What do you think?
Rate this book
Bystanders: Conscience and Complicity During the Holocaust
The Holocaust did not introduce the phenomenon of the bystander, but it did illustrate the terrible consequences of indifference and passivity towards the persecution of others. Although the term was initially applied only to the good Germans―the apathetic citizens who made genocide possible through unquestioning obedience to evil leaders―recent Holocaust scholarship has shown that it applies to most of the world, including parts of the population in Nazi-occupied countries, some sectors within the international Christian and Jewish communities, and the Allied governments themselves. This work analyzes why this happened, drawing on the insights of historians, Holocaust survivors, and Christian and Jewish ethicists. The author argues that bystander behavior cannot be attributed to a single cause, such as anti-Semitism, but can only be understood within a complex framework of factors that shape human behavior individually, socially, and politically.
- GenresNonfiction
208 pages, Paperback
First published June 30, 1999
6 people are currently reading
126 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
November 10, 2020
UPDATE ... I've read more deeply and my opinion is the same ... a marvelous exposing of the thinking of those - individuals, churches, businesses, others - who did nothing to counteract Hitler's mass murder of Jews
***
This is probably the most thought-provoking book I have yet read in my research for my new novel. By examining the motivation and behavior of bystanders, and including the Catholic and Protestant churches as bystanders, Barnett clearly demonstrates how and why these bystanders were not neutral observers, but were instead complicit in furthering the extermination of the Jews by the Nazis. I will return to this book many times as I invent scenes for my characters related to these issues.
a few quotes (among so many that could be chosen) ...
... The Christian community not only failed to stop the Holocaust … to a horrifying degree it had passively watched and even participated … it had consistently emphasized obedience to the Nazi state, not resistance on behalf of of its victims
... Elie Wiesel: If Christianity hadn't taught anti-Semitism and hatred of the Jews, the Holocaust would not have happened
... For the victims, indifference and silence of bystanders had the same consequences has the active hatred of perpetrators
... many people thought that even if Jews shouldn't be killed, they weren't worth saving
... Christian teachings predisposed Germans to view Jewish suffering with indifference
... In 1941, the International Committee of the Red Cross began to receive reports that Nazi concentration camps were in fact killing factories for hundreds of thousands of European Jews … Red Cross leaders decided that the importance of their organization's humanitarian role outweighed any possible benefits of taking a public position against Nazi authorities
... The churches supported state policies and carried out state orders … Such cooperation with the Nazi regime encouraged complicity and blocked effective resistance … no opposing voices were heard
... By not protesting Nazi measures against Jews and by allowing church records to be used as proof of racial purity the churches tacitly authorized state violence against the Jews … laying the foundation for death lists and gas chambers to follow
... LEW WEINSTEIN ... http://lewweinsteinauthorblog.com/
***
This is probably the most thought-provoking book I have yet read in my research for my new novel. By examining the motivation and behavior of bystanders, and including the Catholic and Protestant churches as bystanders, Barnett clearly demonstrates how and why these bystanders were not neutral observers, but were instead complicit in furthering the extermination of the Jews by the Nazis. I will return to this book many times as I invent scenes for my characters related to these issues.
a few quotes (among so many that could be chosen) ...
... The Christian community not only failed to stop the Holocaust … to a horrifying degree it had passively watched and even participated … it had consistently emphasized obedience to the Nazi state, not resistance on behalf of of its victims
... Elie Wiesel: If Christianity hadn't taught anti-Semitism and hatred of the Jews, the Holocaust would not have happened
... For the victims, indifference and silence of bystanders had the same consequences has the active hatred of perpetrators
... many people thought that even if Jews shouldn't be killed, they weren't worth saving
... Christian teachings predisposed Germans to view Jewish suffering with indifference
... In 1941, the International Committee of the Red Cross began to receive reports that Nazi concentration camps were in fact killing factories for hundreds of thousands of European Jews … Red Cross leaders decided that the importance of their organization's humanitarian role outweighed any possible benefits of taking a public position against Nazi authorities
... The churches supported state policies and carried out state orders … Such cooperation with the Nazi regime encouraged complicity and blocked effective resistance … no opposing voices were heard
... By not protesting Nazi measures against Jews and by allowing church records to be used as proof of racial purity the churches tacitly authorized state violence against the Jews … laying the foundation for death lists and gas chambers to follow
... LEW WEINSTEIN ... http://lewweinsteinauthorblog.com/
Read
December 1, 2023I have to say that reading this book was a bit like reading a dissertation. I'm afraid some of it was above my pay grade. Perhaps if i were in a discussion group it would have been better for me because there were many points i wanted and needed to clarify (or actually understand) I'm glad i've done a lot of reading on the Holocaust and history enough to know many of the references. Even so, i felt i wasn't getting everything.
It's just the information i have been searching to know, however. I have always wondered about the so-called "bystanders", both in the local scene and in the wider world. This was exactly the book i needed for my research. Maybe i just need some of the brain boosting vitamin stuff lol.
It's just the information i have been searching to know, however. I have always wondered about the so-called "bystanders", both in the local scene and in the wider world. This was exactly the book i needed for my research. Maybe i just need some of the brain boosting vitamin stuff lol.
May 6, 2021
This was an awsome read. It is about those in towns occupied by the Nazi regime, especially those close to Concentration Camps. The primary questions the book seeks to answer are how and why non-Jews stood by and did nothing.
Some things that may apply to us in the days to come:
1) There is a psychological price to pay for not taking an initial stand against injustice. Your best chance of standing strong is when you act immediately, while you still have an "outside looking in" perspective. Once you have allowed yourself to be taken in and are actively engaged in (or not engaged in protesting) the activity, it is exponentially harder to remove yourself from the inside: you are now a cog in the wheel and have lost much ability to think and act in a circumspect manner.
2) Compartmentalization of your life (Public compliance versus private liberty: i.e., a double life) becomes necessary for psychological survival to those who have not lost their moral compass.
The problem with this, however, is that once one has created two realities he loses control of the public which will eventually and inevitably allow the public to control the private: thus, through complacency, losing all freedom and, more importantly, creating callousness towards the injustices taking place in the public.
3) Going back to the cog in the wheel: because you are not the one pulling the trigger (or even if you are), you will attempt to excuse and convince yourself of ultimate responsibility: "I am just doing what I am told." We give up our individual consciousness for the "betterment" of the collective/society.
4) Just one person who speaks up, INITIALLY (See point #1), has the potential to persuade a whole community to show empathy instead of apathy.
Some things that may apply to us in the days to come:
1) There is a psychological price to pay for not taking an initial stand against injustice. Your best chance of standing strong is when you act immediately, while you still have an "outside looking in" perspective. Once you have allowed yourself to be taken in and are actively engaged in (or not engaged in protesting) the activity, it is exponentially harder to remove yourself from the inside: you are now a cog in the wheel and have lost much ability to think and act in a circumspect manner.
2) Compartmentalization of your life (Public compliance versus private liberty: i.e., a double life) becomes necessary for psychological survival to those who have not lost their moral compass.
The problem with this, however, is that once one has created two realities he loses control of the public which will eventually and inevitably allow the public to control the private: thus, through complacency, losing all freedom and, more importantly, creating callousness towards the injustices taking place in the public.
3) Going back to the cog in the wheel: because you are not the one pulling the trigger (or even if you are), you will attempt to excuse and convince yourself of ultimate responsibility: "I am just doing what I am told." We give up our individual consciousness for the "betterment" of the collective/society.
4) Just one person who speaks up, INITIALLY (See point #1), has the potential to persuade a whole community to show empathy instead of apathy.
March 27, 2022
Fascinating, richly researched and developed account of the bystander in the moral realm. Particularly appreciated Barnett's nuanced engagement with questions from ethical, socio-poltical, and theological frames of reference.
March 25, 2013
This is the best book by far on the Germans who just "let things happen" in the Holocaust. The book presents ideas straightforwardly, and as a consequence, I am the one enraged. This book, coupled with "Forgotten Land" makes me want to hold my own trial and condemn Germany to a horrible fate.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews