During a

genocide Genocide is violence that targets individuals because of their membership of a group and aims at the destruction of a people. Raphael Lemkin, who first coined the term, defined genocide as "the destruction of a nation or of an ethnic group" by ...

, a rescuer or helper is someone who tries to help the genocide victims survive. In many cases, they are motivated by

altruism Altruism is the concern for the well-being of others, independently of personal benefit or reciprocity. The word ''altruism'' was popularised (and possibly coined) by the French philosopher Auguste Comte in French, as , for an antonym of egoi ...

and/or

humanitarianism Humanitarianism is an ideology centered on the value of human life, whereby humans practice benevolent treatment and provide assistance to other humans to reduce suffering and improve the conditions of humanity for moral, altruistic, and emotion ...

. The best-studied example of this phenomenon is the

rescue of Jews during the Holocaust During World War II, some individuals and groups helped Jews and others escape the Holocaust conducted by Nazi Germany. The support, or at least absence of active opposition, of the local population was essential to Jews attempting to hide but ...

See also

References

Further reading