Schindler and Wallenberg were two men who stuck out during times of genocide. I have touched base on it in previous blogs, but many people did not stand up in the face of adversity. However, one must ponder, what made Schindler and Wallenberg different than the majority.
Through this clip you can see how terrible the circumstances are. To stand up in this face of terror would take immense courage. Once again, a main interest for me in this course is the psychology of the Holocaust and genocides. This is usually called diffusion of responsibility phenomenon. It is a social phenomenon which tends to occur in larger groups of people when responsibility is not explicitly assigned. This happened in the Holocaust. It was bad to murder people, however, instead of doing the right thing, they assumed other people would take care of it, put an end to it, and just follow along. On the other hand, the terror was so real that people may have been frozen to conform. But there are always those people who go against the grain.
Schindler's List was a shocker. Schindler himself was a Nazi party member, catholic, womanizer, and would take part in activities to increase his money. He was not the person one would pick to save thousands of Jews. He took sides with the underdog and would always try to help the person in need. Schindler would have Jews work for him and they actually would not produce anything. His workers always had food and clothing. There was never any cruelty. He grew more and more concerned with the Jewish workforce the more he saw the Nazi's persecuting them. He turned his factory into a safe haven for Jews. He saved over 1,100 of them. When one is so disgusted with the terror of torture and killing of innocent people, some step up and some go along with it. Schindler could not turn his back on this terrible time. He helped these people and used his power to save lives. He took responsibility and made a difference. Though he may not have had the best morals, he knew what was right and wrong in this instance and took action. It takes a strong sense of self to turn against something as strong as the Nazis were.
Wallenberg was also a surprise. This man did not have to work, but chose to. He saved thousands by passing out passports to Jews. He also had 37-38 safe houses and also took charge to make a difference. Wallenberg was another person who chose to take responsibility and use his power to make a difference. When he met Jews who escaped HItler's Germany, their stories of what the Nazi's put them through affected him greatly. He also felt responsible since he in fact owned a drop of Jewish blood himself.
Both of these men took responsibility for what was going on. That is the keyword of this posting, responsibility. Good people just listened to authority and went with the flow somehow trusting that these choices were right, however, it took guts to take responsibility for these actions and to help put an end to them.
Schindler hired Jews at first because they were cheaper than Poles. He planned to make a profit out of the war; however, as he became closer to his workers, he needed them to love him. They did, but they also saw his flaws, and it must have been very difficult to have to depend on him for their very lives.
ReplyDeleteYou need to analyze Wallenberg's position and motivation more fully.
I agree. I feel like no hero is perfect. For example, even in Katrina it was difficult to rely on our "heroes." The tragedy was so bad and everyone did their best at the time. However, no one has the power to rule over a tragedy and to stop it. They can help out, but when something this devastating happens, there is no guaranteed outcome. Therefore, the Jews put their trust into these men and prayed for the best. The beginning intentions for these men did not really matter, it was what they saw when the the Jews were being persecuted. They helped stop it. The did what was right,
ReplyDeleteSara, when you speak of good people following authority trusting that what authorities say is right is an issue that is perplexing to me. At some point in raising my children, (who knows it may have been after watching the film The Holocaust in the 1980's)I had to rethink how I taught them to obey authority. My oldest was the class clown when he started school, and I got to know his teachers quite well. It seemed I stressed that you always have to follow the rules and respect authority. It is for the good of a civil society. It is not only in school, that you have to listen to authority but it will be all your life -in your job and in your daily activities, in the laws that govern society. Laws are based on morality and natural laws. But then you realize that civil authority, can be immoral; such as in the persecution and extermination of a group of people. then we taught them that some rules and laws are not moral and they must use discernment. It does take responsibility (as you said)and the ability to think cognitively on how and when to conform to the rules of society. this is easy to say but can be hard to implement because it is ingrained in us to follow the rules. At what point do we respond contrary to the status quo, and how do we respond, and how far do we go? We are grateful for the witness of Schindler and Wallenberg for discerning that something needed to be done and that they put forth the effort. they did what they could from their life's situation and we applaud them. May we be able to discern what it is we can do, whatever our life situation and experience.
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