This study guide accompanies the documentary America and the Holocaust: Deceit and Indifference and offers a disturbing look at the choices Americans made at a time when the Germans were labeling, isolating, humiliating, and eventually murdering European Jews and others they considered “undesirable.”
The chilling story is told through the memories of a Jewish refugee, Kurt Klein, who describes his efforts to save his parents. The film reveals the ways ordinary citizens, politicians, and government officials reacted as the plight of the Jews in Nazi-occupied Europe deepened.
This guide seeks to promote student-teacher discussion around questions such as:
- What causes people to be indifferent?
- What keeps a nation’s leaders from offering refugees a safe haven?
- Why did some people prefer to believe that “race” determines morality and behavior?
- How do extraordinary times affect the way people perceive government policies?
