I am beginning to sympathize with the people of the 1930s – the people we describe as indifferent bystanders. I am also beginning to recognize that their stories are much too complicated for us to use the word indifferent.

We are all seeing things happening in the world right now which do not feel right. Your concerns may not match mine, but I think that we are all united in wanting but failing to find a safer and saner world. I also think that we are all united in feeling like bystanders to events that we would change if we could.

I may feel like a bystander but I certainly am not indifferent. In fact, I am appalled. But what I can do that would actually make a difference? Are my actions making things worse? I do not know about you, but I am struggling to figure out how to navigate the choices that come with being a bystander.

As a Holocaust educator, I look to the stories from the Holocaust for insight. The vast majority of the people in the Holocaust were, or at least started out as, bystanders. Reading their stories, I have come to understand that much depends on the community in which we are operating.

Stefan

Stefan Kucharek was 18 when the Germans took over his hometown of Małkinia, 6 km from a small, rural train station called Treblinka. At the time, he was working at a saw mill. After Poland’s defeat, he took a job at the railway, because he believed that was the only way to ensure that he would not be sent to a forced labor camp.

He started as a railroad mechanic but soon learned to drive the train. He eventually found himself driving trains filled with exhausted, terrified people to the small Treblinka station. And returning to Małkinia with empty cars.

In interviews after the war, Stefan says he did not have anything against Jews and that he tried to help them when he could. But, he says, his job was to drive the train........

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