Who's Worse? The Dangers of Bystanders in Witness to the Holocaust

"Who's Worse?" In the documentary "Witness to the Holocaust," Miles Lehrman suggests that perpetrators are not as dangerous as they are thought to be. In fact, he argues that bystanders are more dangerous than the perpetrators themselves. This is a logical claim. First, to support Lehrman’s claim, Kristallnacht serves as a prime example of the impact bystanders have on events and how they can be more dangerous than the perpetrators themselves. On the night of Kristallnacht, many German citizens were bystanders, either out of fear or approval for what was happening. Another example of bystanders on this day were the firefighters. Although they cannot be considered perpetrators because they did not directly attack the Jews, they only prevented the fire from reaching non-Jewish properties. Through these actions, bystanders only affirm the perpetrators and fuel the fire. In some cases, like the firefighters, they are even more dangerous than the perpetrators by allowing the fire to reach Jewish properties. The firefighters ignited the spark that the perpetrators started and turned it into a raging fire. (1) Lehrman argues that bystanders can be more dangerous than the perpetrators themselves because they affirm their actions. He also claims that "neutrality helps the killer." I support this claim with evidence from the video "A Teacher Turns Away." In the video, Rosa Marx's peers fail to stand up for what is right, thereby affirming the perpetrator's actions. It is common to believe that if no one is stopping you from doing something, then it must be the right thing to do....

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...When people argue that they may get hurt, sometimes we have to make sacrifices for something bigger that everyone will benefit from. All in all, if we do not stand up, we only affirm the perpetrators. If too many people affirm perpetrators instead of standing up for the victim, bystanders can prove to be more dangerous than the perpetrators. As Martin Luther King Jr. said, "Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter." Works Cited (1) Tix, Andy, Ph.D. "The Pursuit of Peace." "Kristallnacht:" The Night That Shattered Humanity. Psychology. No changes needed as this appears to be a citation/reference section and not a paragraph from an essay.