And the Witnesses Were Silent

An endlessly perplexing question of the twentieth century is how "decent" people came to allow, and sometimes even participate in, the Final Solution. Fear obviously had its place, as did apathy. But how does one explain the silence of those people who were committed, active, and often fearless opponents of the Nazi regime on other grounds - those who spoke out against Nazi activities in many areas yet whose response to genocide ranged from tepid disquiet to avoidance? One such group was the Confessing Church, Protestants who often risked their own safety to aid Christian victims of Nazi oppression but whose response to pogroms against Jews was ambivalent. Wolfgang Gerlach is a retired pastor in the Evangelical Church of Germany. Victoria J. Barnett is a consultant for the Department of Church Relations at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum and the editor of "Bystanders: Conscience and Complicity during the Holocaust".