Nimitha’s Reviews > Conscience and Courage: Rescuers of Jews During the Holocaust > Status Update

The ability to think and act independently was, of course a key element in rescue activity. Coming to the aid of persecuted people required an independent mind. A person had to be accustomed to reasoning through a problem and coming to a conclusion not based on what others thought or what the laws mandated. Those raised in authoritarian families were not likely to resist the pressure to conform.

Swiss psychologist Alice Miller who has studied authoritarian families in which rules are laid down for the child without discussion or justification, points out that children from these kinds of households have trouble making independent judgements. Given little or no explanation, all directives seem, from the child's perspective, arbitrary and irrational. So they give up and do what they are told.

Social psychologist Martin Hoffman who has studied parental techniques of discipline & its effects on altruism,found that parents who explained rules and used inductive reasoning instead of harsh punishment tend to have children who care for and about others. After all, parents who voluntarily relinquish the use of force in favor of reasoning send their children a message about how the powerful should treat the weak.