians, then married and had my sister and I. In the spring of 2004, my mother, Sitra Tauscher-Wisniewski, and my father, Johannes Tauscher, decided that Vienna didn’t have enough opportunities for them as doctors and they wanted a change of setting. Both traveled to the U.S. and interviewed at Eli Lilly, a pharmaceutical company, based in Indiana, that had expressed interest in hiring

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