Rethinking Perpetrators, Bystanders and Rescuers: The case of Max Schmeling

GOALS FOR STUDENT UNDERSTANDING

Students will develop a more complex understanding of human behavior and an understanding that people do not always neatly fit into the categories perpetrator, bystander, and rescuer. They will learn how the changing historical circumstances influenced the choices made by individuals during the Holocaust.
Students will understand how a study of individuals' choices during the Holocaust relates to the choices they are making in their own lives today.

The students will read and analyze a Sports Illustrated article and take notes about the life of Max Schmeling.
The students will analyze three specific choices Schmeling made in his life:

He turned to Hitler to clear up a financial problem, thus indebting himself to Hitler; Schmeling hung an autographed picture of Hitler in his study.
Schmeling openly acknowledged the existence of concentration camps in Germany yet did nothing as the Gestapo arrested his Jewish friends.
Schemling hid two Jewish teens in his hotel suite for two days.

The students will assess Schmeling’s choices in light of the changing political and cultural contexts surrounding him at each step, recognizing the difficulty of stereotyping people into one, unchanging role.
The students will compare and contrast Schmeling’s choices with those of other figures already studied to draw conclusions about the effects of choice in changing circumstances.
The students will apply their knowledge of Schmeling’s motivations and choices to situations they see in their contemporary lives.
The students will synthesize the goals of the lesson through small group discussion, full class discussion, and individual journaling at the end of the lesson.

This lesson connects several of Ohio’s state standards for English/Language Arts including:

Writing Applications and Conventions standards, writing responses and producing informal writings