NAME______________________________________
SOCIAL STUDIES 8
World War II Homework Writing Assignment
Pick any 3 of the following dilemmas. For each one answer the question in at least
4 sentences. Make sure to write the numbers of the dilemmas you choose
1.) You have been in a concentration camp with other family members. You, as a musician,
may remain and be in the camp band for officers while the rest of your family is
scheduled to leave for another camp. Your family has relied on your strength during your
ordeal. What do you decide? Explain why?
2.) You are a 60 year old German farmer, but a Jewish sympathizer. In the mornings you
take your eggs and produce to market in the city. In the evening, you could take a straw
covered load of Jews out to the farm and start them on the trail to freedom. Time to
time you do encounter Gestapo cars − what you are doing is illegal − but, what the
Gestapo are doing is wrong. What would you do? Explain why?
3.) You are a railroad worker in rural Germany in 1942. On a daily basis you help care for
the many locked boxcars that sit for the night. It's obvious they are full of people.
Occasionally you think about freeing them or at least asking your supervisor what you
should do. What do you decide to do? Explain why?
4.) As an editor of a German newspaper in early 1941, you receive a letter and
photographs that prove that Jews are being killed only 20 miles from your town. What
do you do with the information? Explain why?
5.) As an American scientist in 1944 you have the solution for a successful atomic bomb.
You dream of its future possible use & abuse. Do you share your knowledge & solution?
Explain why?
6.) You and your family have been best friends with a Jewish family for decades. They
will soon be taken away if you do not hide them. If your family is caught, you'll all go to
jail or worse. What will you do? Explain why?
7.) All Poles are told they must report to the Nazis a list of all people who reside in their
homes. You are not Jewish. However, since you are married to a Jew and have Jewish
children, you will be considered a Jew. In order to escape deportation, you must run
away now. Do you leave your spouse and children, or stay and risk death? Explain why?