Students discover the complexities of Martha Sharp's rescue project by analyzing historical correspondences.
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Lesson
Democracy & Civic Engagement
Finding Your Voice
Students reflect on what "American" means to them and are introduced to the idea that the United States is the product of many individual voices and stories.
Lesson
Global Immigration
Responses to the 1930s Refugee Crisis
Students activate their thinking around being an upstander and their responsibility toward others in light of the Sharps' mission work in Czechoslovakia.
Lesson
Global Immigration
The Refugee Crisis and Human Responsibility
Students learn about the legal rights of refugees and then use poetry to develop a personal connection to the current global crisis.
Lesson
Global Immigration
The Sharps’ Dilemmas
Students are introduced to upstanders Waitstill and Martha Sharp, an American minister and his wife who undertook a rescue mission to help save Jews and refugees fleeing Nazi occupation.
Reading
Holocaust
American Public Opinion Data
The following surveys and polling questions conducted between 1938-141 gauge US attitudes toward Jews. Findings showed that few Americans were vehemently antisemitic, but many felt that Jews had to be “kept in their place.”
Reading
Global Immigration
Two Who Dared
Learn how the Sharps' rescue work began with a phone call from the American Unitarian community asking for their leadership in the refugee crisis in Prague, 1939.
Reading
Helen’s Letter to Supporters
Read Helen Lowrie's letter to the Sharps' supporters describing their efforts to aid refugees with the children's rescue project.
Helen’s Letter to Supporters
November 23, 1940
Dear Friends,
Reading
Martha’s Letter to Helen
Read Martha Sharp's letter to Helen Lowrie written in Lisbon, Portugal, describing her daring journey from France.
Martha’s Letter to Helen
Hotel Metropole, Lisbon
December 2, 1940
My darling Helen,
…
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