Who were some of the bystanders of the Holocaust?

Answer 1

It's tough to characterize any group in particular as bystanders when so much of the world was involved in the conflict.

It cannot be denied that 'ordinary' people in Germany were powerless to oppose the Nazis treatment of their opponents. That was because the Nazis made it that way: Political Opposition wasn't an option. Indeed Political Opposition simply made you into a victim. Therefore to be a bystander was a means of survival, doing & saying nothing kept you alive. By the same token joining with the Nazis was seen as the only way to prosper.

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Nevertheless, some ordinary Germans did in fact help victims and people in danger, but it took a lot of courage and they had to set about it very cleverly. One can argue that in some Nazi-occupied countries the position was somewhat different, especially where there was a broadly based, popular resistance movement.

Answer 2

In the context of the Holocaust bystanders were people who were neither victims nor perpetrators but stood by, watched and did nothing. Obvious examples include Germans who knew that local Jews were being deported for what was called "resettlement in Eastern Europe", Poles who knew what was going on and so on.