The Value of Individuality and the Impediment of Conservatism

         Holocaust survivor and professor emerita of Sociology at the University of Connecticut, Nechama Tec, did extensive research on rescuers of Jews during the Holocaust in Poland. She concluded that there were six common traits found among the rescuers:

          1)  Individuality. The inability of the rescuer to blend with the environment;

          2)  Independence. A self-reliance to act in accordance with personal convictions;

          3)  Commitment to stand up for the helpless and needy, regardless of how these are viewed by others;

          4)  A matter-of-fact approach to aiding Jews, which comes together with consistently strong denials of any heroic or extraordinary qualities;

          5)  An unpremeditated, unplanned beginning of Jewish rescue; and

          6)  A perception of Jews as helpless beings and as totally dependent on the protection of others.

          Contrarily, it was often those who were taught to conform to social norms and were conservatists who tended to go along with the Zeitgeist of the times.

Loren M. Lambert, © May 31, 2016