“What did my grandparents do during the Holocaust? What would I have done?”

These two questions torture many Germans. The second question is particularly tormenting when the answer to the first question is that the grandparents looked the other way or even actively participated in the extermination of the Jews. That’s why many Germans don’t want to know the answer to the first question. But, then they’re all the more certain when answering the second question: “I would have stood up for the Jews!”

There’s only one problem. It’s difficult to prove that one would stand up for Jews when there are so few of them left. How can you stand up for Jews if you’ve never met even one?

Over eighty million people live in Germany. Of these, less than two hundred thousand are Jews, which is a mere one quarter of one percent. Among a group of four…