115 - Bearing Witness - Collaboration and Choices

NARRATOR It took a lot of energy, effort, and organization to murder so many people. The Nazis relied on local community members to collaborate—to help them identify and round up Jews who had only recently been neighbors, fellow students and workers, even friends. Some collaborated out of fear; others were rewarded. In either case, they became perpetrators. Other people may not have participated but stood by, doing little or nothings in response to the catastrophe. They were bystanders. If you look to the left, you see the German rail car—the tragic result of making the choice of being a perpetrator or bystander. The Danish fishing boat represents the choice of the upstander. Denmark was the only German-occupied country that actively resisted the deportation of its Jewish citizens. In 1943, Danish Christians risked their own lives to save more than 7,800 Jews as well as 700 other so-called “enemies of the Reich”—their fellow citizens. They did it by first hiding and then ferrying the Jews in small boats of this type to the safety of Sweden before they could be deported. Even the Danish Jews who fell into Nazi hands and were deported to camps fared better than other prisoners, because the government of Denmark—including its king—never stopped pressuring the Nazis about the wellbeing of their citizens. As a result, 98 percent of Denmark’s Jewish population survived the Holocaust. And when the war ended and the Danish Jews returned home, they were welcomed and many found their homes and possessions intact, protected by their neighbors and friends. Moreover, Denmark immediately established reparations for the losses suffered by their surviving Jewish citizens.

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Holocaust Museum Houston

Holocaust Museum Houston is dedicated to educating people about the Holocaust, remembering the 6 million Jews and other innocent victims and honoring the survivors’ legacy. Using the lessons of the Holocaust and other genocides, we teach the dangers of hatred, prejudice, and apathy.

 

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