Mary Fulbrook, Professor of German History at UCL, argues that Holocaust history has too often focused on individual rescuers while ignoring the surrounding societies that shaped whether Jews could survive. She outlines three conditions that produced bystander passivity: ignorance, indifference, and impotence, then turns to case studies where communities acted differently. Le Chambon-sur-Lignon in France sheltered refugees after a pastor's sermon, the Dutch village of Nieuwlande and Italy's Villa Emma ran rescue networks, and in Volos, Greece, a bishop, a rabbi, and communist partisans cooperated to save lives. Fulbrook also examines Jewish survival strategies themselves, including ghetto uprisings, flight, and passing under false identity, weighing the psychological toll of hiding one's identity for years. She closes by comparing hospitable and hostile local environments, showing how police behavior, partisan activity, and a community's sense of inclusive identity determined real chances of survival, beyond any national stereotype.