A can that American boys and girls used to collect donations for the nationwide Children’s Crusade for Children fundraiser in April 1940 for “children in war-stricken lands.” Eleanor Roosevelt supported the campaign, which benefited the United Jewish Appeal and other organizations. Artwork on the can was designed by Norman Rockwell. US Holocaust Memorial Museum. The acquisition of this collection was made possible by the Crown Family.
What is the psychology behind people helping others—or failing to act—during mass atrocities and environmental catastrophes driven by climate change? Why do we so often fail, as individuals and societies, to intervene when genocide and other humanitarian crises occur? Why are we more prone to help a single individual than a large group in need? How can we prevent or mitigate future tragedies?
Panelists will address these questions from a range of disciplinary perspectives and discuss examples that illuminate the challenges to inspire meaningful action, including American Jewish aid efforts to raise funds for Holocaust survivors in postwar Europe, literary responses to climate change, and psychological experiments that reveal how individuals become numb to atrocity at scale.
Speakers
Dr. Rachel Deblinger, Director, Modern Endangered Archives Program, and Historian, UCLA Library, University of California, Los Angeles
Dr. Paul Slovic, Department of Psychology, the University of Oregon; President, Decision Research Institute; and Contributing Editor, The Arithmetic of Compassion
Dr. Scott Slovic, University Distinguished Professor of Environmental Humanities, University of Idaho, Moscow
Moderator
Dr. Monique Balbuena, Associate Professor of Comparative Literature, University of Oregon
This virtual discussion is free and open to the public. Registration is required to receive the link to watch.
For more information, contact Kierra Crago-Schneider at kcrago-schneider@ushmm.org.
The mission of the Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Center, part of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, is to ensure the long-term growth and vitality of Holocaust Studies. To do that, it is essential to provide opportunities for new generations of scholars. The vitality and the integrity of Holocaust Studies require openness, independence, and free inquiry, so that new ideas are generated and tested through peer review and public debate. The opinions of scholars expressed before, during, or after their activities with the Mandel Center do not represent and are not endorsed by the Mandel Center or the Museum.