Holocaust Blog

I'd say the reason for the people of Nazi Germany to be the bystanders was because the Germans had a very powerful and effective weapon, fear and intimidation. With the German public soon realizing what was going on there were a brave few that stood up, but for the mass of the public being bystanders they were influenced by the fear and decided to stay in there place and not go out of line with the Nazi. They were also being reasonable as far as most humans would consider reasonable. They would rather have their family and themselves alive and not punished rather than being like the unlucky Jews, Gypsies Gays, and up-standers, etc. Human nature kicked in and it was a fight or flight time, either you fight and risk dying for a cause or you can try and fly below the radar and stay safe and for the most part sound with their families.

As far as my opinion on being a bystander or up-stander, I for a fact would be a bystander I'm not one to back away from fear as well as I am one to be susceptible to intimidation. I'd first think I'm obligated to do something about it, but as time would go on I would think about it and realize there would be no way I'd be doing it for the same reason that the real German public (mass of German's) didn't stand up against the Third Reich's rule over Germany, Poland, France, and much of Europe.

Then again for the up-standers they would need to have a lot courage to be able to stand up against such a powerful force with such a small force of rebellion. Even with a large force it would be a massive challenge for them as they would need time, lots of it, to be able to go against the Nazis and make a large notable difference. Although the changes the rebels did make may not have been significant but it did give them hope, hope that in turn could have inspired more and more up-standers to stand up for a change against a super power such as the Nazis.