Anne frank questions

Q. What would have influenced someone to become a collaborator in the holocaust? What factors would have encouraged someone to join the resistance? Do you think these factors were based on personal characteristics or political beliefs? How should accountability for wars be assigned? So many say they never understood what was happening. How likely could that have been?

A. I think major influences (to become a collaborator in the Holocaust) might have been fear and money. If people fear their own deaths or the deaths of people they care about, they might do things like turn in their neighbors or discriminate, even if they think it is the wrong thing to do. Also, some people have no personal code of ethics and might see being a collaborator as a way to make money. I think the biggest factor for someone to join the resistance would be a personal belief that discrimination is morally wrong regardless of the personal consequences of following that belief.
Accountability for wars needs to start with the decision makers and people in charge. Of course those who followed orders are also accountable, but in a different way. I think it is important to hold people accountable for their crimes, even if it doesn't happen for years later, like in
Rwanda.

Probably some people didn't want to know all the details of what was happening during the holocaust. It may have been easier not to know or pretend not to know. Also, even a person did know the details, there was not a lot that person could do to change the situation in a big way.