Ask students what it means to be a perpetrator, to perpetuate a crime. Ask them who the perpetrators of the Holocaust were. Explain that today you are focusing on how seemingly small decisions contributed to the perpetration of the Holocaust, even if that was not the person’s intent.

Listen to the audio file, “Do You Take the Oath?” by Facing History and Ourselves.

Think-Pair-Share.

Think: Have students spend a few minutes writing down their response to this question: Why did the man in the recording sign the oath? (3 minutes)

Pair: Have students talk to the person next to them about their answers. Do they think the man should have made a different choice? Why was it hard to make a different choice?

Share: Use this exercise to engage in a discussion about Holocaust perpetrators. Was the man a perpetrator? How does he seem different from the Nazis seen in the movies? In the final wrap up to the lesson, the teacher should highlight that the Holocaust required the consent and participation of many different people, including business people, doctors, nurses, architects, pastors, teachers, store owners, and laborers. Some of these people participated because they agreed with Nazism but other people acted with self-interest and ended up strengthening Nazism.

Discuss the following quote by Suzy Kassem: “Stand up for what is right against the wrong.”
Ask the students what they think this means. Do they know what it means to be an upstander?

You may want to provide students with the definition of an upstander: a person who speaks or acts in support of an individual or cause, particularly someone who intervenes on behalf of a person being attacked or bullied.

Next, introduce Oskar Schindler. Tell your students that Oskar Schindler was one of the most famous rescuers during the Holocaust. His status as a factory owner allowed him to hire Jews and protect them from deportations. He had been arrested several times for his apparent favoritism towards Jews but this did not deter him. Schindler and his wife are responsible for the rescue of 1,200 persecuted Jews.

Direct students to the Testimony of Yitzhak Stern from Yad Vashem. Explain that they will be reading the testimony of someone saved by Oskar Schindler. Ask students to read the testimony to themselves. Open up a discussion with the class asking the following questions:

1. Why do you think Yitzhak’s colleagues were hesitant about trusting Schindler?
2. What made Yitzhak trust him anyway?

Divide the class into groups of three or five. After reviewing the quote and Yitzhak’s testimony, create a brief presentation on what it means to be an upstander. Presentations can be made with Prezi, PowerPoint, or done verbally depending on what time permits. Students may want to use this additional resource by the US Holocaust Memorial Museum to help them with their presentations.
Here are some questions to help focus the presentation:

1. 1. What is an upstander? What motivates a person to be an upstander?
   2. What did it mean during the Holocaust and what does it mean today?
   3. Come up with examples of upstanders from the Holocaust and from your life today.
   4. How can societies, communities, and individuals reinforce and strengthen the willingness to stand up for others?

Start by asking students, “What is an upstander?”

After students have had a chance to answer, you can provide them with the official definition. An Upstander is “a person who speaks or acts in support of an individual or cause, particularly someone who intervenes on behalf of a person being attacked or bullied.”

Next, discuss the following quote by Samantha Power- “If I look at the mass, I will never act. If I look at the one, I will.”

• Ask your students what this quote means to them. How does it help to explain the actions of upstanders and bystanders?

Direct students to the “Women of Valor” section from Yad Vashem. Show them where to find the women’s stories; take some time to click on one or two of the women’s stories to demonstrate how to find the information they will need.

Divide students into groups of three to five. Assign each group one of the heroines’ stories to look into. Ask students to prepare a presentation telling this person’s story. Presentations can be made with Prezi or PowerPoint, if your class does not have access to computers, presentations may be done with poster boards or large pieces of paper.

Once students have been assigned their group and heroine, provide them with the following questions to help structure their presentation.

1. Who was this person? Briefly describe her role as an upstander.
2. What made this person risk her life to save the Jewish people?
3. Did these women face any consequences for their brave actions?
4. Do you think their role as women made them more or less likely to act as upstanders?

Write the word “upstander” on the board. Ask the students what they think it means and if they can come up with any examples of being an upstander.

Watch the video, produced by CBS 60 Minutes, Sir Nicholas Winton “Saving the Children.” While students are watching the video have them take notes answering the following questions:

1. How did Winton hear about the trouble the Jews were facing?
2. What was Winton’s strategy?
3. What risks did Winton take in order to get the children out of Germany?
4. Who did he ask for help in looking for places for the children to go? What happened?
5. What event put an end to Winton’s transport operation?

After the video ends allow students to pair up and discuss the answers they put down. Allow approximately 10 minutes for this sharing.

After the video, discuss the following questions as a class:

1. Why do you think Winton stayed silent for so long about what he had done?
2. What made him do it in the first place?
3. How can we be upstanders in our own lives?
4. Consider the quote by Winton, “If something isn’t blatantly impossible, then there must be a way of doing it.” What does this mean to you?

Collect answers about being an upstander, specifically any answers about what makes people risk their own safety/well-being for the benefit of others. Bring these out in future discussions about bystanders.

Start off by asking students what they think a bystander is. Provide them with the official definition:
Bystander: a person who is present at an event or incident but does not take part.

Read the quote, “The one thing that does not abide by majority rule is a person’s conscience.” By the character Atticus Finch from To Kill a Mockingbird to the class.

Ask the students what they think this quote means, how does it relate to being a bystander?

Watch the video ‘When There Are No Bystanders (short version)‘ by Facing History and Ourselves.

Stop the video at the intervals below and ask the question that follows:

4:23
What impact do you think the area’s history of violence had on the villagers?
6:47
What choices did the villagers have to make? What were the consequences of each?
8:28
Do you believe Omer Bartov’s assertion that there are no bystanders in a small town? Why?

Read the passage taken from the video out loud to the class:

“…when you look from the top and say, well, this was industrial murder. People from Berlin were put on a train. They went to Auschwitz. In 20 minutes, they were dead in a gas chamber. It was dehumanizing. It was mechanized. No one really was involved. Here, everyone was involved.”

Hold a class debate answering this question: Are the bystanders from a small town more guilty than the onlookers from a bigger city?

Divide the class in half. Have half of the class come up with some reasons why they believe bystanders from a small town are more guilty than onlookers from a big city. The other half will debate for the other side: that all bystanders are guilty the same, they could have all done something.

Write the term “bystander” on the board and ask students how they would define it. Ask for examples of when someone could be a bystander.

Direct students to the resource ‘Bystanders‘ by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Read through the information as a class and allow students a chance to ask questions before moving on.

Have students think about the different degrees of bystanders, and what each of their roles were.

Divide the class into groups of three or five. Ask groups to sit together to discuss the questions below. Tell students that they don’t have to come to an agreement with the members of their group, that they should be actively trying to see both sides of the argument. If time permits, reconvene as a class and ask groups to share what they were able to come with.

1. How do bystanders, or witnesses, contribute to the possibility of mass atrocity?
2. How can indifference to, insensitivity to, or tolerance of hurtful acts be combated?
3. How do meanings of words change over time? What connotations do the words “bystander” and “witness” have? Are they the same?
4. Do you think someone could be reprimanded (fined, tried in court, etc) for being a bystander? Should they?
5. Are bystanders guilty?