What Would I Do?

Reading the book, The Countrymen by Bo Lidegarrd, has brought home to me some questions about what would I have done in similar circumstances.

When I was a teenager, my mother and I used to argue about some of my plans and actions. I used to ask her for advise, and she used to be very angry about some of my thoughts and plans.  And, when I ultimately acted, not always according to her standard, she would be very unhappy with me.  I remember a significant interchange, during which she commented that I was the one child who asked her opinion and then went off and did something different. I told her that I respected her opinion, and changed my plan based on it.  We argued much less after that, I guess because she realized she had an ameliorating affect on me.

I am not brave. I am not strong. I have, over the years. capitulated when I have should have stood firm.

I cannot know what I would have done in Denmark in 1943.  Would I have been brave? Would I have whiffed out?  Would I have snitched?  Would I have pitched in? I do not know.