The Silent Bystander
I think that all people should recognize the danger of being a silent bystander, both in the face of prejudice towards others and the violation of civil rights. Read the poem below by Pastor Niemoeller and think about the power of the bystander.
First they came for the Jews and I did not speak out – because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for the Communists and I did not speak out – becasue I was not a Communist.
Then they came for the trade unionists and I did not speak out – because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for me – and there was no one left to speak out for me.
– Pastor Niemoeller
So there you have it. You can address one or all of the following questions:
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When was the best time to stop the Holocaust?
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Discuss the dangers of remaining silent in the face of prejudice and the denial of civil rights.
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Discuss how this applies today when students witness others being teased, bullied, or axcluded.
The best time to have stopped Holocaust is when Jews were being killed and abused. If someone noticed and made a huge Anti Jew Extermination clan going againtst Hitler and alerting the public then the Holocaust wouldn’t have been so wide scale
The best time to stop the Holocaust was when people were being taken from their homes and swept off the street never being heard of again or when Hitler was eliminating his compitition, making off the wall laws, making himself the most powerful man in Germany, and when the Nazi party was bigger than the German army.
Don’t be silent and sit there and watch someone get beat up and bullied. if you just stand there, you’re helping nothing. The bully thinks you’re standing there to watch the “show go on”. It’s really not a show at all. It’s life threatening because people have committed suicide because they were being bullied. So you shouldn’t just stand there. You should go tell an adult or a teacher. You should make yourself heard and make sure the problem is solved. You should make sure that the bully is dealt with for good.
the best time to stop the holocaust would have been when they tried to take the communists because alot of the communists (just guessing) would have fought back instead of run because they had lots of ways to fight back depending on the area and how quick they could make traps or ambushes and also depending on the type of communist and their numbers for their small fight against the Nazis either way they would have been occupied with the communists.
I think the best time to stand up for the Jews was when it first started so there would be as little damage done as possible. If we would have started at the beging then the Nazis and Hitler would no be as powerful and they would be easier to take down.
When you see someone being bullied you should go speak up to a teacher. You might think thats not cool or something but what if you were the one being bullied? You would want some one to help you when you needed it. When someone speaks up more people do because they start seeing that its ok to speak up.
I believe that people should stick up for other people. How do you expect someone to stick up for you if you don’t do it for anyone else? When the Hitler came for the Jews, nobody stuck up for them. Even if you are struck down keep fighting for what you believe in. I’m not saying get violent about it, I’m saying that you should protest peacefully. Martin Luther King Jr. never looked to violence to help with the Civil Rights Movement, neither should you.
When you act as a silent bystander you are putting your life as well as others in danger. Thats why I think that you should always speak up for others. You should speak up for people the second you see the problem. It dosent matter it could be some one getting bullied or some one getting hurt You should always speak up for others. And it has to be done soon because if you wait there may not be anyone left to speak up for you like Pastor Neimoeller said.
In my oppinion the best time to stop the Holocaust was when it got started. The reason I said that is because in the quote when everything happened silent didn’t speak up so at the end when he really needed help no one help because there was no one left. So if you step or speak up now other people might also do that. And remain silent the whole time there will be no one to help you.
The holocaust should have been stopped right when it first started. If it would have been stopped right away then there would’nt have been so many lives lost for such a dumb reason (That Adolf Hitler blamed the jews for why the economy was so bad). More people should have steeped up and helped the jews instead of just watching what the nazis did and following along. Many students of today also do this. People mainly just watch even though they could get a teacher and have the bully stop.
I think the best time to stop the Holocaust was before Hitler started sending Jews to death camps and work camps, Also another good time to stop the Holocaust is when Hitler was voted into power to keep a watch on him or spy on him because America was already having problems with Germany.
When other students see someone else being bullied, most stay silent and don’t stick up for the person. It’s not the right thing to do because if you were being bullied, you might want someone to stick up for you. Bullying is a big deal. Some kids are scared to even come to school because of bullies. Others commit suicide because of bullying. It’s not right to watch someone being teased just because you’re afraid the bully will come after you. Sticking up for someone is the right thing to do.
To me I feel like this is saying that, just because you’re not something and you don’t beleive in it, that dosn’t mean that you can’t stand up for what that person is fighting for. For example “First they came for the jews, and i did not speak out- because i was not a jew.” This to me is saying that just because you don’t support this cause does not mean that you can’t help the people that do. And the big reason is because for example let’s say you don’t support a cause like the jews “The Holocaust” if you don’t help them why would they help you if you didn’t help them?
The question im adressing is: What was the best time to stop the holocaust?
I think the best time to stop the holocaust is when the Nazi’s were being elected. Sombody in the world wusteve noticed somthing wrong with the Nazis before they were elected, nobodys perfect, and the Nazis certainly not perfect. Most electees have to state what they are going to do before they go into office, their leader (adolf hitler) shouldeve had past crimes about discriminaton or other things like racisim. Like Robert W. said, he should have been suspected for these things his first year in office, im suprised nobody noticed anything during that time.
The best time to stand up for what was right during Hitler’s time, is when Hitler wanted the whole Jews population wiped out because they weren’t “perfect”. Just as how Granger ( Farenheit 451 ) was to afraid to speak his mind after new changes were going on in the society. Some people back then people didn’t care what their punishment were , after they had spoken up for what’s right. But now, it’s fifty – fifty we can choose too say whatever we like because we have that right of freedom of speech and also the other have is sitting back watching something terrible happing because of you’re afraid or because you don’t wanna be next . We should all speak up for what’s right rather then caring about what other may think or your consequence .
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Today, wehn somebody sees somebody being bullied or abused, they just stand by and let the bully do what they are doing. Somebody needs to step up and stop the bully. Everyday a kid either commits suicide or leaves school becasue of they was they are treated. It is NOT right!!
The best time to stop The Holocaust was when Hitler got into office and started attacking Jews. When he started attacking towns and capturing jews was when the Allies shouldve stepped in and stopped the Nazi party. When the United States saw them getting to become a bigger force, that was when they shouldve came in and stopped them instead of waiting a few years. When the allies (“The Silent Bystanders”) wernt doing what was right, which is speaking up and stopping them, Hitler was killing millions of jews.
You never solve anything wih violence EVER!!!! Not even as a last resort. Voilence could be 100% avoided if you want to avoid it. Hitler didn’t need to do all of this stuff but he did. I could never say it was right thing for him to do. He didn’t have to kill them, violence never solves anything it only makes things worse for both sides. The jews were harmless.. They did nothing wrong, and yet people still sat their and did nothing to stop it. If it was Hitler and his people getting killed would you think people would have stood up for them? I honestly dont think so i dont think that people dont have the courage to stand out and try to make a difference unless they prove to everyone that they could by doing so.
You said, “If it was Hitler and his people getting killed would you think people would have stood up for them? I honestly dont think so i dont think that people dont have the courage to stand out and try to make a difference unless they prove to everyone that they could by doing so.”
I’m not sure what you are trying to say here. We have to be careful to check ourselves before we post, this stuff is up here for the ages. First, I think people would have stood up for Hitler and his people for many reasons, one of which is not because it would have beent he right thing to do. They would have done it because they were led to believe it was the right thing to do. Those people were not doing things based on facts. They just accepted the facts as they were handed to them by the Nazi propaganda machine. They were excercising blind faith in the Nazi dictatorship. Here then is one of the biggest arguments against blind faith. People should never accept things because someone tlls them they are so.
The second part that I quoted is still confusing me…”i dont think that people dont have the courage to stand out and try to make a difference unless they prove to everyone that they could by doing so.”
What? Hmmmmm. you do not think that people do not have the the courage . . . . This means that you DO think that people DO have the courage.
So, you think that people had the courage to stand out and try to make a difference . . . That’s what you essentially said.
The rest is still confusing to me.
I think what you meant to say was . . . . i dont think that people
don’thave the courage to stand out and try to make a difference unless they prove to everyone that they could by actually standing out and making the difference visibly.I think that the person should have spoken up when she/he noticed that a jews were trying to be wiped out. This situation is similar to that of the Graves injustice. Anthony Graves was accussed of killing the Davis family (granmother daughter and grandchildren ). Anthony’s girlfriend knew that he was innocent but did not speak up. Anthony was put on death role. He later got out when the state found out that it was not him but his brother in law Charles Graves .
The best time too stop the halocaust was before it started. People knew Hitler was making a come up with nazi army but nobody spoke out against him. When hitler started to eliminate his competition too become the leader nobody said anything or thought about it before it was too late.
Everyone deserved to be treated equally so this means people shouldnt be judged by the color of there skin or there religion, which is something the America has yet too learn and needs too learn soon.
This is also an epidemic at school because kids are being bullied everywhere and sometimes its out of parents and teachers control. I see kids getting bullied almost every day and of course i say something because i speak against things like that and i try too have an influence for it too stop.
The Holocaust is the proper name (capital letter H required) of the historical event that occurred during World War II. The H must be capitalized or people will not know that it is something that must be remembered as such.
The best time to stop the holocaust is to stop it before it gets to far stops it when the jews are starting to get segragated from the German society.
People never wanted the Holocaust to even happen at all. The Germans were with him and the Nazis. Then, the beating of Jews were off the charts and mostly every Jew was punished for nothing.
It should have been stopped right in its tracks when Hitler made accusations about the Jews. He turned the country against themselves because Germans and Jews were one in unity. They attacked the Jews and no one spoke out, and then they picked fights with all countries in order to achieve world domination until they had no allies to fight for them. Germans vs. most of the world, and it was too late to get the Jews back.
I think they should have stopped it when Hitler started to take control. They should have never trusted him to be their leader
They should stop something bad right at the very beginning, not close to murder of thousands. Jews were beaten alot mostly in alleys and in the street, treated badly for their race. Even today, people get bullied and beaten by other kids. So don’t cower and hide, speak up.
I think that the best kind to stop the Holocaust was when Hitler had made the rule to assualt anyone that was not part of the Nazi party and anyone that did have blonde hair and blue eyes.
I like this poem, it has good points and relates to a lot of the people I know personally. Many people say as long as it doesn’t affect me it doesn’t matter. Its sorta like when we were younger and there is a mess and we didn’t clean it because we didn’t make it.
I agree with Savion that the best time to stop the Holocaust was when Hitler started making unsual laws. The people should have noticed that something fishy was going on when racist laws were being issued. The first thing Pastor Niemeller said was “First they came for the Jews and I did not speak out” . The people should have spoken out when the Nazis were making racist laws against the Jews. The Jews should have known something bad was going to happen and spoken out to begin with to help their own race. But since they waited too long, they could not speak out later because there weren’t many Jews to speak out.
I think that the best time to speak out against Hitler was when they started to take away the Jews and other people who didn’t fit Hitler’s plans and ideas. When you listen to Hitler’s speeches and stuff, you might agree with him because he is very persuasive and it seems right and it makes sense at the time. But when they start killing and separating families and sending them to concentration camps, that when you should realize that its totally wrong and speak out against it. This applies to kids to in school who are being bullied and those kids who are watching it happen. Many kids just stand and watch their classmates get bullied and they don’t want to or are scared to do something about it. Sometimes we think that we are no going to help either side by not doing anything, but you are actually on the bully’s side because you let them keep on bullying. But you have to go tell an adult and stop things like that from happening in the future or try to make it stop.
In a Tyler Perry movie called Daddy’s Little Girls there were drug dealers in the neighborhood, but the police never did anything about it because they could never find anything. Everyone who was against the drug dealers formed a commity and made a list of complaints to give to the state, but they never did anything either. So one night Monty finnaly did something because he was tired of being beaten up. He took his car and ran into Joe and Jennifer the mother of Monty’s three kids. When he ran into them he then got out his car, slammed him, and punched him a lot. Then the other drug people came out and started beating Monty. Then everyone in the neighborhood came out with piped and started beatin them. So the popo came and they all had to go to court. Jennifer and Joe were taken into custody because everyone in the neighborhood said they would testify against them. Monty was let go because they said they didn’t see him run into their car or beat him up. Even though they lied they stood up for who was right and faught against who was wrong which people in real life should do.
When things go too far, when they are let to get way out of hand, extreme response can occur.
That does not make the extreme response right, appropriate, acceptable. Tyler Perry makes a good point that based on what you describe he may not know he is making.
If things get out of hand to the point where authorities aren’t or can’t do what needs to get done, then people who want to make things right tend to get out of hand. Wanting to make things right is not justification for doing something wrong or hurtful. Hitler in his insanity – wanting to do something good for the German poeple – did something wrong in an attempt to right the world. He wasn’t right to do it. And so, a reaction that is similar isn’t right – for instance saying it’s okay to hate or hurt anyone for any reason isn’t right. I could go on and on, but I’d rather you take this train of thoguht and let it go . . .
I feel that one for one punishment makes no sense at all. If someone kills, I can not kill to get balance back. It doesn’t work that way. Killing is killing. Violenc is an absolute. Enough from me. What do you (all) think?
In class the other day Mr. Moshe said something about how when his desks were set up around the room and the probably 10 desks in the middle of the room and he said that we couldn’t sit in those desks because those were where the jewish kids were sitting who never got to learn. When Ken mentioned “Think about that quiet kid who always gets picked on in your class.” It made me think of how those kids really had it bad for them having an education. I kind of wish that i could have shared some knowledge with one of them or some of them rather than be selfish when they didnt have the chance to learn they had fate come and take they away by pure madness.
When I see someone get bullied the first thing I do is stand up for them because I know it doesnt feel great to have you imperfections out in the open , most people only bully because they want attention they want to be “cool” but your not your being rude & just mean so to me I honestly think its always the right time to stand up to someone that is bulling some one.
.What worrys me the most when people stay silent in the face of prejudice and denial if civil rights is that people will evenually have seen enough that it will become normal to them, so when this happen they could turn into the criminal. What I learned from Pastor Niemoeloer was that when you see someone being bully you should speck out for them because if you where being bullyed you would want the same
I think the Holocuast shouldn’t of happen. It could if been avioded if people would of had in mind what Pastor Niemeller said about specking out for each other. W
Let’s imagine something for a moment. Think about that quiet kid who always gets picked on in your class. We all know we have that special one in our class that doesn’t quite fit in. Why do we just let him/her get picked on? What is the difference between that person and any other one? That’s where peer pressure and the corruption of society comes in. Nowadays, different is not “cool” therefore the natural process of the human brain would be to exclude that person. Anything that doesn’t fit, would naturally be discarded. Now how do we relate this with the Holocaust? Well we can compare the quiet kid who gets bullied to the Jewish population. Did they have a voice to let the masses know what was going on? It took quite a while before any action was taken by any of the other countries. Like the kid, Jewish people were considered “different” through propaganda and persuasion. People disregarded them and the tragedy of the Holocaust occured.
This applies to today because many people watch others get bullied and not even do anything about it. People should not just stand there and watch, but do something about it and help those who cannot help themselves. If you do, you will be able to help the person who cannot help themselves rise up against the bullies. It kind of like karma in a sense, what comes around, goes around.
I dont understand how a person can sit their and watch awful things happen when they know its wrong. Isn’t the major thing that everyone tells us to do is stand up for what you think is right? Well if you don’t when is anyone? Most people need someone to do it before them because they are to afriad to do it for themselves in the first place. When people are being bullied all it takes is one courageous person who isn’t afraid of standing out and sticking up for what everyone know is right. Then of course the ripple effect happens and everyone else does the same. The holocaust could have been avoided but you know it happened we can’t change the past but we can definatly prevent it from happening again or anything like the holocaust because everyone knows what is right and wrong. Some people might not awalys do the right thing like Hitler but in the end they end up suffering more than the people who were being killed for no reason at all. If someone doesn’t know how to use their voice and stick up for whats right, please use yours because you know right from wrong.Dont be a follower decide to be different and be a leader for once.
I think the best time to stop the Holocaust was right after Hitler became leader over the jews and made the new laws. Also I think that the danger of being silent is that when you stay quiet towards something that’s important or something that you could of changed in a good way because by you being silent it could mean that whatever the situation is you don’t have a problem with it. Like, for instance, if someone is getting bullied a lot in school and that person can’t take it anymore. Then that person could start thinking negative things to end all his or her pain. Like they could start thinking about commiting suicide. Knowing the fact that you could have changed the problem with that person – to me, that is the danger of being quiet.
Act when you know you should. I like it Stephen. Thanks for your frankness (plainness of speech; candor; openness). We must remember that we can not control others, but we can behave for the greater good all the time. I think that is part of what Stephen is getting at here. Int he end, we all try to be able to say, “I did all I could do.” If we can say taht, then we’re in good with the bit guy upstairs.
When you see prejudice happening and you say nothing, you’re letting someone suffer. You know it’s wrong but you say nothing. Then the people causing the suffering won’t realize how wrong it is. They think that it’s fine to do it, to eliminate a certain kind of people because they don’t like them. But it’s up to those who witness it to tell them that they are wrong. To make them realize that they are wrong.
I think that people have to speak to their self’s but you can also speak out for people that it’s getting hurt just like it happen in school sometimes when kinds get teased, bullied, or excluded. Because if you speak out for someone they could speak out for you when you needed. Because it would be sad and bad if you stay in silence for a long time because you would get hurt a lot more that you are supposed to do.
I agree with Savion. The best time to stop the Holocaust was when Hitler made all the unusual laws. People then were only thinking about themselves and how they could get better living standards. Nobody ever stopped and thought about what was happening to their world. If someone did they never spoke out about how they felt which is called a bystander. Bystanders are people who have an opintion about something but they don’t voice it. The crazy man even made a deal with the military. When somebody goes to the military you know that they’re up to no good. Apperentaly nobody was smart enough to realize that. When things went wrong he never told the public about it which meant that he liked keeping secrets and he wanted everyone to think he was PERFECT. Turns out that’s not how it went and this reality didn’t have a happy ending. Also denying that this happened is one of the most stupidest things ever. IT’S NOT CALLED HISTORY FOR NOTHING.
Yes, sorry it was late, I did mean it the other way around.
No prob. I just want to make sure readers accurately interpret your message.
Honestly I think the best time to stop the Holocaust was before it even began. The Holocaust is a tragic event that no one would ever ask for. It will always be a part of our history. I’ve worked with this quote before last year when we studies the Holocaust, and I don’t think it meant as much to me now as it did then. I understood it before, but now after discussing remaining silent in terms of bullying, I see it in a different perspective. You should never remain silent of you see someone mistreating an innocent person. You should speak out, even if the bullying isn’t effecting you, you could effect the safety of someone else. Despite if in the present you aren’t involved, you never know you could be next. Don’t wait around, stop harm in its tracks. You will always be a hero in the eyes of that victim whose suffering you put a stop to.
You said, “I don’t think it meant as much to me now as it did then.” Did you mean to say, “I don’t think it meant as much to me THEN as it does NOW.”??
Students need to start speaking up when others get bullied or teased. They are scared to do so, because they think they’ll get bullied in return. So, they just walk past as if it were nothing. But, the thing is, when they are the ones getting bullied, there won’t be anyone else left to stand up for them. When one person speaks up, it’s like a chain reaction. Others get the courage to speak out as well. Standing up for something takes courage, and when others see that being played out, they start to get the courage to stand up as well.
I believe that the best time to speak up and stop the Holocaust was as soon as Hitler started to make all the unusual laws and regulationsin germany.
Some dangers of remaining as a bystander are not being able to make a difference in prejudice. By just standing by, you are not allowing a voice that could save lives. By standing by, you’re allowing people to make decisions for you and everyone around you.
If you see someone being bullied, or teased and you’re just standing by you are risking a chance of being bullied yourself. Bystanders shouln’t stand by, they need to stand up. Even if it’s for someone you don’t like. Everyone has a voice.