20-minute video lesson distributed to 5,000 schools for their school assemblies on Holocaust Memorial Day 2023.

Bystanders and Upstanders

Two Home Learning video exercises for students of secondary school age

As we face challenges together in fighting Covid-19, we see the impact of individual actions – particularly those of key workers who keep us safe. Determination to help others is an important sign of hope. On January 27th we will mark Holocaust Memorial Day. The theme for 2021 is to ‘Be the Light in the Darkness’, a powerful reminder of the impact of choices made by individuals during the Holocaust, and today. We invite you to think about two choices that each of us face: to be a Bystander, or an Upstander.

Here are two online video exercises, exploring what each of these means:

1. Edek

In this exercise, watch our award-winning Hip Hop Holocaust video Edek and excerpts of Holocaust survivor testimonies. Consider the issues they raise and how these might be relevant to today.

2. Stand Up!

What does it mean to be a bystander? This exercise looks at the issue through the lens of football. Watch the much publicised Stand Up football video we created for Holocaust Memorial Day 2020. 

Stand up to #CoronaRacism.

We invite you to

Email [email protected] with your creative responses to these tutorials. We will publish the best on our website and social channels.

Curriculum links: PSHE, History and RE

Your response

Thank you to Rebecca Guy for sending us this bold poem:

Stand up.
Take my hands if you must,
I will help you
get up and take a stand.

Stand up.
They picked you apart
on the table,
Under the harsh fluorescent lights,
Like the corpse that you are not.

Stand up.
They said that you are wrong,
And we do not see how
in your DNA as complex as anyone else's
that could ever be the case.

Stand up.
There is no need to cry now,
For you are safe
and warm with us,
And we think you're perfect,
Just like us.

Stand up.
Do not give in to them,
You must never let them know
that their hatred gets to you,
They don't deserve the satisfaction of knowing
that they made you cry.

Stand up.
For you are so brave.
Because everyday you have the courage to exist,
And you are proud of who you are.

So, stand up.
You're an upstander.