In his book The Roots of Evil: The Origins of Genocide and Other Group Violence, Ervin Staub argues, “Bystanders, people who witness but are not directly affected by the actions of perpetrators, help shape our society by their reactions…. Bystanders can exert powerful influences. They can define the meaning of events and move others toward empathy or indifference. The can promote values and norms of caring by their passivity of participation in the system, they can affirm the perpetrators.” What Staub is trying to convey is that bystanders can influence society based on what they do, or in certain cases, what they do not do. By choosing neutrality, they are essentially helping the negative side and therefore are agreeing to the negative side’s ideals and actions. This is a valid claim and I affirm Staub’s beliefs because there is an abundance of research and evidence that promote Staub’s beliefs.
For example, in Israel Charny’s The Encyclopedia of Genocide, Charny claims, “ Both types of bystanders usually remain passive or in various ways support perpetrators.” This statement coming from a respected Israeli psychologist and genocide scholar directly supports Staud’s arguments and beliefs. Furthermore, as outlined in MIT’s article Active Bystanders, Looking out for one another “ Victims of crime may be more infuriated at bystanders who did nothing to stop it and essentially affirmed the perpetrator.” This article is implying that bystanders, who affirmed the perpetrators are essentially no better than the perpetrators themselves. These claims all link back and further strengthen Staub and his beliefs.
Furthermore, another compelling idea supporting Staub’s claim comes from The History of the Holocaust by Carell Evans, the Presi...
... middle of paper ...
... June 2013. United States Holocaust Memorial Council. 25 Mar. 2014 .
"History of the Holocaust - The Bystanders." History of the Holocaust - The Bystanders. 17 Mar. 2013. 2 .
Charny, Israel W. "Bystanders to Genocide." Encyclopedia of genocide. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, 1999. 127.
"Be An Upstander." Be An Upstander. Holocaust Museum Houston. 2013 .
Marsh, Jason, and Dacher Keltner. "Greater Good." We Are All Bystanders. 2013. UC Berkeley-Department of Psychology. .
"Active Bystanders: Looking Out for One Another At MIT." Active Bystanders: Looking Out for One Another At MIT. 2011. MIT.edu. .
“I swore never to be silent whenever and wherever human beings endure suffering and humiliation. We must take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented.” (Elie Wiesel) The Holocaust is a topic that is still not forgotten and is used by many people, as a motivation, to try not to repeat history. Many lessons can be taught from learning about the Holocaust, but to Eve Bunting and Fred Gross there is one lesson that could have changed the result of this horrible event. The Terrible Things, by Eve Bunting, and The Child of the Holocaust, by Fred Gross, both portray the same moral meaning in their presentations but use different evidence and word choice to create an overall
“The Holocaust: 36 Questions & Answers About the Holocaust.” 36 Questions & Answers About the Holocaust. N.p., n.d. Web. 06 Feb. 2014
During World War II, six million Jews were brutally massacred by Adolph Hitler's Nazi regime. Several authors have written about the actions of bystanders in the Holocaust. In a poem, "The Hangman," and an allegory, The Terrible Things, Maurice Odgen and Eve Bunting described how bystanders could cause problems through their inactions.
In Miles Lehrman's documentary, Witness to the Holocaust, he argues, “A perpetrator is not the most dangerous enemy. The most dangerous part is the bystander because neutrality always helps the killer”, This is not a logical claim because bystanders merely witness it; however, they are not committing any crimes against laws or humanity. They may want to help the victim, but they may not do so because being a bystander is simply not illegal. Since forcing someone to be an upstander is illegal, people choose to not be an upstander because it puts them in an undesirable position. After all, standing up for the victim may put the upstander in danger along with the victim. Additionally, becoming an upstander does not guarantee that the victim will be safe and sound afterwards; the perpetrator may continue, perhaps with the upstander as another victim.
Gottfried, Ted, and Stephen Alcorn. Deniers of the Holocaust: Who They Are, What They Do, Why They Do It. Brookfield, CT: Twenty-First Century, 2001. Print.
Although people can fear an outcome of telling the truth or standing up for what they believe is right, being a bystander in a poor situation doesn’t exempt someone from innocence. Whether it involves a murder or telling the truth, if someone knows it is wrong and does nothing to take part in what’s going on they are no better than the ones involved in the conflict. In To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee and The Lottery by Shirley Jackson, both stories involve bystanders. A bystander is not innocent when they do nothing about the problem going on around them.
(2)- Marsh, Jason, and Dacher Keltner, Ph.D. "Greater Good." We Are All Bystanders. University of California,
Bard, Mitchell G., ed. "Introduction." Introduction. The Holocaust. San Diego: Greenhaven, 2001.
"A Teacher's Guide to the Holocaust-Victims." A Teacher's Guide to the Holocaust-Victims. University of South Florida. Web. 19 May 2014.
...gh a twisted, absurd, fictitious proposal to condemn their actions, and thus, hopes to "shock" those involved into social change.
By definition, bystanders could include entire countries or other groups who ignored or neglected the Holocaust (Vollhardt). A fourth category could be argued, and would include those who actively helped victims (Monroe). As far as nomenclature, rescuer or anti-perpetrator would well define this group. “I would like to suggest that there are usually no bystanders as such—as a trait or as a personality type, just as there are mostly no perpetrator or rescuer personality types”(Bar-On). Bar-On states that personality types are not relevant when categorizing a person into one of the three categories....
The bystander effect plays a key role in society today. More and more people ignore a person in distress.
One of the strengths is providing a new insight into bystander effect. The study argued that researchers have previously neglected the potential benefit of bystanders and thus, the study provided a new horizon by proving reversed bystander effect through experiment. This allows us to be aware of the fact that someone may be providing help merely due to impression management. This arouses a doubt on whether the one who provides help is genuinely concerned about the needs of the victims, or one is just motivated by upholding his/her reputation when surrounded by a crowd. Besides, carrying out a manipulation check right after this experiment is beneficial to this study as well....
Darley, J. M. & Latané, B. (1968) Bystander intervention in emergencies: Diffusion of responsibility, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 8, 377–383
Print. The. Hymowitz, Sarah, and Amelia Parker. " Lessons - The Genocide Teaching Project - Center for Human Rights & Humanitarian Law." American University, Washington College of Law. American UniversityWashington College of Law Center for Human Rights and Humanitarian Law, 2011.