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.