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Full-Text Articles in Legal History
The Bystander In The Bible, The Reverend Doctor John C. Lenz Jr.
The Bystander In The Bible, The Reverend Doctor John C. Lenz Jr.
Utah Law Review
In this study I have set out to investigate the stories that Jews and Christians have told for over two thousand years. Surveying the Biblical literature, I have looked for verses, passages and stories related to the issue of the bystander’s duty to act on behalf of the victim. The issue of a person’s duty to help someone in need and to be proactively engaged on behalf of the most vulnerable is everywhere present in both the Hebrew and Christian scriptures. The Biblical proscriptions are not just suggestions to “do the right thing” but divine ethical demands to action on …
The Changing View Of The “Bystander” In Holocaust Scholarship: Historical, Ethical, And Political Implications, Victoria J. Barnett
The Changing View Of The “Bystander” In Holocaust Scholarship: Historical, Ethical, And Political Implications, Victoria J. Barnett
Utah Law Review
The role of “bystanders” has been a central theme in discussions about the ethical legacy of the Holocaust. In early Holocaust historiography, “bystander” was often used as a generalized catchall term designating passivity toward Nazi crimes. “Bystander behavior” became synonymous with passivity to the plight of others, including the failure to speak out against injustice and/or assist its victims. More recent scholarship has documented the extent to which local populations and institutions were actively complicit in Nazi crimes, participating in and benefitting from the persecution of Jewish citizens, not only in Germany but across Europe. This newer research has sparked …