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"Altruistic Personality? How Rescue in the Holocaust Was Not Entirely Selfless" Book Essay on:
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Melanie Parker for Prof. Marcuse's lecture course |
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& Abstract |
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at amazon |
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About Melanie Parker I am a fourth-year History major. My focus is on early twentieth-century American society and culture. However, because America was involved in a lot of world affairs in this period, I have taken a few courses in European history at this time as well. Because of my interest in the people of a particular place, I was interested in learning more about why some people in German-occupied territories felt a need to help rescue Jews while going against what the general population was doing during World War II. Abstract (back to top) In To Save a Life: Stories of Holocaust Rescue, Ellen Land-Weber interviews gentiles who were involved in rescuing Jews during the Holocaust as well as some of the Jews who were rescued by these gentiles. While not necessarily having an argument of her own, Land-Weber borrows the argument of the Oliners’ which states that rescue was done for completely selfless reasons during the Holocaust. However, when reading the memoirs included in this book, it can be concluded that these rescues were not done for entirely selfless reasons. Many of the rescuers had prior relationships with those they rescued and others simply rescued as a way to resist the Nazis, thus giving these rescuers a motivation behind their actions. |
Essay (back to top) During World War II, numerous people helped to save the lives of Jews. The stories of many of these rescuers remain unknown, but some have shared their experiences in rescuing Jews from the Holocaust. In her book, To Save a Life: Stories of Holocaust Rescue, Ellen Land-Weber presents the memoirs of seven people who helped to save the lives of Jews during World War II. In addition to these memoirs, she presents the memoirs of some of the Jews that were saved by these rescuers. The author explains that her book is a companion of sorts to The Altruistic Personality: Rescuers of Jews in Nazi Europe by Samuel and Pearl Oliner, for whom she had initially conducted interviews. Because of this, Land-Weber does not exactly present her own argument for her book, but rather bases her argument on the Oliners’ argument, which states that the rescue of Jews was an altruistic behavior, that it was out done for humanitarian reasons rather than self-interest (Oliner and Oliner, 1). Land-Weber does, however, add to this argument by stating that rescuers interviewed came from a wide variety of life experiences and ages, and yet they all similarly risked their lives by helping Jews survive the Holocaust. Land-Weber chose the seven rescuers in her book from the many that she had interviewed for the Oliners’ book, and chose them specifically because of the variety in their stories, but also because she was able to interview some of the Jews they had rescued. Thus, Land-Weber’s book is essentially a continuation of the Oliners’ argument, rather than one of her own, although she uses her book as a way to tell a more detailed account of a select few of the rescuers’ experiences. However, many of the rescuers, in their memoirs, state that there were other reasons than simply wanting to help another human being survive. While some really did rescue Jews for no other reason than to rescue them, some were simply against anything the Nazis stood for, some requested payment for their help and others were helping mostly close friends rather than helping anyone who needed help. The details given in the memoirs weaken the Oliners’ and Land-Weber’s rather narrow arguments that the rescuers helped people only for selfless reasons because these details suggest that there were ulterior reasons for some rescuers, which did determine who they rescued and how, but in no way lessened their role in rescuing Jews. Overall, Land-Weber presents a variety of memoirs that show that different people from all walks of life, all over German-occupied Europe, risked their own lives in order to save the lives of Jews. As Jacqueline Vansant points out in her review of the book, because Land-Weber only includes the memoirs of seven rescuers, and their backgrounds are extremely varied, it is hard to make any generalizations about rescuers in the Holocaust, other than the obvious point to the argument that their involvement in rescues was motivated by humanitarian beliefs (Vansant, 982-984). Within the stories told in her book however, Land-Weber presents seven very different people who nonetheless helped rescue Jews, therefore risking everything they had. Three of these people helped Jews in Holland, a married couple helped Jews in Czechoslovakia, and the final two helped Jews in Poland. Most of these rescuers were gentile, but one was Jewish. An eighth rescuer, not given her own chapter like the others, had actually helped rescue one of the other rescuers Land-Weber interviews. Although the vast differences between these rescuers lead to little generalization, their diversity also supports Land-Weber’s suggestion that rescuers could be from very different backgrounds and yet still have similar goals. In addition to the memoirs of the rescuers, Land-Weber includes memoirs of some of the Jews who were rescued. Like the rescuers, the Jews who were rescued were often also from very different walks of life. Of course, they all had their religion in common and were all being persecuted by the Nazis, but that was often the only similarity amongst them. Despite their differences in backgrounds, each of the Jews’ memoirs helps to tell their rescuer’s story. While the story of their own survival is obviously important, in Land-Weber’s book, the memoirs of the rescued Jews is even more important to the story of the rescuer. The memoirs of the Jews help to tell the story of the rescuer from the perspective of the person they rescued. This helps to give readers a fuller understanding of what the rescuers did for those they saved and how much they went through in helping them. This often helps make up for the modesty and humility sometimes displayed by rescuers when telling their own stories. In many of the memoirs, both the rescuers and the rescued mention that they had been either acquainted with each other or friends prior to the war. For example, in Holland, both Tina Strobos and Bert Bechove helped rescue people who were friends of their families. Tina rescued a man she had been previously engaged to and also the daughter of friends of her mothers, while Bert had helped to rescue a friend of his wife, as well as this woman’s sisters (Land-Weber, 28, 59, 67-68, 99). Both risked their lives to help save their Jewish friends by hiding them in their homes, or when it became too risky there, in other friends’ homes. Similarly, in Poland, Barbara Szymanska and her sister Halina helped to save their Jewish colleagues, as well as family members of people they had been acquainted with. Later, when Barbara had been arrested for her involvement in underground work, it was her sister Halina and their younger sister Hanka who helped her by sending packages of food to her in prison. Also in Poland, John Damski helped to save members of his Jewish neighbor’s family, including the daughter he later married following the war. The previous connections these people had with those they rescued may have possibly been a major motivator in why they helped rescue those particular people, although some had also helped strangers on occasion. Although rescuing a friend or a family member is not necessarily a selfish act, it also would not be considered a purely altruistic act either according to the altruistic argument. It is hard to say whether or not these people would have helped to rescue as many people as they did as a result of altruistic behavior, since they did have a previous connection with most of the people they saved, but they nevertheless did save some Jews, which is more than can be said about a great deal of the population of German-occupied Europe at the time. Some of the rescuers just mentioned, as well as others, did help save complete strangers though. Barbara Szymanska helped to rescue the young daughter of a Jewish woman, Rachel Litowitz, who was later sent to Auschwitz, and whose husband had been sent away to Buchenwald, where he died. Litowitz was also helped by Barbara’s aunt, (who was somewhat familiar with Litowitz through shopping in her store) who then sent Litowitz and her daughter to her niece for help. Although Barbara did not know Litowitz at all, she was willing to temporarily take in her daughter until she could find a more suitable place to hide her, but she did not have room for Litowitz. Another rescuer who saved a stranger was Jaruslav (Jerry) Chlup in Czechoslovakia. As a member of a resistance group, Jerry helped to blow up a bridge, which forced a German train bound for a death camp to stop overnight. Many of the prisoners used this as an opportunity to escape, including Herman Feder, who was hidden for the remainder of the war by Jerry and his wife, Anna, in their home. Anna sums up her reason for helping save Feder by saying, “If somebody needs help, you have to help, so you do” (Land-Weber, 168). Those who rescued strangers likely felt similarly, if someone needs help, no matter who they are, they get help because they are a person. These examples of people who decided to help save strangers fits the Oliners’ and Land-Weber’s argument, since neither of these rescuers knew who they were rescuing and neither asked for anything in return for their help. Some rescuers did not always save Jews without expecting anything in return. For instance, John Damski, who was mentioned earlier, explains that one time he had helped to sneak some Jews out of the Warsaw ghetto in a truck he was using to carry supplies. Once they were out of Warsaw, he let them out of the truck, but asked that they give him what they could. He ended up with about three thousand zlotys (Land-Weber, 265). Of course, these were complete strangers he had helped, so that may explain why he requested payment, which he may not have had he already known them. However, the fact that he did request payment shows that his help was not entirely selfless, although he did nonetheless risk his own life to save them when he could have just as easily left them behind at the ghetto. Another rescuer in Land-Weber’s book also may not have had purely selfless motivations for helping to save Jews. Mirjam Pinkhof, a Jew herself, helped to rescue Jewish children who had fled to Holland from Germany. Pinkhof had even sacrificed her own opportunity for rescue in order to help save others. Although it may seem she was completely selfless in her actions, this may not be entirely true according to the Oliners’ argument. Pinkhof explained in her memoir that her family had been a completely assimilated family and she knew “nothing about Jewish subjects” (Land-Weber, 110). She also explains that her father had been active in many socialist activities, which no doubt impacted her own upbringing. She goes on to state that when she began her work in helping the Jewish children, she “worked extremely hard to show that [she] wouldn’t collaborate with the Germans and that [she was] against everything the Nazis represented” (Land-Weber, 112). While she may have genuinely wanted to help those children, she was also trying very hard to make sure it was known that she did not support the Nazis. This anti-Nazi feeling seems to be what was fueling her to help most of all, especially at the beginning. So, if her saving the Jews was truly an altruistic behavior, it would have been because of what the Nazis were doing to them or threatening to do, not because she did not like the Nazis themselves and what they represented overall. There is no doubt that each of these rescuers interviewed by Land-Weber risked everything they had, including their lives and the lives of their family members, in order to rescue Jews. Most also expressed that they wished they could have done more. Unfortunately, the Oliners’ argument that it is altruistic behavior that led people to rescue Jews also makes it seem as if these rescuers could have done more. Because the argument is very narrow, and only allows for those who helped others without any personal motivations, it almost makes it seem as if these seven rescuers interviewed could be considered selfish, since each had a specific motivator in their roles as a rescuer. If the argument had not been so insistent on the aspect of selflessness, perhaps these minor details of other motives would have gone completely unnoticed. In addition to these minor details which weaken the altruistic argument, a weak point for both Land-Weber’s book and the Oliners’ is that only those who rescued for altruistic reasons were interviewed. This causes the story of rescuers to remain incomplete. The Oliners’ state in their book that they do acknowledge that there were some who rescued Jews for purely selfish or greedy reasons, but they consciously chose not to include them in their study. Because of this, Land-Weber also does not include any rescuer who had other obvious motives for rescuing than to simply help another person. This leaves out of the overall story the numerous people who, although for a mix of selfish reasons, did in fact still rescue Jews in the Holocaust. One might say that in the overall picture, a rescue is a rescue, regardless of the motives. But understandably, these memoirs of “selfish” rescuers would have argued against the Oliners’, and subsequently Land-Weber’s, argument of Holocaust rescue being purely altruistic. |
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Bibliography and Links (back to top)(links last checked 3/24/08) Reviews:
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Any student tempted to use this paper for an assignment in another course or school should be aware of the serious consequences for plagiarism. Here is what I write in my syllabi:
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