Rescuers: Those Who Risked Their Lives To Save Others
Introduction:
Many people in the Nazi occupied countries stood idly by as millions of people were rounded up and put to their deaths. However, there was a small group of individuals who risked their lives and careers to help the victims of Nazi persecution. In this lesson you will meet a few of them and learn their stories.
Part I: Rescuers from the Holocaust
Go to http://www.humboldt.edu/~rescuers/index.html
Read the introduction and go to the table of contents. Pick one of the rescuers stories and answer the following questions (you may want to consult the synopses of stories to help you decide).
- First read about the conditions of the country in which the story takes place. List three factors that made it easy/difficult to hide people in that country.
- Read one of the rescuers stories (you may want to print it out and read away from the computer). Answer the following:
- Why did this person risk their life to save the Jews? Do they provide any explanation in their story? If not, try to explain their motivation based upon what you have read.
- How did the rescuers hide the people they sought to protect? On a separate piece of paper draw a diagram to explain how the Jews were hid.
- Did they ever come close to being discovered? Explain.
- Next, read the accompanying story of the person who they rescued.
- Can you detect any differences in these two versions of the same story? If so, what?
- Why do you think there may be different versions of the same story?
- Can you think of any examples from your own life where people have told the same story in different ways? If so, explain.
Part II: Visas For Life
Go to http://www.rongreene.com/2Sugphoto7.html Read this story about a Japanese diplomat who risked his career to save Jews from certain death.
- Restate the story in your own words.
- What was unique about Chiune Sugihara and why does the author of this introduction believe that he was willing to take risks to save others?
View the Photographic exhibit which links from the main page. Be sure to read the captions. They include quotations from some of the people that he saved.
- How many visas did he issue?
- How many lives did he directly save?
- If you count the number of people alive today who are related to those he saved how many people did he save as a whole?
Part III: What would you do?
Have you ever been in a situation where somebody around you said something about another person and you felt it was wrong, but you didn't want to say anything because you wanted to be friends with the person/group?
Most of the people in Nazi occupied Europe millions of people go to their death either because the thought it was the right thing to do or because they were afraid to go against the Nazis.
Now that you have read some of these stories what would you have done had you been a non-Jew in Nazi occupied Europe. Write a reflective essay explaining your reasons and motivation. Try to draw on examples from your own life to support your claims.
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