![Picture of universe of obligation drawn on a chalkboard.](/sites/default/files/styles/standard_hero_article_460_361_1x/public/2022-11/universe%20of%20obligation_2.jpg?h=c202cbf9&itok=rahevwF_)
Understanding Universe of Obligation
Duration
One 50-min class periodSubject
- Civics & Citizenship
- Social Studies
Grade
6–12Language
English — USPublished
Overview
About This Lesson
This lesson uses resources from Chapter 2 of Holocaust and Human Behavior to prompt students to explore the ways that individuals, groups, communities, and nations define who belongs and who does not. The activities that follow examine what it means to belong by introducing the idea of a “universe of obligation,” the term sociologist Helen Fein coined to describe the circle of individuals and groups within a society “toward whom obligations are owed, to whom rules apply, and whose injuries call for amends.” 1
- 1Helen Fein, Accounting for Genocide (New York: Free Press, 1979), 4.
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