About

Edmund Burke (1729-1797)

“Bystanders” are people who witness evil or injustice but do not intervene.

In Europe in the 1930’s, antisemitism was on the rise. Jews were blamed for almost all the countries’ problems. In Germany, the Nazis rose to power and used massive propaganda to convince the Germans at large they needed to be rid of their Jewish neighbors and build an “Aryan” nation.

Jews were fired from the civil service, banks, universities and news media - these jobs were then given to non-Jews. Many thousands of Jews fled. Non-Jewish Germans took over Jewish businesses, homes and other property of Jews who had been forced to leave. These bystanders greedily exploited a tragic situation.

In November 1938, Kristallnacht (The Night of Broken Glass) marked a dramatic uptick of physical violence against the Jews. Jewish-owned stores were vandalized; Jews were beaten and hundreds killed over a two-night reign of terror. Much of the German population, the bystanders, went along with the violence.

World War II began in September 1939 with the invasion of Poland by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union; Jews were trapped throughout Europe, no longer able to escape.

By June 1940, Hitler had conquered most of western Europe. In France, Norway, Hungary and other occupied nations, their national leaders collaborated with the Nazi occupiers. Jews were rounded up and deported - and all the while, the bystanders stood watching.

With the German invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941, the level of killing escalated, now with the participation of local fascist thugs. Areas of Poland, Ukraine and Belarus became horrific scenes of mass shootings and common graves - and the bystanders stood watching.