Holocaust Bystanders and Humanitarian Intervention

My point of departure is the oft-repeated assessment about international bystanders to the Holocaust: ‘the world did nothing’. I suggest that this abrupt dismissal evades explanation. To contribute to the latter, I propose a contextual theme for the assessment of liberal bystanders to the Holocaust that might deepen our understanding and perhaps relate it as well to present-day concerns about the terrible fate of some minorities in our own world. My theme, humanitarian intervention, has been much discussed in recent years by commentators on international affairs, but their reach has seldom, if at all, extended to the Holocaust. This discussion of international bystanders to the Holocaust begins with some comments on the history of the concept, then focuses on the undermining of humanitarian intervention in the wake of the First World War, and finally has a few things to say about the relationship of these ideas and commitments to the Holocaust of European Jewry

Dismissal · Epistemology · Human rights · Humanitarian intervention · Intervention (counseling · Nothing · Political science · Sociology · The Holocaust · Theme (computing · Global Peace and Security Dynamics · Historical and Contemporary Political Dynamics · Law · Philosophy · Political Conflict and Governance · Psychology

• Echoes of the Shoah

  Open Access•L K M Summers•Holocaust Studies•2024

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