The Bystander Effect During The Holocaust

893 Words4 Pages

The Holocaust was a horrible happening that caused many innocent Jewish people to be forced out of their homes with nothing but a sack of their belongings. They were separated from their families, stripped of their rights and their names, and some even watched their loved ones die. When i think about the U.S. and how we responded to these poor people, when all they needed was a place to stay i can’t believe the decisions we made. As an adolescent many things can be gathered from how the world reacted during the holocaust such as, the bystander effect were we the bystanders in this situation? Also I can learn to not wait till the last moment to do something, or to not wait till something happens to make a move or to fight back. Lastly we can …show more content…

An example could be how the world ignored the Jewish people as they cried for help. In my opinion i believe that yes we were the bystanders in this situation. They asked us to try and help them seek refutation, but we turned our heads in the opposite direction, wanting someone else to help them out. I can learn not to turn my back when someone needs me, and try to figure out how to help, rather than hope someone else take care of it. Before when i would see someone on the street asking for money I wouldn 't give them any, only because I felt they got themselves in that situation they deserve to be where they are. Now that i see when people are in trouble it 's not always because they chose to be. This compares to the Holocaust in such a way that they did not chose to be in these concentration camps, they did not chose to be starved, or worked to death. They were forced to, they were miserable knowing in their minds that death can take its next victims any …show more content…

All in all I believe that we can learn a couple things from the worlds decisions in the way they handled the terrible mishaps in Germany. We can learn to take initiative and do what’s right, we can learn not to be bystanders and do something and not hope someone else will, and we can learn to think strategically and with passion knowing we can make a difference. These are some things that i can learn from the worlds responses to the Holocaust. Now, what are we going to do with these lessons, are we going to brush it aside and not actually apply this to the life we live every day, or are we going to take initiative and utilize these in such a way, that we ourselves become better people. My hope is that our society takes what happened during the holocaust and uses it to see some good by these lessons, you can apply to your every day and make sure history does not repeat