When France fell under the Nazi occupation, Andre and Magda Trocme did all in their power to save Jewish people from the vicious hands of the Nazis. As the Pastor of a town, Andre encouraged the people to give shelter for Jewish refugees. Even when the Vichy authorities order him to provide a list of the Jews in the town, he refused and said: "We do not know what a Jew is. We only know human beings" (Hallie, 1979, p.103). Was his lie just? To evaluate this question I would rely on Immanuel Kant 's deontology that state we should treat humans as an end and never merely as means. After explaining it, I will argue that lying to the Vichy authorities was the right thing to do because the value of life is higher than the duty not to lie. I will defend this argument by discussing one of the critiques on deontology. The goal of deontology is to find a categorical, unconditional imperative that will enable the creation of universal laws of nature, legislated by rational and free beings. The categorical imperative is formal, while the substance is decided by the person. The idea is that by a process of reasoning, one can check his intuitions and desires and see if they can become a general rule for moral behavior. Kant bases his theory on three main concepts: the good will, the duty and the law. The moral worth of an action is measured in its intention. If the intention was of a good will, so the action is just, regardless of the consequences. Though, while good will is
Roosevelt and the Holocaust and Robert N. Rosen. Rosen is a lawyer who is an M.A. in history from Harvard. The purpose of this book is to undertake the task of defending Franklin D. Roosevelt, his direction to the Jewish community against charges of irrelevance to, and moral complicity in the German Holocaust. The values in Rosen’s work is that he also presents a convincing legal argument and organizes his evidence truthfully, while arguing vigorously. He delivers an unqualified judgement: far from being indifferent.
People were actually treated at the concentration camps in the despicable manner that Marceline describes and it 's unfortunate that even today some people still hold the same beliefs as the tormentors back at the concentration camps.
Throughout World War II from 1939-1945, many non-Jews risked their own lives to rebel against the actions and beliefs of the Nazi Holocaust. Although the majority of occupied Europe and Germany did not agree with the Nazi policies against Jews, they did very little to interfere and intervene as they knew it would lead to prosecution. This can be seen in both the extract from the Holocaust resource centre website, Yad Vashem (Yad Vashem, 2014), and a photograph taken in November of 1938 of residents in Nazi occupied Austria standing by and watching a Jewish cemetery ceremonial Hall burn (Documentation Centre of Australian Resistance, 2014).These sources both accurately depict how these bystanders were so terrified of the Nazi party and the power that they, that very few dared interfering as it would result in severe punishment.
Individuals make choices every day that affect history. During the Holocaust, the mass murder of Jews during Hitler’s reign, ordinary European citizens shaped history by allowing Jews to die. Their decisions were greatly influenced by their understanding of the universe of obligation, which sociologist Helen Fein defines as “The circle of individuals and groups ‘toward whom obligations are owed, to whom rules apply, and whose injuries call for [amends]’ (“We and They” 56). The majority of ordinary citizens chose to neglect Jews in order to protect themselves or their families. However, some brave individuals called upstanders chose to stand up to the Nazi regime by rescuing Jews and other victims of persecution.
When acts like this are pushed under the rug and taken lightly, they have a tendency to happen again and nothing, such as this should ever happen again. Elie Wiesel will never forget. “NEVER SHALL I FORGET that night, the first night in camp, that turned my life into one long night seven times sealed.
“Like many of the Jews believed, he didn’t think the hatred could last, and it was a conscious decision not to follow Hitler. On many levels, it was a disastrous one” (122). His decision about the Führer had caused him to want to help someone,
Decades after the atrocities committed during the Holocaust, people are still baffled by the fact that approximately eleven million people were killed in Nazi Germany following the orders of Adolf Hitler’s Nazi regime (Niewyk & Nicosia, 2000). How is it possible that approximately 500,000 people participated in planning and executing eleven million people, including approximately 1.5 million Jewish children? (Radcliff, 2004; United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, 2014). The atrocious crimes committed during the Holocaust might compel someone to draw the conclusion that humans are innately evil. However, the trail of Adolf Eichmann, one of the major contributors to the Holocaust, stirred animosity as his defense requested the dismissal of
As his years progressed he became a highly thought of SS officer who oversaw the largest genocide in human history. However despite his transformation, Gerstein always remained a man with a good conscience and a high moral integrity. The Gerstein Report
Adolf hitler set up concentration camps to work jew to death or kill them right when they got there by making them “Shower” which was a gas chamber that killed them. At any point the nazi soldiers would accuse the jews for doing something they did not do so they sent them to a camp far worse than the one there were at “Convicted of forgery, aiding the enemy and attempted escape, the sisters were sent to separate prisons. Then in December 1943 Anita was told she was being moved to Auschwitz. She was aware what that meant. “You knew about the gas chambers in Auschwitz long before one was in Auschwitz,” Anita told me.”
Eugene Lazowski provides an admirable example of moral courage because he not only risked his own life to aid the Jewish community, but he also risked the life of his family. His only explanation for this was, “I was not able to fight with a gun or sword, but I found a way to scare the Germans” (PAGE). Creating a false typhus epidemic was Dr. Lazowski’s method of saving the lives of thousands of members of the Jewish community. His selflessness allowed him to contribute to the effort to save the Jewish community in an impactful way that can only be attributed to his possession of a unique characteristic, called moral
This intellect of knowing what right and wrong is internally known. Categorical imperatives can be seen in more than one formulation, including the Universal Law formula and the Human Law formula. (Arnold, Darrell)
Kant’s Categorical Imperative also includes three versions: the formula from universal law, the formula from natural law, and the formula
The categorical imperative was the unconditional moral principles that one’s behavior should accord with universalizable maxims which respect as ends in themselves, the obligation to do one’s duty for its own sake and not in pursuit of further ends. Kant has three proposition of morality, first is and action must be done from a sense of duty it is to have moral worth, we cannot do something because we want to, but it is our duty really, we must be unhappy to truly do a moral action. Second is an action done form duty derives its moral worth from the maxim by which its is determined. It depends on the principle of volition. Third is the duty is the necessity of acting from respect for the law.
“Categorical imperative may be defined as a way of evaluating motivations for action. ”[1].According to Kant, “human beings occupy a special place in creation, and morality can be summed up in an imperative, or ultimate commandment of reason, from which all duties and obligations derive.” [1] He defined an imperative “as any proposition declaring a certain action (or inaction) to be necessary. ”[1]It shows the relationship between rational objective rules and will which, as far as its subjective nature is concerned, is not necessarily decided by the rules. It involves meaning of compulsoriness, obligation.
The categorical imperative means: when you want to do something if you always think I'm doing is good for all mankind. So we must behave as we enter the Categorical Imperative, only then will we be real people, autonomous and free. Kantian ethics is included within the ethical duty to self that can justify and support the moral correctness of an action in their good consequences. Instead of the consequences,