As Edwin O. Reischauer, former ambassador to Japan, has pointed out, this book offers "a lesson that the postwar generations need most...with eloquence, crushing detail, and power."

    Based on her extensive experience as a therapist treating Jewish survivors of the Holocaust and  those who helped them, Fogelman delves into the  psychology of altruism, illuminating why these  rescuers chose to act while others simply stood by.  While analyzing motivations, Conscience And  Courage tells the stories of such little-known individuals as Stefnaia Podgorska  Burzminska, a Polish teenager who hid thirteen Jews in her  home; Alexander Roslan, a dealer in the black  market who kept uprooting his family to shelter three Jewish children in his care, as well as more heralded individuals such as Oskar Schindler, Raoul Wallenberg, and Miep Gies. Speaking to the same  audience that flocked to Steven Spielberg's Academy  Award-winning movie, Schindler's  List, Conscience And Courage is the first book to go beyond the stories to answer the question: Why did they help?