Robert Vogeler. General Dean. and scores of other sturdy men. If you decided you could not go along with every whim of the Nazi regime. you had. even in the first days of the 12 years of Nazi rule. only two choices: Either you could emigrate or you could stay and resist. passively or actively. I chose the easiest way. emigration. because I was not sure I could stand up under the ordeal of solitary confinement. and I had many good friends in this country. and thus an easy opportunity to go. If the decision was to stay. as most Germans had to. and you were not a moral contortionist. it meant that at any time you might literally have to put your life at stake. without any assurance that anyone would ever know why you disappeared or even how. I question the right of the smart critic and the glib talker to sit in selfrighteous judgment on the unfortunate people who were caught in the totalitarian trap.
Keywords matched
emigrate emigration