Rationale
Examining the topic of responsibility and guilt for the Holocaust is an important, yet difficult, task. Allowing opportunities for students to critically examine the roles of both individuals and nations in preventing what happened to victims of the Holocaust, asks them to examine the complex boundaries of responsibility and the cost to a society that does not act. Adolescents are often eager and interested to discuss issues of fairness and consequences as they struggle to understand the world outside of themselves. The Holocaust provides and excellent platform for them to question, analyze, and redefine their own beliefs and values.
While questions abound regarding whether the free world should have done more sooner to help the victims of the Holocaust, these questions in no way take away from the fact that Americans (and all Allies) in great numbers gave their lives to liberate Europe. The memory of the more than one million U.S. servicemen and women who were killed and wounded in World War II must be acknowledged and honored.
Activities and Discussion Questions
1. As an introduction to the topic of the responsibility that other countries had in intervening in what was taking place in Europe, have students read the statements below (which should be prepared in advance on the board, chart paper, or on a overhead transparency) and decide with which statement they identify most.
- Nations should be responsible for the safety of other nations and ethnic groups who are in danger at any cost.
- Nations should be responsible for the safety of other nations and ethnic groups who are in danger if it suits their interests.
- Nations should be responsible for the safety of other nations and ethnic groups who are in danger only if it doesn’t cost too much tax money.
- Nations should be responsible for the safety of other nations and ethnic groups who are in danger if it doesn’t involve risking human lives.
- Nations should not be responsible for the safety of other nations and ethnic groups who are in danger.
2. Divide students into small groups and have them discuss their responses. Emphasize
that the goal is not to persuade classmates to change their minds about which statement
they chose, but rather to share ideas and thinking on the topic.
3. Explain to students that they will examine the issue of ways that the free world
reacted to the fate of Jews by studying what came to be referred to as “the Jewish
refugee problem.”
4. Read the Evian Conference and Bermuda Conference
handouts and discuss the questions below:
- Compare the two conferences; what were their official goals?
- What was the outcome of these conferences?
- Do you believe that anti-Semitism was a factor in the outcome? Explain your thinking.
- What role, if any, should the United States play in helping to provide a safe haven to refugees from countries where gross human rights violations, genocide, or potential genocide is taking place?
5. Show the image of Felix Nussbaum’s painting, “The Refugee” (below). Have students study the painting and then share their interpretations of it by discussing the following questions:
- What do you believe the artist was attempting to say to the world through this work?
- What do you think the globe represents?
- What might the bundle next to the man represent?
- How does the man in the picture perceive the world?
- Comment on Nussbaum’s choice of color, line, and shape. What is the overall effect of his choices?
- Do you think this piece of art accurately reflects how Jewish refugees felt during the late 1930’s? Why or why not?
- Do you think this painting could have meaning for present-day refugees? Explain your thinking.
About the Artist: Felix Nussbaum was born in Osnabrueck, Germany, and studied in Hamburg, Berlin, and Rome. He and his companion, Felka Platek, settled in Belgium in 1935. In 1940, he was arrested and sent to the camps of Saint Cyprien and Gurs in southern France. Nussbaum managed to escape, and lived in hiding in Brussels, Belgium until he was caught in 1944 and sent to Auschwitz, where he perished.
