Heroic altruism: heroic and moral behaviour in a variety of settings

The purpose of this paper is to report the results of the authors' long-term study of those who rescued Jews during the Holocaust and to discuss their research on heroic and conventional altruism. Between 1980 and 1988 they interviewed numerous rescuers and bystanders. They found, among other things, that rescuers' humanistic values were derived from their parents; that they consequently felt an obligation to all people, not just to Jews; that they felt failure to act would have destroyed innocent people. Their motives were a mixture of social responsibility, empathy for the victims, a sense of community with others, and a sense of religiosity and spirituality. They were, and remain, moral exemplars.