Would you have made the same choice Nina did, joining your family in an internment camp? If you had been the one arrested and placed in an internment camp, would you have urged your spouse to join you?
I can understand Nina wanting to desperately be with her family. I recall how clearly she was told if she decided to join her family, she could not leave. Knowing she would be with her family and they would be subjected to that tiny space, but at least they would be together and enduring the hardship together.
I think i would try to muster the courage to be with them. Ultimately i am not sure any of us know what we would do!
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I don’t think I would make the same decision Nina did. It’s just me and my husband (no kids). I think I’d be more inclined to watch over the homefront - make sure nothing worse happened to my property. Besides, he’s the strong one. I think he’d end up comforting me more than I would him.
I suspect I would. By then it was obvious that her old friends wouldn’t be able to continue to support her, and at least she’d be with them. Of course, she didn’t realize that deporting families back to Germany was a serious plan.
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Nina showed courage when she agreed to be imprisoned with her family. For the short time she was jailed she knew fear and uncertainty. She willingly sacrificed freedom to be with Otto and sons; however, if she had stayed away from them she would have endured another kind of prison among neighbors and those who whispered. Iris, Beth and Hugh would have continued being good friends. Mr. Griffin, the lawyer would have worked on behalf of the family, but I’m unsure if the outcome for Otto and Kurt would have changed.
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I agree with Helen, not sure what I would do. I am inclined to think that I would go because the thought of not knowing how they were doing in a timely fashion would be unbearable. I imagine that not going must be what’s it’s like for families of hostages being held today throughout the world.
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I think I would have joined my family. The thought of not knowing where everyone was and how they were doing would be intolerable. Life without her home, restaurant, and treatment of neighbors had already made Nina’s life extremely difficult. It may have been harder to ask my spouse to join me.
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Family matters at all times but the bonds and support received from family are especially important during times imposed by the government and others in society. Therefore Nina made the right choice for herself and her family because she was losing the support she had been receiving from community members.
I don’t know that I would have been so quick to agree to voluntary internment. But Nina felt she had nothing further to lose. She had lost her family, her home and her business, and her friends and members of her town viewed her with suspicion and wanted nothing to do with her. Perhaps she felt she had no choice, that being with her family would mean everything. I also believe she didn’t really fully understand what living in an internment camp would really mean and how it would affect her. If I would be alone like Nina and in a situation such as hers I likely would have agreed to it, knowing that it was the only way my family would be reunited.
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If I had to choose between living in a small confined place alone or with family; I’d choose to be with my family as well.
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I believe I would choose to be with my family especially since the business and home were gone. There was nothing that she needed to protect for her family’s return. It would be scary and tough physically but I believe in family.
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Under the circumstances of Nina’s life at the time, I understand why she joined her family. I don’t know what I would have done. Knowing my family was at a camp and I was the only one not, I believe I would have joined them. If I were in a camp, and my family wasn’t, I probably would hope they didn’t join me. They wouldn’t understand the consequences of a decision to join me at the camp, until they arrived and lived the day to day conditions and treatment.
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Being with her family far outweighed the fear of the unknown in terms of life at the camp and what it really meant. I too would have made the decision to be with my family…I felt her fear and anguish…
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If I were Nina I would have made the same decision she did. The Aust family was very close and Nina wanted desperately to be with them no matter the hardships.
If it was me and my spouse asked me too join him, my response would depend on the circumstances. If we had no children, I believe I would opt to be with my husband, If we had small children, I would not go. I think it would be too traumatic for them, given the amount of violence, fear, and cruelty that existed in the internment camps.
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