Questions from the movie "Schindler's List"

Question

Elie Wiesel, a student of the Holocaust, has said that "indifference" is the greatest sin of the Holocaust. Can you explain what he meant by this? How does this concept relate to the scene in which Schindler arranges to have the condemned Jews in the overheated box cars hosed down with water? Why does this act amuse the Commandment and other SS officials as they sit in the shade and sip their iced drinks?

Answer 1

The Holocaust might not have happened if the German people hadn't been indifferent. Few governments can rule without the consent of the majority of the governed. Wiesel believed that if the German people had protested the treatment of the Jews, that the mass might have been averted.

Consider this famous quote by the noted German Lutheran theologian, Martin Niemoller.

"First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out --
Because I was not a Socialist.

Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out --
Because I was not a Trade Unionist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out --
Because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for me -- and there was no one left to speak for me."

Obviously, the SS officials did not begin to understand the concern that Schindler had for fellow human beings. He was not indifferent. He cared.