Wiesel's book Night highlights for us some of the consequences of being a bystander, instead of an upstander. Hitler was able to come into power because those who felt that what he stood for was wrong were watching what was happening to Germany without voicing their concerns. In chapter one of Night, Wiesel's friend who was shoved into a cattle cart and shipped away returns with bad news of how the Nazis killed all the Jews that were shipped away in cattle carts. Despite his attempt to convince them, the Jews of Sighet do not heed his warning that the Nazis will imprison and kill them. Instead of hiding, the people welcome the Nazis into their city. In the words of Elie Wiesel in chapter 1, “The Germans were already in town, the Fascists were
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The movement started by Tarana Burke allows people who have been sexually assaulted to join together, and bring more awareness to the issue of sexual assault so that something can be done about it. Movements like the Me Too movement do not give us the option to be unaware of the problems of the world, but instead force us to have a reaction to it. The Me Too movement allows those who have been victims of sexual assault to make themselves into upstanders who will not allow others or themselves to be walked on anymore by those who wish to abuse them. Some would go as far as to punish a bystander who does not intervene in situations where there is a victim who is clearly being assaulted by someone else. In the words of Amos Guiora, a son of two holocaust survivors, written in his book The Crime of Complicity, “Failure to intervene on behalf of a readily identifiable victim will be a crime in accordance with jurisdictionary relevant criminal codes. The determining point of enquiry is whether the bystander had the ability to mitigate harm to another but failed to do so.” In other words, Guiora is suggesting that if a bystander had a way to stop a person from being harmed by another but did not use it, then they would be punished, if such laws were in
The movement started by Tarana Burke allows people who have been sexually assaulted to join together, and bring more awareness to the issue of sexual assault so that something can be done about it. Movements like the Me Too movement do not give us the option to be unaware of the problems of the world, but instead force us to have a reaction to it. The Me Too movement allows those who have been victims of sexual assault to make themselves into upstanders who will not allow others or themselves to be walked on anymore by those who wish to abuse them. Some would go as far as to punish a bystander who does not intervene in situations where there is a victim who is clearly being assaulted by someone else. In the words of Amos Guiora, a son of two holocaust survivors, written in his book The Crime of Complicity, “Failure to intervene on behalf of a readily identifiable victim will be a crime in accordance with jurisdictionary relevant criminal codes. The determining point of enquiry is whether the bystander had the ability to mitigate harm to another but failed to do so.” In other words, Guiora is suggesting that if a bystander had a way to stop a person from being harmed by another but did not use it, then they would be punished, if such laws were in