Would you let a Jew in your house? [Auschwitz hypothetical]

Great Debates
41

[QUOTE=JSexton]
Let’s translate this to modern times. It is not an exact translation, of course; there are several notable differences. But I think it serves to help illustrate how it might feel at the time.

It’s 2008. You live in Florida, near a naval base that ships prisoners to Guantanamo Bay. You know what is going on there (at least to the extent they are holding prisoners without charges, sbject to torture). Someone you know to be an accused terrorist begs you for help. Do you let them shelter in your house or report them to the authorities?
[/QUOTE]

I shelter him. Hell, I go out for Halaal takeout and get al Jazheera on cable for the guy, since buying him a beer is probably out of the question.

42

[QUOTE=JSexton]
Let’s translate this to modern times. It is not an exact translation, of course; there are several notable differences. But I think it serves to help illustrate how it might feel at the time.

It’s 2008. You live in Florida, near a naval base that ships prisoners to Guantanamo Bay. You know what is going on there (at least to the extent they are holding prisoners without charges, sbject to torture). Someone you know to be an accused terrorist begs you for help. Do you let them shelter in your house or report them to the authorities?
[/QUOTE]

There is no comparison and to suggest so is disinginuine. You cannot compare alleged terrorists possibly involved in criminal activities and German Jews accused of nothing more than being Jewish.
Maybe a better question is would you have sheltered Japanese Americans who were being rounded up and sent to detention camps around the same time?

43

Not really the same.

Sheltereing a Jew would be saving his or her life.

Hiding a Japanese American wouldn’t really achieve much. I admit I’m not really sure what an internment camp was like, but I don’t think it would have been worse than hiding in your attic. Maybe I’m wrong.

44

[QUOTE=Peter Morris]
Not really the same.

Sheltereing a Jew would be saving his or her life.

Hiding a Japanese American wouldn’t really achieve much. I admit I’m not really sure what an internment camp was like, but I don’t think it would have been worse than hiding in your attic. Maybe I’m wrong.
[/QUOTE]

Awful as it sounds, you’re right. The biggest hardship faced by American and Canadian citizens of Japanese descent who were put in internment camps was that they lost all their property. How would hiding out in your attic change that? They’d be even more trapped and still out all their property.

45

I would neither shelter them in my house, nor report them to the authorities in all cases. Excluded middle, what? I would tell them that I daren’t let them in. If I wasn’t getting too many of these people coming by I might pass a small amount of bread or other food handy out. In any case I would ask them to leave, and quickly, and then close the door.

(I do not presume to assume what my fellow dopers’ reactions would be.)

46

Well, since I’m a “first degree mongrel” under the Nazi racial laws, I’d probably be the one asking, not the one offering.

47

I could not, in good faith, put my family at risk for execution, so I would not help them. But I would not report them either. That goes for all questions.

48

Very difficult.

The hardest part of this question is what the Nazis will do to you when they find out you (presumably 100 percent German) are harboring a Jew.

I don’t know what they actually did, nor do I know what the general thought was back then either.

But knowing what I know now. I’d say I wouldn’t do it. However, not knowing that my own life might be in danger, then I might. Not talking about what the Nazis did to the Jews as you mentioned in your question.

So yeah. What this thread says to me more than anything is that the people who harbored Jews were pretty damn courageous. To harbor a Jew to begin with you had to know what would happen to them. At the very least would be a concentration camp. That might be deterrent enough alone even if you could make it out alive. But even worse, obviously, is death.

49

[QUOTE=Merkwurdigliebe]
So yeah. What this thread says to me more than anything is that the people who harbored Jews were pretty damn courageous.
[/QUOTE]

Maybe, but the scenario seems sort of contrived, since it involves a complete stranger. I would think a more likely scenario would be that a friend asks for your help. That’s an easier decision.

50

I don’t know what we’d do in a time or war or conflict. I know what we did 16 years ago when a homeless family showed up at our door at 10:00 at night. They’d been given our name as someone to contact in town after they got moved in for guidance on finding day care, where to shop and other types of “settling in” information. But then the expected job fell through, and the house they had rented was locked up, and they’d been driving all day, and they knew no one and had no money for a motel and 6 kids (18 months to 8 years old) and a dog and all their worldy good behind them in a U-Haul, and they were at the end of their rope. So they found us and reached out for help.

What could we do? What would “anyone” do?

We invited them in, made tomato soup and grilled cheese sandwiches, set up cots and mattresses. And they lived with us and our 3 kids for six months in a three bed-room house while they struggled with finding jobs, getting public assistance, and mental health issues.

Was it the right thing to do: Yes

Did we think about it and make a rational decision: Absolutely not. It was an impulsive outpouring of compassion, and we were in it before we really thought about what we were doing. I suppose rather like someone who jumps in icy water to save a drowning person–you just act and sometimes it works out and sometimes you die too. We never asked “How will this impact our children? How will we handle the costs? What will the neighbors think?” Heck, we didn’t even ask “What would Jesus (or Cecil) do?” We just did what came naturally at the time.

Was it one of the most difficult, marriage-straining, life disturbing, conflict-filled, frustrating, expensive times we’ve ever gone through: Yes

Do we still sometimes experience stress and fallout from it a decade and a half later: Yes

Were the results worth it: Yes. Yes. Yes. A synopsis: the father deserted the family, the mother spent years in mental health care, a friend of ours who had always wanted a large family adopted all six children (who are now grown up and functioning). The mother improved sufficiently and married another friend of ours.

Would we do it again: Yes, but without the rose-colored glasses.

What if there was physical risk to us (rather than just the emotional stress which was real enough): I honestly do not know. What I do know is that I probably wouldn’t give it a lot of rational thought, I’d just stumble into the situation and do the best I could.

51

Interesting.

You may have guessed I’m going somewhere with this.

Now imagine that you hated jews. How would you act?

52

[QUOTE=spoke-]
I would think a more likely scenario would be that a friend asks for your help. That’s an easier decision.
[/QUOTE]

That would make it harder rather than easier, wouldn’t it? It’s easier to let a total stranger go to his death…it’s harder to face that when it’s a friend.

53

[QUOTE=Merkwurdigliebe]
The hardest part of this question is what the Nazis will do to you when they find out you (presumably 100 percent German) are harboring a Jew.
[/QUOTE]

[nitpick]The OP said “you live near Auschwitz.” As Auschwitz (Oświęcim) was near Krakow, you are probably a Pole, not a German, and thus a sub-human Slav. This might well play into your perceptions of how the Germans would treat you.[/nitpick]

54

[QUOTE=Captain Amazing]
That would make it harder rather than easier, wouldn’t it? It’s easier to let a total stranger go to his death…it’s harder to face that when it’s a friend.
[/QUOTE]

That’s what I mean. It would be an easier decision to shelter a friend, even if there’s an element of risk.

55

[QUOTE=spoke-]
That’s what I mean. It would be an easier decision to shelter a friend, even if there’s an element of risk.
[/QUOTE]

Well, not to me. It’s an easier decision whether or not to shelter a stranger. Of course you don’t. With a friend, it gets harder, because I care if my friends die.

56

[QUOTE=Osakadelica]
Interesting.

You may have guessed I’m going somewhere with this.

Now imagine that you hated jews. How would you act?
[/QUOTE]
You’re kidding, right?

Hmm, let’s see. A guy I don’t know, but know I hate turns up. Answer: I tell him to go away. I don’t give him the bread. I slam the door when I close it.

But I still don’t report him. Heck, that would be calling attention to myself, which would be stupid.
Ooh, let’s change the hypothetical again: suppose I hate jews enough that I want them all dead and I’m willing to do something about it!

If I’m that enraged at the sight of him, I’d try to kill him on sight. I still wouldn’t report him.

57

[QUOTE=Osakadelica]
Interesting.

You may have guessed I’m going somewhere with this.

Now imagine that you hated jews. How would you act?
[/QUOTE]

Well, then I wouldn’t be the “me” that’s in the hypothetical. I couldn’t hate a whole race and still retain the same morality I have now, I think.

But, suppose I could hate Jews but otherwise was me. I’d still shelter him in Case 1 & 2- hate isn’t enough for me to wish death on anyone. Even baby-rapists and mass-murderers don’t deserve a death sentence, and the Jew I hate hasn’t actually done anything to deserve his fate..
If I wasn’t sure he was a Jew, I would opt out of sheltering him, but I still wouldn’t turn him in.
Case 3 is the problematic one for me - basically, you’ve now said I agree with the general worldview. It then depends how convincing the fugitive is in convincing me Ha-Shoah really is happening…

58

[QUOTE=MrDibble]
the Jew I hate hasn’t actually done anything to deserve his fate..
[/QUOTE]

This is why I’m not sure the OP (or at least this branch of it) is workable. He asked you to assume you hate Jews but otherwise have your contempoaraneous persona. But free-floating racial animus is rare. It usually has a history, in tribal grievances, in received characterizations of The Other. If you hated Jews in 1942 Germany or Poland, I am not at all sure you would conclude that they “ha[d]n’t actually done anything to deserve” death. You would hate them because you had been told they were enemies of the people, that they were betraying you to the monstrous Bolsheviks who would rape your daughters and salt your fields. You would be afraid of them. You’d be wrong, but those would be your views and their roots would be fairly deep. Now, the OP if I’m reading it right says, okay, leave that part out. Well, fine, but where does that get us? It gets us modern, liberal progressives with the benefit of hindsight and knowledge of the evils of genocide engaging in a kind of so-what? thought experiment about an abstract “hatred” that they really couldn’t harbor and will find it hard to meaningfully discuss from their present worldview.

59

[QUOTE=Osakadelica]
You may have guessed I’m going somewhere with this.
[/QUOTE]
The Socratic method doesn’t work well on message boards.

If you have some ultimate point you’re working toward, just tell us now.