I lay a stone on the graves of each person who died in the Holocaust.

I watched Europa, Europa today. It's about a Jewish boy who gets separated from his family and ends up in a Polish orphanage. He is originally from Germany, and his family moved to Poland to evade the war. He tells German soldiers that he is a pure-blood German who lost his parents and finds himself in a Hitler Youth school. All this time, he is desperately hiding his identity as Jew. Obviously he has to deny his true race in order to survive. But it really got me thinking. So many people have such strong ties to their identity, so much so that they would never turn their backs on it. So much that they would sacrifice their lives before ever denouncing their faith. While this is a remarkable show of strength of character, what good does it do? Yet, does one demonstrate themself to be a coward if one hides behind a false identity to survive? Obviously, the true cowards in WWII were the ones who relished the opportunity for absolute power and cruelty behind the name of The Fuehrer.
Like I have said before, my mother grew up in Germany during WWII. She had an uncle that was vehemently against the Nazi movement. So much so that he died because of it. I wonder, had I been an adult in Germany during that time, would I have been a cruel person? Would I have gone with the flow? Or would I have been a strong person who stood up for my beliefs regardless of my own personal safety? What if I was Jewish? How would I have been then? Would I have given up and let myself die? Or would I have fought with every fiber of my being? I have read so many books of bravery and strength. The Franks, for example, and the people who helped them. Perhaps even Oscar Schindler, who saved over 1000 lives during a time where to do so was the most terrifying prospect one could imagine. Everyone one of the survivors of the war is living demonstration of their own courage and strength.
A time like the Holocaust gave brave people a chance to be truly brave and cruel people a venue to act out their most heinous desires. Someone like Ilse Koch, the "Bitch of Buchenwald" who found pleasure in making things out of human skin and other parts of the human body, would not have had as acceptable an outlet to act out her cruel fantasies if not for her role in the SS.
I don't think that I am a cruel person. I also am fairly confident in my convictions. Yet I hope to never be put to the test to find what kind of person I truly am. At least not under circumstances like these. Because I am terrified in the knowledge that I have absolutely no idea of what kind of person I would be.