The Hand of Compassion: Portraits of Moral Choice during the Holocaust

by Kristen Renwick Monroe

Through moving interviews with five ordinary people who rescued Jews during the Holocaust, Kristen Monroe casts new light on a question at the heart of 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."


At the heart of this unusual book are interviews with the rescuers, complex human beings from all parts of the Third Reich and all walks of Margot, a wealthy German who saved Jews while in exile in Holland; Otto, a German living in Prague who saved more than 100 Jews and provides surprising information about the plot to kill Hitler; John, a Dutchman on the Gestapo's "Most Wanted List"; Irene, a Polish student who hid eighteen Jews in the home of the German major for whom she was keeping house; and Knud, a Danish wartime policeman who took part in the extraordinary rescue of 85 percent of his country's Jews.


We listen as the rescuers themselves tell the stories of their lives and their efforts to save Jews. Monroe's analysis of these stories draws on philosophy, ethics, and political psychology to suggest why and how identity constrains our choices, both cognitively and ethically. Her work offers a powerful counterpoint to conventional arguments about rational choice and a valuable addition to the literature on ethics and moral psychology. It is a dramatic illumination of the power of identity to shape our most basic political acts, including our treatment of others.


But always Monroe returns us to the rescuers, to their strong voices, reminding us that the Holocaust need not have happened and revealing the minds of the ethically exemplary as they negotiated the moral quicksand that was the Holocaust.

384 pages, Hardcover

First published May 10, 2004

About the author

Kristen Renwick Monroe is an American political scientist, specializing in political psychology and ethics.
(source: Wikipedia)

Reviews

[Hadley Biggs · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was great. The writing was beautiful.

It was such a raw perspective on stories in the Holocaust.

[Joseph · Rating 5 out of 5]

I did not finish this book, but it read through much of it in my recent glut on holocaust literature. Having said that, what I did read what pretty incredible.

The book is broken into two main parts: the first includes six transcripts of interviews completed with individuals well-known for saving Jews during WWII; the second part is more psychological, developing a post-modern theory of why people help. I did not read any of the second part and, though I've heard good things about it from my colleagues, likely would not unless this were a particular research interest of mine.

I did read heavily in the transcripts, however, which is where the 5-star rating comes from. The things people did - on both sides of the war - were incredible to read about in these first-hand accounts. If you're unfamiliar with phenomenological research, you'll notice that Monroe asks several questions over and over again - she's trying to get in and around the experiences of the subjects. But for the casual reader, even this asking and re-asking is enlightening and gives you a strong sense of understanding both the horror of what the Germans did outside the camps, as well as the amazing, and sometimes natural character of those who hid and rescued Jews. The transcripts themselves contain a deeper understanding of human nature than I've ever read in my years of studying and teaching psychology.

For the social scientist, this is an excellent example of how to do really worthwhile and meaningful qualitative research, and working through the whole book is likely worth the time. For those interested in getting to know those who risked everything to rescue Jews during WWII, get this one through your library and read through the six transcripts. It will be well worth your time.

(My failure to finish was not due to anything other than that the library would only give it to me for three weeks at a time, which is not a pace at which I read books these days - especially books this dense.)

[Emma Rieser · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 ⭐️** I loved this book to pieces, but was hesitant on awarding it five stars because it was slightly long-winded in certain chapters.