The document describes the Pyramid of Hate, which outlines the progression from prejudiced attitudes to acts of prejudice, discrimination, violence, and ultimately genocide. It provides examples of behaviors at each level, from telling jokes and social avoidance to threats, assault, and murder. The pyramid is meant to explain how "normal" people can become complicit in large-scale human rights violations if lower levels of harmful behavior are not addressed.

1. The Pyramid of Hate
Explaining the Holocaust: How could “normal” people
become directly or indirectly involved in a genocide?
and
What can we learn from the past?

2. Answer yes or no to the following questions on a piece of scratch paper:
Have you ever:
5. Overheard a joke that made fun of a person of a different ethnic background, race, religion,
gender, or sexual orientation.
7. Been the target of name-calling because of your ethnic background, race, religion, gender, or
sexual orientation.
9. Made fun of someone different from you?
11. Left someone out of an activity because they are different from you?
13. Not been invited to attend a activity or social function because many of the people there are
different from you?
15. Engaged in stereotyping (lumping together all people of a race, religion, or sexual orientation)?
17. Been threatened by someone who is different from you because of your difference?
19. Committed an act of violence against someone who is different from you?

3. 1. Why do you think people tell ethnic jokes about other groups, insult others, or
exclude them socially?
3. Where do people learn to disrespect people who seem different?
5. Can you give examples of prejudice you have learned through the media?[1]
[1] http://www.usc.edu/schools/college/vhi/vhf-new/Exhibits/PyramidOfHate/POH-Exercise.pdf

4. In one school, a group of four boys began whispering and laughing about another boy in their
school that they said was gay. They began making comments when they walked by him in the
hall. Soon, they start calling the boy insulting, anti-gay slurs.
By the end of the month, they had taken their harassment to another level, tripping him as he
passed by and pushing him into a locker while they yelled slurs. Sometime during the next month,
they increased the seriousness of their conduct – they surrounded him and two boys held his arms
while the others hit and kicked him.
Eventually, one of the boys threatened to bring his father’s gun to school the next day to kill the
boy. At this point, another student overheard the threat and the police were notified.[1]
[1] Wessler, Steven, “Sticks and Stones”. Educational Leadership, December 2000/January 2001, p. 28.
1. Could something similar to this happen at our school?
3. How do you think a situation like this could affect the entire school?
5. What could have been done to stop the situation from escalating? Who could have stopped it?

5. Martin Niemoller, First they came…..
Martin Niemöller was a German pastor born in Lippstadt, Germany, in 1892. Niemöller was an anti-Communist
and supported Hitler's rise to power at first. But when Hitler insisted on the supremacy of the Nazi party over
religion, Niemöller became disillusioned. He became the leader of a group of German clergymen opposed to
Hitler. In 1937 he was arrested and eventually confined in Sachsenhausen and Dachau. His crime was "not
being enthusiastic enough about the Nazi movement." Niemöller was released in 1945 by the Allies.
First they came for the communists,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a communist.
Then they came for the trade unionists,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Jews,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a Jew.
Then they came for me
and there was no one left to speak out for me
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/12/17/daily-show-destroys-laura_n_395427.html

6. Pyramid of
Hate V. Genocide
The deliberate, systematic
extermination of an entire
people.
IV. Violence
Against Property: Arson, Desecration
Against People: Threats, Assault, Terrorism,
Murder
III. Discrimination
Employment Discrimination, Housing Discrimination, Educational
Discrimination, Harassment (hostile acts based on a person’s
race, religion, nationality, sexual orientation or gender)
II. Acts of Prejudice
Name calling, ridicule, social avoidance, social exclusion, telling belittling
jokes
I. Prejudiced Attitudes
Accepting Stereotypes, not challenging belittling jokes, scapegoating (assigning blame to people
because of their group identity)

7. V. Genocide
IV. Violence
III. Discrimination
II. Acts of Prejudice
I. Prejudiced Attitudes
1. Where would you place “whispering and laughing” on the Pyramid?
2. Why do you think that something which, at first, seemed harmless, progressed into violence?
3. Even if it seemed harmless to the perpetrators and bystanders, do you think it felt harmless to the
victim? How do you think he felt?
4. At what level of the pyramid do you think it would be easiest for someone to intervene?
5. What would be some possible ways to intervene?
http://college.usc.edu/vhi/pyramidofhate/vhfmain.htm