Lesson plan: DIDN’T STAND BY
The theme for Holocaust Memorial Day 2016 is Don’t stand by.
In this lesson your students are going to explore ways in which individuals and groups of people
didn’t stand by during the Holocaust, so that your students have a greater understanding of
responses to the Holocaust.
For Holocaust Memorial Day 2016 we are asking you and your students to think about the theme
Don’t stand by.
27 January is a day for everyone to remember the millions murdered in the Holocaust,
under Nazi Persecution and in subsequent genocides in Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia,
and Darfur. On HMD we honour the survivors of these atrocities and learn the lessons of their
experiences to challenge hatred and discrimination in the UK today.
On HMD 2016 we encourage you to learn from those who didn’t stand by, and consider your own
responsibility, not to stand by, creating a legacy for the future.
Before you teach this lesson, we recommend that you read through the entire lesson plan. Please
choose which elements and options are more appropriate for your students, or split this plan over
two (or more) lessons. Please read through this plan in advance so you can tailor the lesson
to your students depending on their age, ability and interest.
This resource is designed to be either a stand-alone lesson, or an inspiration/ starting point for you
that can open the door for further learning and that can link into the wider curriculum.
Start here:
1) RESISTANCE
Ask your students to define the word: Resistance
Write their thoughts and suggestions up on the board and keep these up throughout the
whole lesson.
To resist:
to withstand the action or effect of something
try to prevent something by action or argument
2) RESISTANCE DURING THE HOLOCAUST
In small groups, get your students to jot down all the different ways people resisted during
the Holocaust. Then ask each group to feedback and create a spider diagram of all the
different answers.
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You may not need suggestions or prompts but if you do, you could give each group one of these
to discuss and decide whether they were acts of resisting, or you could throw these out as
examples if the groups are struggling:
Having a Sabbath meal
Putting on a theatrical performance
Existing
Physically fighting Nazis
Sabotaging train lines
Rescuing Jews
Hiding Jews
Forging documents
Armed resistance
Distributing anti-Nazi literature
Keeping a diary / creating an archive
The rest of this lesson plan gives you an opportunity to explore one or more of the above
types of resistance. Where possible, an example has been given with more information that
you can explore with your students, and suggestions for activities that you can do with
your students. Some of the stories and examples link with others but equally you could
choose to just explore one area in more detail.
Spiritual resistance, eg having a Sabbath meal, keeping kosher or celebrating a
Jewish festival
This is an opportunity to explain more about Judaism, and why it was so important to Jewish
people to continue their traditions in the face of adversity. The Nazis wanted to destroy not only
the Jewish people, but their religion and culture as well. Holding a Sabbath meal, keeping kosher
or celebrating a Jewish festival in a ghetto or concentration camp demonstrates strength and
courage.
• Ensure your students know more about the Sabbath meal – you could organise a
demonstration meal for them, or you could arrange a session to bake Challah, the
traditional bread eaten on the Sabbath.
• Ensure your students understand what keeping kosher involves – you could arrange for a
local rabbi to come in and explain to them.
Existing
Some people may argue that simply existing was an act of defiance against the Nazis, who
wanted all Jews to die. This sentiment has been echoed by survivors of other genocides. You can
read or watch Hawa’s story with your pupils. Hawa (not her real name), a survivor of the ongoing
genocide in Darfur, said ‘I want to live, and I want to save myself’: hmd.org.uk/hawa
Physical resistance e.g. sabotaging train lines
Lots of people went to great efforts to derail trains, by sabotaging railway lines or by blowing up
railway bridges, at great risk to themselves. Nicole David went into hiding, her mother was
deported by the Nazis, and never seen again. Nicole noted that there were people who stood up to
the Nazis, saying ‘In Belgium during the war, some rail-workers tried to sabotage the trains, some
postmen steamed open letters if they suspected denunciation, and warned people of impending
arrest before forwarding the letters.’ Read Nicole’s full life story here: hmd.org.uk/nicole
Armed resistance
People all over Europe took up arms against the Nazis. Jack Kagan fought the Nazis as part of a
Jewish Partisan movement, led by the Bielski brothers, which inspired the Hollywood film Defiance
(itself based on the book Defiance hmd.org.uk/defiancebook). Physical resistance also took
place in ghettos and concentration camps, with well-known uprisings taking place in the Warsaw
Ghetto and Sobibor and Treblinka concentration camps. You could read more about the uprisings
and the partisans with your students, and show an excerpt from the film Defiance to explore
reasons why and how people fought back.
hmd.org.uk/resistance
hmd.org.uk/jack
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Hiding and rescuing Jews
There are lots of examples of people who took in Jews, hiding them and welcoming them into
them into their home. This was often at great risk to themselves and to their families.
Nicole David went into hiding in Belgium, you can read her full story here: hmd.org.uk/nicole
Explore the following stories of rescue by splitting up your class, either into two groups or in pairs.
Give each of the two groups, or each person in the pair one of the following stories and give the
other group or other person in the pair the complimentary story.
Choose one of the following pairs of stories:
• Sir Nicholas Winton, who rescued 669 Czech children and brought them to the UK in 1939,
and Vera Schaufeld one of the children who he saved.
• Sydney and Golda Bourne, who welcomed a girl into their home when she came to the UK
on the Kindertransport and Susanne Kenton, who was that girl.
Once each group has read the life story, ask them to write down if there is any more information
that they want or need to know, and what is it that they want to know. Ask each group or pair to
summarise the life story they have read to the other group or person in their pair. Now that they
have heard the other side of the story, do they know everything they wanted to know? How useful
was it to have the other story? Is there still more information that they want to know – and if so,
where can they go to find out more?
hmd.org.uk/nicholas and hmd.org.uk/vera
hmd.org.uk/bournes and hmd.org.uk/susanne
Keeping a diary
People kept diaries during the Holocaust for all sorts of reasons, for their own comfort, to be able
to confide in someone, and also to ensure that their voice lived on, if their bodies did not. This is
an opportunity to explore Holocaust diaries with your students. You could read excerpts from
diaries, such as Anne Frank’s diary, or Philipp Manes diary, As if it were life, which you can also
play excerpts from – hmd.org.uk/philipp
Discuss with your students why it was so important for these people to keep a diary, and to record
what they were going through. From a historical perspective, consider with your students how
valuable diaries are as first hand evidence of the persecution Jews were experiencing.
You could also follow this up by reading diaries of those caught up in genocides, such as
Zlata’s Diary: A Child’s Life in Sarajevo by Zlata Flipovic, or watch The Diary of Immaculée, a
documentary about the life of Immaculée Ilibagiza, a survivor of the genocide in Rwanda.
You could encourage your students to write their own diary entries either based on an important
event in their lives, or based on this lesson. What do the students want to record? What
information is important to convey to people who may read the diary entry in the future?
For much younger pupils, you could read I’m so not a pop star by Kimberley Greene. Written in a
mixture of normal prose and blogs written by the main character Sam, it explores the story of her
grandparents who were Holocaust survivors. Sam has read The Diary of Anne Frank so that helps
her understanding of the Holocaust. This book is a gentle introduction to the Holocaust. For more
information about the book and some questions to explore with your pupils, please see this
resource: hmd.org.uk/notapopstar
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For older pupils, or an extra challenge, read the story of the Sonderkommando, some of whom
risked their lives to bury information in concentration camps. Please note this story may be
distressing for some of your students. You could explore with your students why the members of
the Sonderkommando went to such great lengths to not stand by, and what they hoped to achieve
through their brave actions. hmd.org.uk/sonderkommando
For a more in-depth exploration of the topic of keeping diaries and archives in the face of Nazi
persecution, look at the life story of Emanuel Ringelblum and the Oneg Shabbat archive and the
accompanying lesson plan, produced for HMD 2015, which is full of activities. Many people in the
Warsaw Ghetto went to great lengths to keep diaries and record evidence of the persecution they
were experiencing. Through looking at the archive, your students will learn more about resistance
to the Holocaust:
hmd.org.uk/onegshabbat and hmd.org.uk/ktmasecondarylessonplan
Distributing anti-Nazi literature
The White Rose Movement was founded in 1942 led by a group of university students, Hans
Scholl, Christoph Probst, Willi Graf, Sophie Scholl and Alexander Schmorell, to oppose the Nazi
regime. They produced leaflets, encouraging their fellow students to rebel against the Nazis. They
were betrayed and the members of the movement were all executed by the Nazis. The White
Rose Movement is an inspiring, although tragic, example that we don’t simply have to follow
orders, and we can stand up for what we believe is right. Read their full story here:
hmd.org.uk/whiterose
You could encourage your students to produce their own leaflets:
1) Is there something they feel so passionate about that they would create a leaflet and
risk their lives distributing it? What messages do they want to convey and who do they
want to reach?
2) Could your students produce a leaflet about the White Rose Movement – or other forms
of resistance that took place during the Holocaust? It would be an appropriate memorial
to those who gave their own life to share their story.
Cultural resistance e.g. putting on a theatrical performance in a ghetto
There are lots of examples of theatre and musical performances in the ghettos, as musicians,
actors, composers and directors were determined to ensure that they carried on providing art,
music and drama to their peers. The Nazis wanted to destroy Jewish culture as well as their lives
so by creating new artwork and performing existing artwork, Jewish people were carrying on with
their lives, creating a semblance of normality even in the ghettos and defying the Nazis. You can
explore artwork created during the Holocaust through our resource:
hmd.org.uk/artandtheholocaust
What next
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The Holocaust Memorial Day Trust has produced assemblies, lesson plans and activities
that are suitable for all ages and abilities to commemorate the Holocaust. These can all be
found here: hmd.org.uk/education
If your students are now inspired to take action, or you want to encourage them to take
action and not stand by, have a look at our ‘Don’t Stand By – What you can do’ activity
sheet: hmd.org.uk/whatyoucando
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