![]() “Passive” implies “inaction.” Passivity could derive from a range of quite different feelings: from a sense of powerlessness, fear for one's physical safety, social pressures within one's group or community, or tolerance or support for the perpetrators' actions. The two words “passive” and “indifferent” themselves have distinct connotations. They were not the “ perpetrators” or the “ victims.” Nor were they among the tiny minority of “ rescuers” of the “victims.” “Bystanders” as a group have often been characterized as “passive” or “indifferent.” They included those, for example, who did not speak out when they witnessed the persecution of individuals targeted simply because they were Jewish, or during the phase of mass murder, did not offer shelter to Jews seeking hiding places. “Bystanders” as used to refer to German and European populations close to the actual events are often defined by what they were not. The second-the focus in this article-refers to “bystanders” within societies close to and often physically present at the events. These “bystanders” range widely from the Allied governments and neutral countries to religious institutions and Jewish organizations. The first refers to external or international “bystanders”-witnesses in a nonliteral sense because of their distance from the actual events. The term “bystander” is used in the context of the Holocaust in two ways. Many people became “bystanders” to this ever-radicalizing program long before the mass roundups and killings began. Jews were dehumanized, deprived of many legal rights, became the victims of both random and organized violence, and were socially if not physically isolated from the rest of the population. ![]() The Holocaust was a series of events that happened over a long period of time. Civil servants, police, and military forces-servants of the state-and their collaborators in other countries implemented the escalating racial measures, including anti-Jewish measures, which culminated in mass murder and genocide. Leaders of Nazi Germany driven by ideological goals formed the policies. Unlike present-day crime scenes, accidents, or emergency situations witnessed by “bystanders,” much was different about the Holocaust.
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