Occasional Sanity: What Unites Holocaust Rescuers

By Stanislav Press

Introduction

Although pre-war Europe was an extremely wet soil for anti-Semitic views there wasn’t such

thing as a monolithic view on Jewish population of modern Europe, despite all the other

propaganda pieces and arguments for the Nazi regime. Destruction of Jews was obviously

motivated by various factors, some of which are not directly related to anti-Semitism, but rather

went in the same “package” of ideas, ideology and issues that were relevant to the Nazi regime.

It would simply be irresponsible to limit this tragedy to just one factor of exploitation by Adolf

Hitler as well. In order to grasp at least a somewhat larger picture we must examine all the

details that usually went outside of modern post-WWII conversation on what caused Holocaust.

By knowing those elements we would be able to understand what separated the so-called

Holocaust rescuers from the rest of the Europeans under the Nazi influence, whether we’re

discussing active aggressors and monsters or passive accepters of what would later become

arguably the most cited tragedy and one of the scariest reflections of human nature. With all

intents and purposes this paper will present an argument for viewing rescuers, as they would be

mentioned below, as people who exemplify at least one of given trades: nonconformity, ability to

act on this nonconformity with smaller risk for their loved ones, political views that went in

contradiction to the rest of Nazi status-quo, and disregard towards ideas of progress and

modernistic worldview to the benefit of pre-modern or postmodern paradigm. All of this trades

are pretty uncommon even today, while some of them were even less common during less

individualistic period of early-mid 20th century. While none of these trades are unique to the

rescuers and were also present in Nazi supporters to the certain degree and while none of these

trades even when combined were able to produce active rescuers with complete guarantee, all of
these elements were extremely relevant to the formation of the active and hidden opposition to

the state mass murders of that era. Let’s examine them one by one. By doing so we might find

out that individualism (at least in partial form) is probably the key element in formation of the

rescuers, which might also explain why their emergence was so uncommon.

Nonconformity

Unity was a massive part of Nazi ideology, similarly to any modernist political ideology at that

time, including Communism. While being one of the key ideals of the French Revolution, this

seemingly noble concept is way too vague not to become a tool of horror in the hands of

malicious leaders. Ideas of class unity helped to create and sustain USSR, while ideas of national

unity (with some extra socialism for the lucky few that were of proper origin and of proper

ideology) gave birth to the so-called Nazis. This idea was such a central piece of the movement,

even the word “Fascism” came from the Italian “a bundle of sticks”, which came from Latin

“fasces” which had a pretty similar meaning. Those, who are more capable to resist desire to be

surrounded by common approval or less capable to follow the crowd would perfectly suit for a

role of those, who avoided “following the orders”. This ability was rare in German population

that was in strong need of feeling safe and strong after humiliating crisis post-WWI. With many

positive outcomes for economy and German spirit from Nazi establishment at the time people

were even more likely to unite and accept the narrative of their leader. Grandiosity of Hitler’s

figure or, at least, the façade that he crated around him, also helped Germans to unite in common

near-religious love for him. It’s not a coincidence that German propaganda at that time was using

religious symbolism to depict Hitler and his ideals. Furthermore, God was used as a massive part

of a Nazi narrative, in which Hitler’s mission was presented as sacred or, at least, approved by

higher power. Religion, while presenting it primarily as a tool of control and conformity would

not be fully honest, is undeniably useful in generating both control and conformity even with
best intentions in mind. It should be noted that, while many of rescuers were religious, it takes a

massive amount of independent thought to recognize that their religious values can be used to

deceive or as a justification for crime.

Less pressure for following the line

Not everyone is given the pleasure and privilege to live their live their way. In many scenarios

there is an obvious need to either obey or at least be happy with smaller ways to express your

actual will. This reason for active support of Jewish community is more relevant for family men

that knew right the way that they have more than their life in question in case of disobedience.

Let’s not forget that originally Nazi camps were built in order to get rid of opposition and still

served their original purpose during Holocaust. Those, who were loners, had more freedom to go

against the regime. In many cases, like in the case of Agnieszka Budna, rescuers were both

supporting their family and helping out Jewish population, simply due to their family members

being Jewish. In many ways those cases might be viewed as separate from cases of brave loners,

but both exemplify situations in which family is not a reason to obey, whether it doesn’t exist or

would highly benefit from this step out of the line. Individualism is often the case for lacking

strong connections and bounds, just as it takes individual thinking to form a family with Jewish

person during strong anti-Semitic narrative in society.

Politically Opposed Citizens

While it was common among German and Polish populations to see no value in Nazi worldview

and definitely most commonly it resulted in passive hidden form of denial or immigration to the

democratic or sometimes even communist states, it still should be said that those, who did not

agree with fascist worldview were less likely to take radical antisemitism as a “part of a
package”. This was especially relevant to Poland which was under militaristic control of a

foreign government that wasn’t keeping their interest in mind. While many Germans saw

unbelievable growth and irrelevance of their previous problems due to Nazi regime, Poland was

pretty much under the arm, while not entirely forced or completely with no benefit for those,

who will obey the new power.

Disregard for Modernist Paradigm

A weird mixture of all of the previous points which deserves a separate spot, this Point might

seem a bit obscure, so it would be proper to explain it in greater detail.

While anti-modernist (and this term doesn’t necessarily include just postmodernist and related

not only to art, as it is common to assume) would fall under the politically opposed section, since

Fascism was a part of a modernistic paradigm, which stated that the meaning of life is in

progress and through various measures we can advance our species to the better or even utopian

state. Another great example of a modernist ideology is Communism, which promised classless

utopia in return for work and improvement of the system from the workers. Nazis, while also

targeting socialist ideas, were trying to improve the world by making it “pure”, graving utopia

for those of Arian descent.

While there were many reasons to distrust those ideas by themselves, paradigms are way more

saddle in individual psychology and form even stronger disregard to the ideology, which might

seem even a bit irrational or less based on actual ideas. While postmodernism technically started

to dominate culture way after the fall of a third Reich, those changes do not happen overnight.

Furthermore, one of the key events to trigger the shift from modernism to postmodernism or

even back to pre-modernism in some individual cases, have already happened. Modernistic ideas

of Enlightenment and Renaissance were challenged by WWI. When soldiers saw what technical

progress is capable of, they went away from utopian ideas in fear. One rifle was a good enough
tool to commit crimes that were previously unimaginable by common people and would make

warlords of the past extremely jealous. Plus, this war had no clear good and clear evil, which is

often the case, but wasn’t that clear of an issue in WWII, which had a clearer aggressor and less

defendable ideology to fight with.

Postmodernism as a denial and “humiliation” of modernism started to emerge and gain power

right before Hitler went to power and got even stronger due to his actions. While this reason for

disobedience might seem minor or too abstract, it definitely was an influence on many of

rescuers, at least indirectly. Let’s not forget that Holocaust wasn’t the first genocide to happen in

Europe and outside of it, so taking newer and West-specific cultural element into account when

discussing Holocaust is extremely important. Needles to say, that postmodernism is not

associated with conformity, egalitarian views and can be fairly called an individualistic

paradigm.