In the mass murders, by the time the Einsatzgruppen had you facing the pit, they had already moved you through a long cordon where you were beaten or shot for d

In the mass murders, by the time the Einsatzgruppen had you facing the pit, they had already moved you through a long cordon where you were beaten or shot for doing anything but running forward. Before that, you were shot for making any move towards self-preservation in your ghetto. Before that, you were selected and shot or worked to death if you looked strong enough to be a problem. At each of these steps the survivors thought they might have experienced the worst that would happen. This problem cannot be solved by wishing harder to be brave.