Birmingham Children’s March

Capitol Crawl for the ADA

Egyptian Builders Strike

Rescue of Danish Jews

Coloring Pages Teaching Guide 

In an effort to promote nonviolence education with people of all ages, Pace e Bene/Campaign Nonviolence has commissioned a series of coloring book pages that portray historic nonviolent struggles. So far, these pages include:

Set 1

Set 2

Using art and history to open up conversation about current events, these creative resources can help you hold teach-ins, trainings, and multi-age education in a variety of settings. Each page is designed to encourage discussion of important topics like racial justice, civil rights, children’s rights, labor history, migrant justice, discrimination and prejudice, youth-led organizing, intergenerational movements, nonviolent action, social justice, and much more. 

Each coloring page is accompanied by a discussion guide that includes a brief synopsis of the campaign, notes on the coloring page depiction, and discussion questions that connect the past to the present.

Downloadable from our website, these coloring pages and study guides are made freely available to educators, faith leaders, parents, peace activists, Campaign Nonviolence groups, and Nonviolent Cities organizers, and more. Everyone can print out this free resource and use it in their community. 

We want to see the coloring pages in action—share your experiences with us here.

This artwork was created by Leah Parsons Cook. Study guide materials were written by Pace e Bene Staff. 

Copyright note: C BY-NC-ND – This license allows reusers to copy and distribute the material in any medium or format in unadapted form only, for noncommercial purposes only, and only so long as attribution is given to the creator.

This artwork was created by Leah Parsons Cook, an artist who works in culture and community through a variety of mediums. Leah is the artist and creator of The Acadian Coloring Book, a 43-page coloring book celebrating past and present Acadian culture. She served 2 years in the Peace Corps in Suriname, and was the Community Artist-In-Residence for Granite Falls, MN in 2023. She continues to explore the connections between people, place, culture, and stories.

Birmingham Children’s March, 1963, Birmingham, AL 

In 1963, Birmingham, Alabama, was the “most segregated city in the country” according to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. On May 2, thousands of students walked out of schools in protest of segregation, racism, and the violent terrorization of Black people. The action was planned by youth leaders and Reverend James Bevel. They worked for weeks to organize the march, recruiting influential youth like cheerleaders and football players to mobilize students and train them in nonviolent action. Radio DJs announced the date of the walkout on air using coded language. Over 5,000 students marched to city hall in coordinated groups of 10-50. As protests continued, Police Chief Bull Connor attacked them with snarling dogs and blasted them with fire hoses. Mass arrests flooded the jails. Close to a thousand children were arrested, including an eight-year-old. The protests continued until May 10. The television footage of the attacks on children horrified the nation and prompted the federal government to take action. A 72-hr negotiation with city officials ended segregation in Birmingham and removed Bull Connor from office. This campaign led directly to the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

 

Look Closer! Check out these details:

  • Is that kid jumping out the window? Yes! When administrators realized what was happening, some of them locked the school doors. Students jumped out the window to join the march.

  • Can you spot the toothbrush? The girl in the center of the image is carrying a toothbrush in her hand. Many youth brought them to school, anticipating that they would be arrested during the action.

  • Do you see someone clapping? Singing, clapping, and music were major parts of this campaign, along with many others in the Civil Rights Movement. Music lifted people’s spirits when they faced difficult situations. 

  • How old do you think these students were? This image shows high school students, but children as young as 8 years old also participated. Their bold courage inspired everyone who was working for racial justice. Many adults joined them in the streets.

 

Discussion Questions:

  • The Birmingham Children’s March was a campaign for racial justice. How are people working to achieve racial justice and end racism today?

  • What is one thing you can do to support racial justice?

  • What other issues have students organized walkouts for? 

  • The cheerleaders, football players, and radio DJs all played an important role in spreading the word. How do the influencers you follow stand up for social justice? 

  • Is it okay to break the rules for an important cause? Why or why not?

  • The Birmingham marchers faced snarling dogs and painful fire hoses. What do you think gave them courage to face the dangers in order to achieve justice?

Additional Resources:

Further Discussion Questions:

  • In 1965, what kinds of racism were the students trying to stop? (For example, segregated schools, restaurants, and buses; lack of equal employment; lynchings and violence.) Today, what kinds of racism are groups like Black Lives Matter and the Movement for Black Lives organizing to change?

  • Nonviolent action works by disrupting life-as-usual until change happens. By refusing to cooperate with injustice, we put pressure on decision-makers, power holders, and opposition groups to make a shift toward justice. How did the Birmingham youth do this? 

  • How is youth organizing different from intergenerational organizing? What are the pros and cons?

  • Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. wrote and spoke about two kinds of “peace.” Sometimes, everything seems peaceful on the surface, but injustice is happening behind the scenes. This is negative peace. By contrast, Dr. King taught that movements for justice, although rarely peaceful on the surface, are positive peace. Protests, walkouts, strikes, boycotts, sit-ins … these are part of a process of moving toward a peace rooted in justice. When the students in Birmingham jumped out the windows and confronted the dogs and firehouses, what kind of peace was unfolding? The day before, when all the students were obediently attending classes in a racist, segregated society, was that positive or negative peace? Think about your community today? Where is there positive peace? Where is there negative peace?

Artwork by Leah Parsons Cook
A project of Pace e Bene/Campaign Nonviolence
C BY-NC-ND: This license allows reusers to copy and distribute the material in any medium or format in unadapted form only, for noncommercial purposes only, and only so long as attribution is given to the creator.

The March of the Mill Children
From Philadelphia, PA, to New York, 1903

In 1903, two hundred children marched 130 miles from Philadelphia, PA, to President Theodore Roosevelt’s summer house in Oyster Bay, NY. Their demand? They wanted to go to school. Even where it was against the law, children as young as 5-6 years old were working 11-15 hours per day in mills, factories, and mines. Many lost fingers, limbs, or even their lives in workplace accidents. Parents and labor activists accompanied the young marchers, including the feisty organizer “Mother” Mary Harris Jones. In cities and towns, they gave speeches and held rallies calling for their rights to receive education and be protected from exploitation, injury, and harm. Although President Roosevelt refused to meet with them, the March of the Mill Children propelled the issue of child labor to national attention. In 1915, Pennsylvania established a minimum working age of 14. In 1916, the first federal labor law was passed.

Look Closer! Check out these details:

  • Why is that girl’s arm in a sling? Many children were injured and maimed at work, including losing fingers and limbs. 

  • How many stars are on the flag? 48. In 1903, Alaska and Hawaii were not yet part of the United States. 

  • Who’s that woman in the middle? Mary Harris Jones, known as Mother Jones, was a feisty 65-year-old, Irish-American labor organizer and a key organizer of the march. 

  • How young is that little girl? Children as young as 5 or 6 were working in the mills, mines, and factories, even where laws forbid the owners from using them.

  • Why does that man have a drum? Historical photos of the marchers show that they played drums as they went through towns and cities.

  • What does the sign say? “We Want To Go To School” and “More Schools, Less Injuries” are actual slogans from the campaign.

Discussion Questions:

  • These children are marching for the right to go to school. Imagine if you had to work in a factory from 7 o’clock in the morning until 7 o’clock in the evening. Would you join the march for the right to go to school?

  • What is the difference between doing chores at home and child labor?

  • Where in the world do you think child labor is still taking place today? How about in your own country?

  • How are young people still discriminated against in our society?

  • How young is the youngest person in this picture? How about the oldest? What do we gain from working with people of different ages?

Additional Resources:

Artwork by Leah Parsons Cook
A project of Pace e Bene/Campaign Nonviolence
C BY-NC-ND: This license allows reusers to copy and distribute the material in any medium or format in unadapted form only, for noncommercial purposes only, and only so long as attribution is given to the creator.

Delano Grape Strike & Boycott
California and beyond, 1965-70

In 1965, Filipino farm workers went on strike in the vineyards of California, protesting terrible working conditions and cuts to their pay. When owners tried to replace them with Mexican workers, strike leader Larry Itliong reached out to labor organizers Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta. Together, Filipinos and Mexicans went on strike together in solidarity. After picketing in the fields, they marched 300 miles to Sacramento to bring their demands to the state capital. Allies and supporters asked people to boycott California grapes and wine. People brought signs to grocery stores nationwide. President Nixon tried to crush the farm workers by buying the grape harvest and sending it to troops in Vietnam. On the docks of Oakland, CA, the longshoremen refused to load the crates. 10,000 tons of grapes rotted. It took five years of striking, organizing, boycotting, and protesting, but the solidarity of the United Farm Workers prevailed. They won a collective bargaining agreement for 10,000 farm workers, and gained pay increases, health benefits, and more. 

Look Closer! Can you spot these details?

  • How old are the Filipino men who are leading the strike in Delano? Because racist laws prohibited older Asian immigrant men from bringing over their families or marrying interracially, many workers on the frontline were the “manongs” (an honorific for older ‘uncles’) who felt they could risk violent repression because they did not have families to support or protect.

  • Where’s Larry Itliong? The man in the hat on the right hand side of the vineyard picket line is Larry Itliong, the Filipino leader of this campaign. If you look very closely, you can see that he is missing some fingers—he lost them in a work-related accident.

  • What is that word: huelga? Huelga means strike in Spanish. The woman holding that sign is Dolores Huerta, a key Mexican-American labor organizer of the strike.

  • Where are they marching to? On the right, organizer Cesar Chavez is pointing out the route for the 300-mile-long march to the Sacramento State Capitol.

  • Why are they holding signs outside a grocery store? To get people to join the grape boycott, farmworkers and their allies would picket outside the grocery stores. 

Discussion Questions:

  • What does “solidarity” mean? How did it give the farmworkers power and strength?

  • The farm workers used many types of action to achieve their goals. What were they? How did the campaign grow stronger over time?

  • Who do you think harvests the food you eat? How can you find out if they are being treated fairly or unfairly? 

  • Looking back, some people who were children in 1965 remember asking why there were no grapes on the table. Imagine one of your favorite things was the target of a boycott … like a pizza boycott ... or a cell phone boycott. Would it be hard or easy to give up these items until the workers were paid fairly? 


Further Resources:

Artwork by Leah Parsons Cook
A project of Pace e Bene/Campaign Nonviolence
C BY-NC-ND: This license allows reusers to copy and distribute the material in any medium or format in unadapted form only, for noncommercial purposes only, and only so long as attribution is given to the creator. 

Capitol Crawl for the ADA
Washington, DC, 1990

On March 13, 1990, over 1,000 people marched—or rather, rolled—in their wheelchairs to the steps of the US Capitol Building. The Disability Rights group ADAPT was protesting a wide range of injustices - lack of accessibility to basic amenities like transportation, water fountains, entrances, stairs; discrimination in jobs and education; institutionalization and sterilization—but the immediate grievance was the failure of Congress to pass the Americans With Disabilities Act. In front of 50+ journalists, 80 activists flung themselves out of their wheelchairs and crawled, pulled, dragged, and climbed up the steps to illustrate that there was no physical way for them to meet with their representatives with dignity. The youngest member of the action was 8-year-old Jennifer Keelan Chaffins, who had already been protesting for two years. Looking back, she said, “Even though I was quite young, I realized that as one of the very few kids that got to be involved in this movement, it wasn’t just about myself but it was about (the other kids) as well. I realized that people with disabilities are fighting for their right to be acknowledged and accepted … and I can too, and I want to be a part of that.” Three Congressional leaders came out to meet the activists and vowed to make sure the ADA passed. Four months later, the ADA was signed into law.

Look Closer! Check out these details:

  • Recognize that building? That’s the US Capitol Building in Washington, DC. At the time, it was not wheelchair accessible.

  • Why is that person being carried by the arms? The activists who participated in the Capitol Crawl had a range of physical disabilities/mobilities. Some boosted themselves backwards up each step. Some crawled forward on a combination of arms and knees. Some did assisted lifts like the man and the girl on the left. 

  • What is the symbol on their tee-shirts? The circle with the line through it is the symbol of the Disability Rights group ADAPT. In historic photos, the circle is white on a blue tee-shirt. 

Discussion Questions:

  • What does it mean to have a disability? What kinds of disabilities can you see? What kinds are less visible? Consider blindness, deafness, reading disabilities like dyslexia.

  • Think about the building you’re in right now. If there were no elevators, ramps, or wheelchair accessible bathrooms, it would be hard for someone in a wheelchair to join this discussion. How can we make our buildings and/or society more inclusive and just? 

  • In the picture, camera persons are broadcasting the action on television. What role does the media play in making change? How do you think it moved the politicians to pass the ADA?

  • Ableism is a term for discrimination and social prejudice against people with disabilities or who are perceived to be disabled. Where do you see this in our community?

Additional Resources:

Artwork by Leah Parsons Cook
A project of Pace e Bene/Campaign Nonviolence
C BY-NC-ND: This license allows reusers to copy and distribute the material in any medium or format in unadapted form only, for noncommercial purposes only, and only so long as attribution is given to the creator. 

Egyptian Builders Strike
Deir el-medina, Egypt, 1170 BCE

In 1170 BCE, a crew of twenty skilled artisans were working on the temple and future tomb of Pharaoh Ramses III (also spelled Ramesses). They were paid a certain amount of grain each month, and payment was late again. So, they set down their tools and walked off the site. They marched to the officials and demanded to be paid. The scrambling officials brought them pastries. Unimpressed, the workers marched to the police, explaining that their grain payments weren’t just food—they could be traded for clothing, ointment, beer, and fish. The police gave them partial rations, but the workers wouldn’t be bought off. They continued a series of strikes, escalating the pressure and also writing a letter of petition. The officials were confounded. They’d never seen work stoppages like this before. The workers invoked Ma’at, the goddess of the cosmic order, saying that the Pharaoh had a sacred duty to take care of the people’s material needs. As pay continued to run late or was only partially paid, the workers staged sit-ins at key temples, blocking access and preventing funeral rites and rituals, disrupting the social elite of Egypt. In the end, the workers received their full pay at the agreed-upon times. Their strike made history and discovered a new kind of power that workers would still be using millennia later. 

 

Look Closer! Check out these details:

  • Shouldn’t it be a pyramid? No. Not all pharaohs chose iconic pyramids for their tombs. Ramses III’s tomb is also a temple and is called Medinet Habu. You can still visit it today.

  • What do the hieroglyphics say? The hieroglyphics on Ramses III’s actual tomb extol his war victories. We’ve chosen these symbols to represent the themes of the strike, including grain, scythes, the scales of cosmic balance, and the goddess Ma’at. 

  • Can you spot the goddess Ma’at? She represents the cosmic balance. The workers invoked her during their protests, pointing out that the pharaoh had broken the sacred contract by failing to pay them. On her head is an ostrich feather, which she used to weigh the souls of the dead in the afterlife.

  • What are the workers carrying? The tools of these highly-skilled, literate artisans included mallets, chisels, a paintbrush, and rope.

  • What do you think the moons represent? The moon cycle shows that this campaign went on for weeks. 

  • See the empty baskets? The workers were paid monthly in grain. They would eat some and trade the rest for other things like clothing, fish, and beer. 

 

Discussion Questions:

  • Why do you think the workers succeeded in getting paid? How did the strike, walk-off, protest, letter of petition, and sit-ins help their cause?

  • A scribe named Amennakhte recorded the details of the strike on papyrus. (We even know some of the workers’ names: Mose and Qenna.) Why is it important to preserve the history of nonviolent actions like this?

  • The workers felt their employer (the pharaoh) had a sacred duty to take care of them. Do employers today have a responsibility to provide for their workers? 

  • The sit-ins disrupted the funeral rites of the most powerful people of the time. Why did this have an impact? How do you think ancient Egyptians felt about this action? 

  • In ancient Egypt, the pharaohs had a sacred duty to provide for the people. Do you think our leaders today feel it is their sacred duty to do this?

  • When the workers told officials they were hungry and needed to be paid, the officials brought them pastries. Thousands of years later, Queen Marie Antoinette would obliviously—and notoriously—tell her officials to “let them eat cake” when the starving French peasants revolted. Why do you think the offers of pastries and cake were seen as offensive? 

  • Although the local officials knew about the workers’ complaint, the Pharaoh Ramses III did not. When the builders started invoking Ma’at and the pharoah’s sacred duty, it’s likely that the officials resolved the payment problems to prevent the news of the unrest from reaching the pharaoh. Why do you think they didn’t want the pharaoh to find out?

  • In another historic case study on the Bishnois in India, the king stopped the massacre of forest protectors being done under his name. What do you think power holders today think about the injustices and violence being done in their names?

Additional Resources:

Artwork by Leah Parsons Cook
A project of Pace e Bene/Campaign Nonviolence
C BY-NC-ND: This license allows reusers to copy and distribute the material in any medium or format in unadapted form only, for noncommercial purposes only, and only so long as attribution is given to the creator.

India’s Forest Protectors
The Bishnois, Rajasthan, 1730
The Chipko Movement, Uttarakhand, 1970s

For centuries, one group of forest protectors in India has inspired the next. In 1485 AD, a religious sect was started by Guru Maharaj Jambaji, who urged protection of trees and animals as a way of ending droughts. For 300 years, the Bishnois were famed for the lushly-forested villages they cultivated even in the arid region of Rajasthan. In 1730, a maharajah (king) began to cut down the trees to build a palace. A local woman, Amrita Devi, rallied the Bishnoi villagers of Khejri to protect the trees. They threw their arms around the trunks, but the soldiers killed Amrita, her daughters, and 363 other Bishnois. As soon as the king heard, he rushed to stop the massacre and ultimately protected the forest. This famous story later inspired the Chipko Movement of the 1970s in their campaigns to stop deforestation and logging. Chipko means "to embrace" or "to hug" and they would hug the trees while chanting: "Let us protect and plant the trees/Go awaken the villages/And drive away the axemen." Reporting on this movement gave rise to the term “tree-hugger” in the United States. Although it was used as an insult to the activists who tried to stop old growth logging in California in the 1990s, we should see it as a compliment! Tree-huggers have a long and powerful history.

 

Look Closer! Check out these details:

  • How many types of trees do you see? Rajasthan (where the Bishnois lived) is dry and arid with khejri trees, which are used for fodder. The mountainous slopes of the Uttarakhand region (home of the Chipko movement) have both fodder trees and pine trees that were used for timber and sap harvesting.

  • Why is that woman standing beside a pile of axes? That’s Gaura Devi, who organized a 4-day sit-in to stop the logging in the 1970s. She would also confiscate the loggers’ tools and leave a receipt in their place, returning them when the loggers left the area.

  • Who is the man hugging a tree? While the tree-huggers were mostly women, Chandi Prasad Bhatt was an important figure in the Chipko Movement. 

  • Can you see the deer-like creature? That is the blackbuck antelope, which is held sacred by the Bishnois. They even track down hunters and kick them off the land to protect the antelope. They will also take care of orphaned fawns like their own children.

  • Look carefully. How many types of dress do you see? The Bishnois’ action took place 200 years before the Chipko Movement and in a different region of India. Even amongst the Chipko Movement, there were many diverse groups and cultures. The forest campaigns started in the Chamoli area of India and spread throughout several regions. Each region had distinct cultures and customs. We honor them here by highlighting a few in these images.

 

Discussion Questions:

  • Think of the trees in your community. What is special about them? Would you stand up to protect them from being cut down? 

  • The Bishnois viewed trees as sacred. In today’s world, who is using nonviolent action to protect the sacred? 

  • The word Chipko means “to embrace.” How can love be a powerful protective force? 

  • In the 1730s, the king heard about the massacre of the Bishnois and stopped the soldiers from further bloodshed. Then he protected the entire forest. In our time, how could leaders work harder to protect people and planet?

  • The Chipko Movement started after the government denied a local group a permit to harvest timber to make farm tools. Instead, they awarded a logging concession to an outside company to sports bats for outside markets. Why does it matter who did the harvesting and what the wood was used for?

  • One time in the 1970s, the Indian government tried to trick the community by promising the men payments and luring them away from the Chipko Movement’s road blockades. But the women took their places and kept the loggers out. What other kinds of tricks and punishments are used to try to stop nonviolent movements from succeeding?

  • Have you heard of other forest protectors? Who are they and what did they do? 

Additional Resources:

Artwork by Leah Parsons Cook
A project of Pace e Bene/Campaign Nonviolence
C BY-NC-ND: This license allows reusers to copy and distribute the material in any medium or format in unadapted form only, for noncommercial purposes only, and only so long as attribution is given to the creator.

Women of Liberia Mass Action For Peace
Liberia, 2003

In 2003, the Second Civil War raged in Liberia between rebel forces and the dictator/president Charles Taylor, killing more than 200,000 people. Leymah Gbowee had already lived through the nightmare of the first civil war and was horrified at the violence of this new war. One night, she had a powerful dream that told her to “gather the women and pray for peace.” She brought together both Christian and Muslim women to demonstrate along the road where Charles Taylor’s motorcade passed. Day after day, wearing white tee-shirts and holding signs, thousands of women prayed and protested for peace. A march of 1,000 women met with him and convinced him to attend peace talks in Ghana. A delegation of 200 women traveled to the talks. When the discussions stalled, the women sat down in front of the doors of the building and refused to let the war leaders leave until an agreement to end the war was reached. When the guards tried to arrest them, Leymah Gbowee threatened to take off all her clothes—a shocking curse in African tradition. The guards backed off. A peace agreement was reached. Charles Taylor stepped down from power. Democratic elections were held and one of the peace activists, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, was elected the first female president of Liberia. Sirleaf, along with Leymah Gbowee, won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2011.

  

Look Closer! Check out these details:

  • Who do you think is the leader? There were actually many leaders of this campaign, including Leymah Gbowee (on the right holding a statement), Edweta "Sugars" Cooper (holding banner on left) and Vaiba Flomo (holding banner on right), Asatu Bah Kenneth (with the megaphone), and others.

  • What language are the signs in? Liberians speak 20 different languages, but use English as the official language, which is what the signs were written in.

  • Can you see the motorcade? Each day, the dictator/president Charles Taylor would have to drive past the demonstrations as he went to his office and house. He couldn’t ignore them!

  • How many different patterns can you see? At the protests, the women wore traditional patterned skirts as well as white tee-shirts and head wraps to symbolize peace. They also chose not to wear their jewelry to signify that they mourned and grieved the horror of war.

 

Discussion Questions:

  • The Women of Liberia Mass Action For Peace took a bold stand to stop a horrific war. Where are wars happening today? Who is protesting against them? 

  • Why do you think it was important to have both Christians and Muslims join together to demonstrate for peace?

  • Dreams and prayer played a powerful role in this campaign. Why do you think that was? Can you think of other movements that used dreams and prayer?

  • Why do you think it was women—rather than men—who led the call for peace?

  • What are you willing to do for peace? What kinds of risks would you take if you thought it would help end war?

 

Additional Resources:

Artwork by Leah Parsons Cook
A project of Pace e Bene/Campaign Nonviolence
C BY-NC-ND: This license allows reusers to copy and distribute the material in any medium or format in unadapted form only, for noncommercial purposes only, and only so long as attribution is given to the creator.

Rescue of Danish Jews
Denmark, 1943

In 1940, the Nazis invaded Denmark. The country did not resist militarily and surrendered after only six hours. Instead, they resisted the Nazi occupation in other ways. The government stalled, delayed, and thwarted many of the Nazi commands in the initial years. Shipyard and factory workers held work stoppages and slow-downs. In 1943, the Nazis planned to round up all the Jews and send them to concentration camps. Word of this plan was leaked and within a few days, most of the 7,800 Jews in Denmark went into hiding. People hid them in attics, basements, and store rooms. They also checked them into hospitals under false names. Then, the Danish resistance movement and citizens evacuated 7,220 of Denmark's 7,800 Jews (plus 686 non-Jewish spouses) by sea to nearby neutral Sweden. The Swedish king, who was not supportive at first, was convinced by a phone call from actress Greta Garbo and a meeting with physicist Neihls Bohr. The US wanted to extract Bohr to work on the atom bomb, but Bohr refused to get on a plane from Sweden to the US until Sweden offered protection to the rest of the Jews. In a few weeks, right under the noses of the Nazis, the Danes helped more than 7,000 people get to safety. In contrast to the rest of Europe, nearly all the Danish Jews survived. It is one of the most dramatic rescue operations in history. 

 

Look Closer! Check out these details:

  • What is that man in the upper right doing? Georg Ferdinand Duckwitz was a German whistleblower—someone who reveals hidden truths to prevent further harm. He spread the word to the Jewish rabbis that the Nazis planned to round up the Jews.

  • Can you see the rabbi? The Jewish religious leaders told the Jews to go into hiding immediately. The Nazis planned to round everyone up when they were gathered for one of the high holy days of the Jewish faith. When Duckwitz told the rabbis the plan, they knew they had to act swiftly to save their people.

  • What’s going on in the hospital? Nurses and doctors checked Danish Jews in as patients under Christian names, misdirecting the Nazis. Doctors played an essential role in the rescue. Dr. Karl Henrik Koster and his team were responsible for saving 2,000 Jews through his hospital.

  • Why are they hiding in the trees? Farmers and fishermen helped the Danish Jews travel undercover to reach boats to Sweden, which was only a few miles away over the ocean.

 

Discussion Questions:

  • If you lived in Denmark in 1940, would you be willing to hide people or take them to safety on a boat to help save their lives? Even if it meant risking your own life?

  • Think about refugees in our world today. Who is crossing oceans or borders to find safety? Why have they left their homes? How are they being received?

  • If your country was invaded and occupied, what kinds of nonviolent resistance do you imagine could be used to protect vulnerable groups and resist the occupiers?

  • What role did famous people play in this campaign? How do famous people take a stand for social issues today? 

  • Do you think the Danish resistance to the Nazis had an impact on the war? Why or why not?

  • Who is persecuted and in danger in our world today? Who is helping them survive?

  • What is genocide? Where is genocide happening today? 

Additional Resources:

Artwork by Leah Parsons Cook
A project of Pace e Bene/Campaign Nonviolence
C BY-NC-ND: This license allows reusers to copy and distribute the material in any medium or format in unadapted form only, for noncommercial purposes only, and only so long as attribution is given to the creator.

 

Delano Grape Strike

March of the Mill Children

India’s Forest Protectors

Women of Liberia Mass Action for Peace