The Bystander's Role In The Holocaust

The Jewish Holocaust has to be one of the most famous and tragic genocides reported. We are taught that the reason we learn all about it is so tragic historical events like this won’t repeat in the future, but they do and they are. What many people don’t realize is that bystanders play a huge role in the events of the holocaust. Yes, the Germans played an obviously enormous part, and it wouldn’t have happened if it weren’t for them, but there were many other situations where others could have helped stop the tragedy and the deaths of millions of people.

People wonder why other countries stayed silent for so long. They could have prevented millions of deaths! Much like the Syrian refugee problem happening today, countries did not want to become

involved in a war that wasn’t theirs to begin with.

Most countries just assumed that if they didn’t do anything, some other country would. This is called the bystander effect. The bystander effect is a psychological phenomenon in which an individual does not offer means to help a victim because they assume that

someone else will offer help. The bystander effect is more likely to happen when there are more people. If an individual is alone and sees someone in need, they’re more likely to help than if an individual is surrounded by hundreds of people and sees someone in need. It is this precise phenomenon that resulted in genocide of over 6 million Jewish people.It could have been so easily prevented if any one of those bystander countries that had denied the Jews access ignored the bystander effect and taken a chance to do what they believed to be the right thing.
We learn about history so tragic events won’t repeat themselves, but they still do. We’ve all learned about the holocaust, and we’ve all talked about how much the United States regrets not allowing Jews into our country. Yet, a situation tragically similar to that is happening right now and we’re still debating if we should let them in. Syrian refugees have been trying to escape Syria since 2011 due to war between the Syrian government and ISIS. When the holocaust began to take off, the United States was recovering from the Great Depression. A big reason Americans did not want to allow Jews to come into the country was because they were afraid that the Jews would start to take people’s jobs. Because of ideas like this, many people were against letting them in. ISIS has been killing thousands of Muslim people for years. Right now it is worse than ever, and that’s why so many refugees are trying to escape. They’ve been going to neighboring countries (like Jordan, Lebanon, and Turkey) along with other countries like Canada. The United States is still conflicted because of the threat of terrorists coming in among the Muslims. Especially now, with the attack on Paris and now the attack on San Bernardino. Both of these attacks have been separately linked to at least one Muslim, making the refugee situation even more difficult. There was risk in accepting Jews into the country, a risk that we regret not taking because it resulted in the deaths of about eleven million people. There’s also a risk in accepting Syrian refugees into this country. There may be a terrorist or two in there somewhere. It could make us a target for ISIS. Everything has a risk, the one’s you take are worth it, the one’s you don’t take, you’ll never know. It could result in saving the lives of millions of innocent people. Like David Bier says in his article What the Holocaust Can Teach Us About the Syrian Refugee Crisis, “Rather than repeat the mistake we promised never to forget, we must learn to address our fears without forgetting our humanity”
In our world today, when we hear that we don’t want history to repeat itself, most people will assume that it won’t but they won’t do anything to stop it when it is repeating.

Maybe they don’t notice, maybe they don’t care, but for the most part people never think things will go as far as they do. So as more and more Syrian refugees try to escape their country, and ISIS becomes more and more powerful, we start realizing that things are beginning tog et seriously out of hand. We can help put an end to this now. Learn from our mistakes and do what we know is the humane thing to do. They say that the United States regretted not letting Jewish refugees in sooner. By the time they did, it was too late for millions of people. If we put aside our fears, we can help save so many people. They’re lives depend on these decisions. Their lives and the American citizens’ lives are at risk. It’s all about taking chances and trying to see the best in people. Ye, there might be one terrorist among the million refugees we accept, but are we not willing to take that chance for those millions of people for something that might or might not happen. The refugees will die without us. Terrorist are already a threat to America, so why not take a chance on a minimal to risk to save what could’ve been millions of

deaths.
We don’t always realize when tragic genocides that will go down in history are happening. We like to see the best and hope that these types of things don’t grow, that they pass silently. But they do grow. We’re always told that we learn about history so that tragic events like the holocaust don’t repeat themselves, but they do and they always will. Today, Syrian refugees are in the same circumstance. It is up to everyone to learn from our historical mistakes and help save millions of people.