I don’t think that’s quite true. The range of emotions was much more complex than that.
out of curiosity have you had a spell in quarantine. I have experienced it twice. The first in a hotel. The treatment was weird and for the first time in my life I thought I had a vague insight into the Holocaust and the transportation.
From the Time i stepped out of my car on the spirit of tasmania I was under watch. I couldn’t move a metre without someone watching me or checking on me. We were told very clearly what we could and couldn’t do. We were told we were under some form of arrest and if we didn’t follow orders we would be fined up to $14000. I found myself feeling threatened and subdued.
I was surprised to feel nervous and cowed. Yet that was nothing compared with what the Jews experience. I think the willing participant narrative is just that - a story. But the guards had guns. They had already heard about kristalnacht. People were killed
they might not initially have known it was a journey to death but I think fear paralyses. If you can see no alternative you do what you must.
