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?

Distribute the Range of Human Behavior Vocabulary Terms worksheet by Facing History and Ourselves. Go over the actual meaning for each of the terms with the class. Tell students to keep these worksheets as they could be useful in later lessons/discussions about perpetrators, victims, and upstanders.

Perpetrator: a person who carries out a harmful, illegal, or immoral act.
Victim: a person harmed, injured, or killed as a result of a crime, accident, or other event or action.
Bystander: a person who is present at an event or incident but does not take part.
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.

Direct students to the resource, No Time to Think by Facing History and Ourselves. There is an audio version of the testimony that you can play if you would like to have your students listen as they follow the written testimony. Alternatively, you can just read it without listening to the audio.

Before breaking students off in groups to complete the Output section, click on the identity chart link from the second question at the bottom of the page and show the students what it is supposed to look like.

In groups of three to five, have students go over the Connection Questions found at the bottom of the page. If time permits, open up into a group discussion going over some (or all) of the questions. Have groups share their identity chart.

Explain to the students that they will listen to a podcast hosted by the granddaughter of a Holocaust survivor. The host, Rachel, tells bits of her grandmother’s story in each episode. This episode is about Rachel’s trip to Sobibor- visiting the extermination camp her family was sent to in 1942.

Warn students that the content can be unsettling.

Play the podcast episode Chapter IV: The End of The World by We Share the Same Sky. Explain to students that this podcast is hosted by the grandaughter of a Holocaust survivor. The host, Rachel, researches and retraces her family history in order to tell their story.

While they listen, ask students to write down something they found powerful.

Divide students into small groups of two or three to discuss the questions below. Come back together as a class and ask the students to share what their groups discussed.

1. Rachel describes her trip to Sobibor as a journey “to the end of the world” and she wonders what the trees would say if they could talk. In your own mind’s eye, what would the trees tell us?
2. Hana describes life during the Holocaust to “slowly being peeled off like an onion.” She says, “You are being conditioned to worse and worse situations…and to live a subhuman life…And when you are looked at like subhumans, no one has trouble killing you.” How were layers of humanity slowly peeled away from Jews and other victims during this time?
3. What is dehumanization and why is it dangerous?
4. The Nazis believed Jews and others- homosexuals, Jehovah’s Witnesses, the mentally ill, Roma- were subhuman. How did this portrayal of these groups of people impact the victims, soldiers, and ordinary citizens?
5. Rachel describes the podcast as a ‘story of memory.’ In this episode, the details of her family’s deaths are only known from stories passed on from one person to another and may not be historically accurate. However, this is how many families, during and after the Holocaust, learned what happened to their loved ones. In what ways does this affect how we listen and understand survivor testimony? What do you take a “story of memory” to mean, as compared to what you might expect to find in a historic record?

Collect the answers to the major questions to be used in later discussions about the Holocaust and historical testimonies.

Ask the class if they know who Adolf Eichmann is.

Explain to students that Eichmann was named chief executioner of the Final Solution. In this role he was responsible for organizing the identification, assembly, and transportation of Jews from all over Europe to Auschwitz and other extermination camps.

Play the video The Eichmann Trial by Emory University (3 min) then ask the questions below in an open discussion. (Note: Some of the comments on the video on YouTube may be inappropriate.)

1. What do you think of Eichmann being kidnapped and taken to Israel for trial? Do you think this was fair or unjust? Why do you think it was done?
2. Deborah Lipstadt calls the Eichmann trial “A trial by the victims of one of the perpetrators.” What significance did this have on the proceedings?
3. What do you think of what she said about the nature of evil? Why was it so important to put a face to the perpetrator?

Direct students to the resource ‘Eichmann Trial‘ by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Have students pair up to read through the resource and answer the critical thinking questions.

Eichmann, as well as other Nazi perpetrators put on trial, gave a similar defense. What do you think of Eichmann’s defense that he was “merely a little cog in the machinery” of destruction? Do you think there is any case where this defense could be valid?

Ask the class how they would define the terms “justice” and “accountability.” Write the words or phrases they come with on the board, then ask them the following questions:

• What role does justice and accountability play in the healing process for victims of crimes?
• What does it say to the people responsible for those crimes?
• In what ways can courts of justice and accountability fail victims of crimes?

Familiarize students with the resource, Justice and Accountability by the US Holocaust Memorial Museum. Show students that there are three sections of images and texts followed by a quote; Documenting the Crimes, The Trials, and Lasting Legacies.

Divide the class into three groups and assign them one of the three categories: Documenting the Crimes, The Trials, and Lasting Legacies and one of the quotes. These groups can end up being quite large depending on class size. Allow groups to divide up the images to go over in subgroups, as long as they all get together to discuss.
Provide the following instructions while they get into their groups:

1. Prepare a brief presentation in order to share your section with the class. Presentations can be done orally, preferably sharing the image being discussed with the rest of the class. Use the guidelines below to structure your presentation:
   1. Describe the images and tell their significance.
   2. Share what you thought of your group’s quote. What do you think it means? What relevance does it have in today’s society?

Ask students if they have heard of the Nuremberg Trials. If so, what do they know about them?

Direct students to the resource, War Crimes Trials by Echoes & Reflections. If not all students have access to a computer, print copies of the resource for your students so they can fill in the Discussion Questions worksheet on the last page.

Read through the resource as a class before having the students answer the questions on their own.

Go over the questions as a class. Did everyone come up with the same answers?

Did anything stand out to them when they read through the charges against the perpetrators?

*Hint* The term “genocide” was coined by Raphael Lemkin in 1943-44 but the crime against genocide was not put into effect until 1948.

One at a time, have students read three names from this list from Yad Vashem. As they go through, have them read out the person’s family name, first name, as well as where they were killed.

Watch this video on Remembrance by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM).

1. What is commemoration? Why is it important?
2. Why is name reading used in commemoration?
3. How long would it take a single person to read the first and last names of 6 million victims? Can you guess?

The answer: It would take a single person over 1,538 hours, or 64 days straight.

When else are name readings used? Do they serve the same purpose?

Writing activity: Have students write a letter to a Holocaust survivor. Share the resource, Meet Holocaust Survivors by the USHMM and provide them with the instructions below:

1. Look through the list of survivors and choose one you would like to write to.
2. Read through their bio to learn more about their story.
3. Write a letter for this person. Themes you can consider as you write: bravery, strength, and how their memory will not be forgotten.

Ask the class, how does reading a survivor’s story commemorate their memory and the memories of those that lost their lives?

Ask students, what is commemoration? Then ask, what purpose do monuments and memorials serve?

As a class, read through the Visual Essay: Holocaust Memorials and Monuments by Facing History and Ourselves and look through the pictures of the memorials featured.

After you go through the reading, go over the Connection Questions found at the bottom of the page. You may choose to do these as a class or have the students discuss them in small groups of three to five people.

Distribute the Creating a Memorial worksheet to each of your students. As this last activity asks students to reflect in depth, you may consider giving students the opportunity to work on their memorial at home. You may also want to give students the option to create their memorials in pairs, allowing them an opportunity to share ideas and concepts. Some teachers will ask students to create a physical model of the memorial they have conceptualized. If able, provide materials such as construction paper, clay, or paint to work on their memorials.

Collect memorials created by your class as a class project. These memorials can then be used as examples when carrying out this lesson for future classes. If doing physical models, you may consider taking a photo of the model to collect instead of holding onto the physical ones.