Night, by Elie Wiesel

Taking Action Against Indifference

Are Hitler and the Nazis alone responsible for the deaths of so many people? 
What about the people who witnessed the carrying out of Hitler's plan called, "The Final Solution," and did nothing?  Are those people also responsible for so many deaths?   If you see something that is morally wrong are you also responsible if you take no action?

The photograph shows the rounding up of Jewish civilians by the Nazis.

Teacher Page

Credits: Peggy Maslow, F. K. Lane High School, Brooklyn, NY  11208
Many thanks to Ed Osterman, Associate Director of the New York City Writing Project, for his valuable assistance and to the Writing Project Summer 2000 and 2001 Inquiry into Technology course leaders, Paul Allison, Dina Heisler, and John Miottel. Many thanks also to Kathy Morin of teachersnetwork.org for her many helpful suggestions leading to the improvement of these web pages. All photographs are from http://ushmm.org.

Home -student introductory page
Taking Action-web page project to be created by students over several weeks to alert the world, 1933 to 1945, to the Nazi threat: In New York State students finish studying the Holocaust in their social studies classes by the middle of 10th grade. It is recommended that the book be read after students have studied the Holocaust in their social studies or history class.
First  motivations for reading the book, Night , which include a photo of a sign, an obituary and feature article from the NY Times, a graphic organizer on the word indifference, and a chapter from another book on the Holocaust.
Reading Journals - assignments for students while reading the book at home where student reflect on what they have read and then share these reflections with each other on a discusion forum
Group Assignments - class assignments for students in groups. to help students focus on the language and themes of the book
Memoir  -a project where students write their own short memoir or story about themselves
Links- sources on the Internet to help students to complete their web page project called Taking Action