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Miles Lehrman's 'Silence Is Not The Answer'

485 Words2 Pages

Joshua Harris
Ms. Swiger
Honor English 2
10 March 2017
Silence Is Not The Answer If you were to witness a bias-based attack or a hate crime, how would you respond? Would you feel guilty for letting it happen? Would you have stopped or intervened if you could? "A perpetrator is not the most dangerous enemy. The most dangerous part is the bystander because neutrality always helps the killer," states Miles Lehrman, a Holocaust survivor. Miles Lehrman lived through the deadliest genocide in history, killing about 6 million Jews. This devastating event changed many lives, and thousands of questions and comments arose from it. Thus leading back to his statement saying, “...neutrality always helps the killer.”

Many people believe that the Holocaust could not have been stopped. The strategic, persuasiveness, and the charisma that Hitler had along with his strong army was irrepressible. However, the small, but many people like Miles believed there was a way to end his madness. His quote pulls out two main ideas. Identifying who the enemy is, and what helps the killer succeed. Miles said “A perpetrator is not the most dangerous enemy.” From his experience of the holocaust, he knew that Hitler was a destructive person, but in his case he was not the worst. The one who was present, but did not act upon Hitler’s orders was. This is called being a bystander, a person who is present at an event or …show more content…

During the Holocaust, Hitler had full control. His mind was made up, and he knew what he wanted to do. Once Hitler controlled the majority of all western countries in Europe (Wiener Library), not only him, but everyone believed that there was no turning back. With Hitler’s rule, there was no hope which caused people not to react or fight. This would be neutrality, being absent, a bystander, not stopping or try to prevent. Hitler controlled the Jews, mentally and physically, but Miles knew not to let Hitler’s power destroy his

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