Historians have studied for decades the issues of who rescued Jews during the Holocaust and why they risked their lives to do it. Rebecca Carter-Chand, director of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum’s Programs on Ethics, Religion and the Holocaust, will discuss the evolution of the study of rescue and the motivations of rescuers on April 6 at Elmhurst University.
The lecture, “Understanding Rescue During the Holocaust,” part of the university’s 35th Annual Holocaust Service of Remembrance and Lecture, will be held at 7 p.m. in the Founders Lounge of the Frick Center Chapel, 190 Prospect Ave., Elmhurst. Admission is free but reservations are encouraged at elmhurst.edu/cultural.
“Earlier studies, starting in the 1980s, were coming from social scientists and ethicists mostly,” Carter-Chand said. “They viewed rescue less as a historical phenomenon and more as a psychological phenomenon. They were really interested in how rescue could be attributed to a person’s ethical predisposition or something that they called the empathetic personality or as a result of someone’s individual piety or theological commitment.”
Carter-Chand said that recently there are two newer approaches to the study of rescue. “One is more of a focus on circumstances rather than motivation,” she said. “The second is more a focus on Jewish agency and self-help.”
In terms of circumstances, Carter-Chand indicated that people often helped Jews who were in their social or professional circle, or if they were asked to help by someone in their religious community.
Sometimes the rescue was a continuation of work the rescuers were already doing. Carter-Chand cited the case of Catholic convents that ran schools where they were able to take in Jewish children and thereby hide them.
Through her own research, Carter-Chand reported, she discovered that the Salvation Army was able to hide Jews in women’s hostels that were already set up.
Carter-Chand agreed that empathy could have played a part in the rescues based on circumstances.
Studying the issue of rescue during the holocaust is important because “There’s so much mythology around rescue,” Carter-Chand said. “People think that it happened a lot more often than it did. It really is the rare exception rather than the norm. And there’s the mistaken idea that most Christians must have been rescuers. Also, people think that this topic is a good place to look for inspiring people today to have compassion or a strong moral compass.”
She added that it shows people did know what was happening during the Holocaust. “Also, it helps to better understand the experience of Jews and the strategies that they used, for people who are trying to survive persecution,” Carter-Chand said.
She noted that the topic of rescue is a special interest of hers. Her research leads her to explore “the rescuer’s side but also understanding the experience of those people being rescued,” she said. “It’s a way to study the history where people are interacting with each other — Jews and gentiles — in a very personal, grassroots kind of way. Also, I’m drawn to it because of how it’s misunderstood and there’s this mythology around it. I’m always compelled to show this history in a more accurate way.”
Carter has done other lectures on this topic, in addition to the upcoming one at Elmhurst University.
“I find overall audiences are very receptive to learning about this history including the painful and maybe unflattering parts,” she said. “And also talk about the times when maybe aid was given and it wasn’t so altruistic. Maybe the nuns in charge baptized the kids that were under their care. Maybe other people took payment and profited from rescue. Although it might seem like a very uplifting part of this history, it brings a lot of difficult questions when you start to dig into it.”
Myrna Petlicki is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press.
