The hand of compassion : portraits of moral choice during the Holocaust
"Through interviews with five ordinary people who rescued Jews during the Holocaust, Kristen Monroe casts new light on questions at the heart of ethics: Why do people risk their lives for strangers, and what drives such moral choice? Monroe's analysis points not to traditional explanations - such as religion or reason - but to identity. The rescuers' perceptions of themselves in relation to others made their extraordinary acts spontaneous and left the rescuers no choice but to act. To turn away Jews was, for them, literally unimaginable. In the words of one German Czech rescuer, "The hand of compassion was faster than the calculus of reason.""--Jacket
Print Book, English, ©2004
Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ, ©2004
Case studies (form)
xviii, 361 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm
9780691118635, 9780691127736, 0691118639, 0691127735
54046780
Stories that are true
Margot
Otto
John
Irene
Knud
The complexity of the moral life and the power of identity to influence choice
How identity and perspective led to moral choice
What makes people help others : constructing moral theory
A different way of seeing things
Appendix A. Narratives as windows on the minds of others
Appendix B. Finding the rescuers