Social Studies 11 - The Table

Research Gathering Stage 4 Holocaust and Human Behaviour

Unit Essential Question: What does learning about the choices people made during the

Weimar Republic, the Nazi regime and the Holocaust teach us about the power and impact of

our choices today?

The goal of our unit is to learn about the power and impact of the choices made during this

history in order to teach us about the power and impact of our choices today.

Stage 4: Conformity to Persecution

What choices were made by perpetrators/collaborators, bystanders, upstanders that

contributed to the persecution and genocide of outsiders?

What do these choices teach us about the power and impact of our choices today? Think about

how their choices teach us how we participate in a democracy and embrace democractic

values like rights and freedoms, or how their choices teach us how individuals or societies

determine their obligation toward others (universe of obligation), or how our choices affect

our social responsibilities, or how our choices shape our identities or the identities of others.

Consider the readings on Kristallnacht and the Holocaust -- you are gathering the choices that

perpetrators, bystanders and upstanders made during Kristallnacht and the Holocaust, the

motivations behind those choices (pressures to conform and indifference), and the

consequences of those choices.

What choices and

decisions were made by

perpetrators, bystanders,

and upstanders during

Kristallnacht and the

Holocaust? (Be clear

about the motivations

behind those choices such

as the pressures to

conform, indifference,

survival and empathy).

So what? What were the

consequences or impacts of those

choices?

What is the moral of the story? What

do these choices teach you about the

power and impact of our choices

today?