ABSTRACT
Greed is 'an overriding theme in human affairs' and a principal motive of genocidal perpetrators and bystanders alike. Greed reflects objective material circumstances, but also, like narcissism, the core strivings of ego. Finally, humiliation mingled with fear is central to an understanding of a commonly noted phenomenon in genocide: the use of dispossessed minorities and rootless refugees as perpetrators of mass atrocities. To anticipate our discussion of the psychology of 'rescuers' which follows, the resisters demonstrated a high degree of empathy for the learner and of ego independence, symbolized by their refusal to submit blindly to an authority figure. With the guidance of some trailblazers in the study of 'the rescuer personality' let us dig a little deeper into these rare but precious social psychological formations. Samuel and Pearl Oliner's The Altruistic Personality, Eva Fogelman's Conscience & Courage, and Nechama Tec's When the Light Pierced the Darkness cumulatively sample hundreds of Holocaust rescuers, mostly Polish.
