Is a member of society guilty for the crimes commited by its leaders? This question is brought up by Wiesenthal when he tells the old lady that "no German can shrug off the responsibility"(93). He sais this after the lady says, "We are not responsibe for their fate"(92). But who is responsible for their fate? Of course hitler and his advisors would have to be, but should the rest of the population? What about other countries who did not even participate in WW2 but saw these attrocities happening right before their eyes? Are they to blame as well?
I beleive instead of pointing fingers, we should all seek resolution. The old lady Simon was talking to, she should be able to believe that she was not to blame. She didn't herself execute Jews, but she did stand idley by while Jews were killed. I wasn't even born and you could blame me almost as much as you could blame that old lady. I didn't execute any Jews, yet I didn't do anything to stop them.
So this brings up the question, if a person didn't to anything should they still be blamed for a crime someone they were associated with? I wouldn't want to get blamed for someone elses crimes, but is it a crime not to stop their crime? Is it a crime to not stop them when you yourself could get hurt by doing so? I know this is a lot of questions, but was that not the purpose of the book?
This was definitely one of the main points of this book! If we know of a crime being committed, isn't it our moral duty to help?
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