The question to ask yourself about your own courage and character?

[Chrisinmd]

I just read that the question to ask yourself about your own courage and character is these 2 questions.

What would you have done if you were in Germany leading up to WW2 and starting seeing what was going on? The Jews being taken away and killed. Would you have done anything to speak up and attempt to stop it?

Or another situation would be what would you have done if you were alive living in the South prior to the Civil War. Would you have spoke out or tried to stop slavery?

I think the way a person answers the question tells a lot about your courage and character. How much are you willing to give up and cost yourself to do the right and moral thing? If you speak up or try to stop it could cost you everything up to and including you and your loved ones life.

What would you do?

 

[Flying Crane]

I think none of us can answer those questions because having not been there at that time, we simply do not know what we would have done.

I am sure we all would like to think we would have been brave enough to stand up in opposition to what was happening. But doing so might have ended our lives quickly. Other social and political pressures could have made it clear what the results would be, and convinced us to remain silent. Life circumstances might have even put some of us on the side of the bad guys as well, I am afraid.

So while we can fantasize about what kind of hero we might have been in those times, none of us can answer with any certainty.

 

[pdg]

What would you have done if you were in Germany leading up to WW2 and starting seeing what was going on? The Jews being taken away and killed. Would you have done anything to speak up and attempt to stop it?

What would you have done when you realised that the Holocaust didn't actually start until nearly 2 years after war was officially declared - instigated by the German invasion of Poland and not really anything to do with what was generally regarded as a German internal issue with regard the concentration camps which, while not pleasant places or a nice idea, initially held very very few Jewish (as opposed to the extermination camps which came later)?

The final solution was nothing at all to do with the outbreak of war, even though the German government blamed the Jewish population for the reaction to the invasion of Poland, and also cited them as the reason for Germany declaring war against the US.


A more apt question for most of the members of this forum:

Would you have spoken out against the forced relocation and segregation of anyone of even partial Japanese descent to concentration camps established in the majority of inland states following the attack on pearl harbor, mainly enforced by the prejudicial misinterpretation of Executive Order 9066?

 

[drop bear]

No idea.

 

[Monkey Turned Wolf]

Everyone would love to say that they would be the dissenter, but unless you were there, in that time and culture (or a similar situation), you can't really know. So the question itself becomes kind of pointless.

 

[drop bear]

Everyone would love to say that they would be the dissenter, but unless you were there, in that time and culture (or a similar situation), you can't really know. So the question itself becomes kind of pointless.

Mabye that was the test of character. It is easy to say you would help the Jews. Hard to say you wouldn't.

 

[Tez3]

What would you have done if you were in Germany leading up to WW2 and starting seeing what was going on? The Jews being taken away and killed. Would you have done anything to speak up and attempt to stop it?

I am the daughter of a concentration camp survivor, the only one of her family to survive and I think by posing this question you are using something horrendous as almost a television quiz show question or one of those Facebook type things. Very much not appreciated.

What would you have done when you realised that the Holocaust didn't actually start until nearly 2 years after war was officially declared - instigated by the German invasion of Poland and not really anything to do with what was generally regarded as a German internal issue with regard the concentration camps which, while not pleasant places or a nice idea, initially held very very few Jewish (as opposed to the extermination camps which came later)?

The final solution was nothing at all to do with the outbreak of war, even though the German government blamed the Jewish population for the reaction to the invasion of Poland, and also cited them as the reason for Germany declaring war against the US.

I don't know where the hell you are getting your history from but the first camp was Dachau and opened in 1933. I think you need to do some reading.
An Introductory History of the Holocaust

HISTORY OF THE HOLOCAUST - TIME LINE | The Holocaust History - A People's and Survivor History - Remember.org

https://www.yadvashem.org/
https://www.yadvashem.org/holocaust/about.html

 

[Buka]

Why not just combine the two questions?



If I'm to take these as serious questions and not just as an oral exercise to make one feel better about themselves in a nice, safe internet way, than I shall attempt to answer them in a serious manner.

To the first, if I was in Germany prior to WW2 I imagine I would be a German citizen as I don't recall Germany being a likely vacation spot for Club Med.

I am also of the assumption that the Hitler Regime was not manning the lines of open communication in a customer service way with a toll free number and the heading "Tell us how we're doing!"

Although, thankfully, I could never know the horror of these poor people, I'd try and find a way to take me and mine and escape, not saying a word to anyone. You can talk about courage and character all you want, but until you stare down the beast, while the beast stares back, you have no idea what it's like.

To the second question, concerning antebellum, I could ask "am I white or black?", as that would make a difference as to how I might be heard. But I won't ask that. Instead I'll ask, for the sake of conversation, speak out to who exactly?

 

[Dirty Dog]

Thread locked pending staff review.