Format for Paired Readings
Overview
Albert Einstein once said, “"The world is too dangerous to live in, not because of the people who do evil, but because
of the people who sit and let it happen." When studying the Holocaust, people often wonder how it was even possible
for something so horrific to occur in a civilized society. Through studying history, it is evident that there were people
who watched the tragedies as they occurred and did nothing to stop them whether it was because of fear, because they
felt unable or inadequate, or because they simply did not care because it was not them who was being persecuted.
However, there were also those people who resisted and who fought back. There were those-whether they be Jewish,
German, Russian, American, or any other nationality- who stood up for fellow mankind no matter the cost. Below are
two pieces of literature that examine both types of people, those who “allowed” evil and those who resisted. The first is
an informational article about Hans and Sophie Scholl Christoph Probst, Willi Graf, and Alexander Schmorell. They all
founded the “White Rose” movement. The second is a poem in which the townspeople and the narrator do not resist.
When the Hangman first appears in the town, the scaffold he built was small, and the citizens merely wondered “who
the criminal, what the crime…” Once they discovered the victim was not a criminal, but simply a man “who came from
another land,” they breathed a sigh of relief. The man to die was not one of their own, rather, he was just a foreigner.
During the hanging, no one spoke, certain that the executioner would be gone after completing his business. However,
the following day, they discovered the Hangman still at his gallows, and he laughed. Suddenly, one of the townsmen
cried, “Murderer!” The Hangman grabbed him as the rest shrank quickly back, and immediately, a second execution
took place. That very night, the scaffold grew larger: “Fed by the blood beneath the chute, the gallows tree had taken
root…” The third victim was a Jew – according to the Hangman, he was a “usurer and infidel”. The fourth’s crime was
that he was black, and his color caused discomfort to others. Rapidly, the numbers for the scaffold increased, and
though the townsfolk made some mild objections, they were easily persuaded to stand by and let the hangings happen.
Soon, all questions and all objections stopped entirely. At last, there was no one left in the town, but the narrator of the
poem. When the Hangman called the narrator’s name, he went to the courthouse confident that he had done no
wrong. He also believed that because of his silence, he had given nothing but loyalty and obedience to the evil
executioner. As he stood on the gallows, the realization came to the man that he was next.
Paired Readings
Passage #1
White Rose
Alexander Schmorell, a member of the White Rose student opposition, upon his graduation from high school.
Schmorell was arrested, condemned to death by the People's Court, and executed on July 13, 1943.
In 1942 Hans Scholl, a medical student at the University of Munich, his sister Sophie, Christoph Probst, Willi Graf, and
Alexander Schmorell founded the “White Rose” movement, one of the few German groups that spoke out against Nazi
genocidal policies.
Nazi tyranny and the apathy of German citizens in the face of the regime’s “abominable crimes” outraged idealistic
“White Rose” members. Many of them had heard about the mass murder of Polish Jews; as a soldier on the eastern front,
Hans Scholl had also seen firsthand the mistreatment of Jewish forced laborers and heard of the deportation of large
numbers of Poles to concentration camps.
The group expanded into an organization of students in Hamburg, Freiburg, Berlin, and Vienna. At great risk, “White
Rose” members transported and mailed mimeographed leaflets that denounced the regime. In their attempt to stop the war
effort, they advocated the sabotage of the armaments industry. “We will not be silent,” they wrote to their fellow students.
“We are your bad conscience. The White Rose will not leave you in peace!" Because the students were aware that only
military force could end Nazi domination, they limited their aims to achieve “a renewal from within of the severely
wounded German spirit.”
After the German army’s defeat at Stalingrad in late January 1943, the Scholls distributed pamphlets urging students in
Munich to rebel. But in the next month, a university janitor who saw them with the pamphlets betrayed them to the
Gestapo (German secret state police).
The regime executed Hans and Sophie Scholl and Christoph Probst on February 22, 1943. Officials also eventually
arrested and executed philosophy professor Kurt Huber, who had guided the movement, and the rest of the “White Rose”
members.
At his trial Huber remained loyal to the eighteenth century German philosopher Immanuel Kant’s ethical teaching, as he
concluded his defense with the words of Kant’s disciple Johann Gottlieb Fichte:
And thou shalt act as if
On thee and on thy deed
Depended the fate of all Germany,
And thou alone must answer for it.
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Washington, DC
Passage #2
The Hangman
by Maurice Ogden
Stanza 1
Into our town the Hangman came, smelling of gold and blood and flame. And he paced our bricks with a
diffident air. And built his frame on the courthouse square.
The scaffold stood by the courthouse side, only as wide as the door was wide; a frame as tall, or little more,
than the capping sill of the courthouse door.
And we wondered, whenever we had the time, who the criminal, what the crime, that Hangman judged with
the yellow twist of knotted hemp in his busy fist.
And innocent though we were, with dread we passed those eyes of buckshot lead; till one cried: "Hangman,
who is he for whom you raise the gallows-tree."
Then a twinkle grew in the buckshot eye, and he gave us a riddle instead of reply: "He who serves me best,"
said he, "Shall earn the rope on the gallows-tree."
And he stepped down, and laid his hand on a man who came from another land and we breathed again, for
another's grief at the Hangman's hand was our relief.
And the gallows-frame on the courthouse lawn by tomorrow's sun would be struck and gone. So we gave him
way, and no one spoke, out of respect for his hangman's cloak.
Stanza 2
The next day's sun looked mildly down on roof and street in our quiet town and, stark and black in the
morning air, the gallows-tree on the courthouse square.
And the Hangman stood at his usual stand with the yellow hemp in his busy hand; with his buckshot eye and
his jaw like a pike and his air so knowing and businesslike.
And we cried: "Hangman, have you not done, yesterday, with the alien one?" Then we fell silent, and stood
amazed: "Oh, not for him was the gallows raised."
He laughed a laugh as he looked at us: "Did you think I'd gone to all this fuss to hang one man? That's a thing I
do to stretch the rope when the rope is new."
Then one cried, "Murderer!" One cried, "Shame!" And into our midst the Hangman came to that man's place.
"Do you hold," said he, "With him that was meant for the gallows-tree?"
And he laid his hand on that one's arm, and we shrank back in quick alarm, and we gave him way, and no one
spoke out of fear of his hangman's cloak.
That night we saw with dread surprise the Hangman's scaffold had grown in size. Fed by the blood beneath
the chute the gallows-tree had taken root;
Now as wide, or a little more, than the steps that led to the courthouse door, as tall as the writing, or nearly as
tall, halfway up on the courthouse wall.
Stanza 3
The third he took — we had all heard tell — was a usurer and infidel, And: "What," said the Hangman, "have
you to do with the gallows-bound, and he a Jew?"
And we cried out: "Is this one he who has served you well and faithfully?" The Hangman smiled: "It's a clever
scheme to try the strength of the gallows-beam."
The fourth man's dark, accusing song had scratched out comfort hard and long; and "What concern," he gave
us back, "Have you for the doomed - the doomed and black?"
The fifth. The sixth. And we cried again: "Hangman, Hangman, is this the man?" "It's a trick," he said, "that we
hangmen know for easing the trap when the trap springs slow."
And so we ceased, and asked no more, as the Hangman tallied his bloody score; and sun by sun, and night by
night, the gallows grew to monstrous height.
The wings of the scaffold opened wide till they covered the square from side to side; and the monster crossbeam, looking down, cast its shadow across the town.
Stanza 4
Then through the town the Hangman came and called in the empty streets my name - and I looked at the
gallows soaring tall and thought: "There is no one left at all for hanging, and so he calls to me to help pull
down the gallows-tree." And I went out with right good hope to the Hangman's tree and the Hangman's rope.
He smiled at me as I came down to the courthouse square through the silent town, and supple and stretched
in his busy hand was the yellow twist of the hempen strand.
And he whistled his tune as he tried the trap and it sprang down with a ready snap— and then with a smile of
awful command he laid his hand upon my hand.
"You tricked me, Hangman!" I shouted then. "That your scaffold was built for other men. And I no henchman
of yours," I cried, "You lied to me, Hangman, foully lied!"
Then a twinkle grew in his buckshot eye: "Lied to you? Tricked you?" he said, "Not I. For I answered straight
and I told you true: The scaffold was raised for none but you.
"For who has served me more faithfully than you with your coward's hope?" said he, "And where are the
others that might have stood side by your side in the common good?"
"Dead," I whispered; and amiably "Murdered," the Hangman corrected me; "First the alien, then the Jew... I
did no more than you let me do."
Beneath the beam that blocked the sky, none had stood so alone as I - and the Hangman strapped me, and no
voice there cried "Stay" for me in the empty square.
Selected Response
1. In Passage #1, what was the White Rose members’ intent when wrote, “We will not be silent. We are your bad
conscience. The White Rose will not leave you in peace!"
A.
B.
C.
D.
To intimidate and punish their fellow students.
To present important information to their fellow students
To stir up guilt in the hearts of their fellow students
To protest Professor Kurt Huber’s trial
2. In Passage #2, what did the Hangman suggest to the narrator about the people who had been hanged?
A. They had done nothing wrong, yet they were murdered.
B. They deserved to die.
C. They had been murdered because the Hangman wanted them dead.
D. The Hangman did not speak to the narrator.
3. Which statement below describes the structure of the two texts?
A. Both texts are structured chronologically in order to explain the significance of important dates in
history
B. Both texts focus on comparing and contrasting different experiences during WWII and the
Holocaust
C. Passage #1 is a nonfiction text while Passage #2 is fiction and uses figurative language; both texts
use cause and effect to explore compassion towards mankind or lack thereof
D. Passage #1 is an informative article while Passage #2 is argumentative; both texts use chronological
order to explain an event in history.
4. Short Constructed Response
Write a short explanation describing the courage the White Rose members displayed and the lack of
courage that the narrator in “The Hangman” displayed.
5. Extended Response (ELA only)
Compare and contrast the White Rose members’ courage and the lack of courage the narrator in “The
Hangman” displayed. Focus on the details of the specific events that cause courage or lack of courage and fear.
Be certain to make clear statements about both the White Rose members’ courage and the narrator’s lack of
courage, and cite evidence from the text to support your statements.
In your extended response, be sure to:
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Introduce your thesis
Include discussion of both passages
Mention the authors and titles
Support your thesis with relevant evidence form the texts
Organize the evidence
Give your own commentary on the evidence showing how it supports your thesis
Establish and maintain a formal style
Provide a concluding statement or section that wraps up your ideas; do not repeat your introduction
Check your work for correct grammar, capitalization, spelling, punctuation
Check your sentences to make sure that they are complete and that they make sense