The Obedience that Caused World War Two

730 Words2 Pages

The Atrocities committed by the Nazis, during the Second World War, was not done only by soulless leaders but by a nation of obedient everyday men and woman, who did nothing to stop them. Martin Gansberg's "Thirty-Eight Who Saw Murder Didn't Call the Police” is a great view to the way German civilians and other nations where when the Nazi came for the Jews knowing it was wrong they still sat by idly and did nothing. Also, Philip Zimbardo "The Stanford Prison Experiment" shows how the concentration camp soldiers became unusually cruel with those within it. Even in today’s modern time there are many cases that happen daily where men have crossed lines that we could never dream of. Solidarity of man can be either its greatest tool or destruction it just depends on if we allow the puppeteers to play us even in the worst times.
Martin Gansberg's "Thirty-Eight Who Saw Murder Didn't Call the Police" is about a case where a man stabbed a woman three time separated instances; in front of audience of 38 men and woman who did nothing to help the defenseless woman. They all had sorry excuses for apathy of the situation even when the woman yelled that she was dying. They said "’ I didn't want to get involved’" and "’We went to the window to see what was happening’" he said, "’but the light from our bedroom made it difficult to see the street.’" The wife, still apprehensive, added: "’I put out the light and we were able to see better.’" (Gansberg) But in Stanley Milgram and Paul Hollander's "Paralyzed Witnesses" they give reasons as to why these law abiding bystanders got paralyzed and watched as if it were a show of gladiators in the great Coliseum of Rome. As Stanley Milgram and Paul Hollander State “Modern societies are organized as t...

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...a swift hand in defending others: one day no one will be left to help defend us. We as a whole have to put our foot down to our leaders and do what it right by our own mind.

Works Cited

"Abu Ghraib torture and prisoner abuse." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation. 11 Nov. 2013 .
Gansberg, Martin. "Thirty-Eight Who Saw Murder Didn't Call the Police." New York Times 27 Mar. 1964.
Girard, Richard. "The Nuremberg Defense." OpEdNews. 07 July 2010. Permaink. 06 Nov. 2013 .
Speigel, Peter. "A Top Abu Ghraib Officer Is Charged." Los Angeles Times 29 Apr. 2006.
Zimbardo, Philip. "Stanford Prison Experiment." The : A Simulation Study of the Psychology of Imprisonment. 11 Nov. 2013 .

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