Foreword
What would you do if ...? is a question used frequently by children in their games of imagination ... What would you do if you were an international spy and the bad guys were after you? What would you do if robbers broke into your house? What would you do if you were trapped in an elevator? What would you do if you had a million dollars to spend? What would you do if you were the President and the enemies attacked the country?
On and on they go, fantasizing lives of intrigue and excitement totally different from the seemingly dull existence, of their own lives. And every child has an elaborate answer for what he would do if Not only children, but everyone has, at one time or another in his life, used this question. The question itself poses a mental test — a hypothetical challenge in a 20th century world where life is familiar and sure. We take great pains speculating on our possible reactions to improbable situations. We swear unflinchingly to high standards and principles that would surely be upheld in the face of danger or disgrace.
But who really knows what any one of us would actually do when faced with a nightmarish situation like the one which confronts the Danfield family — a situation far from the sandbox reveries of children.
Michael Jaegger has written a fascinating, true-to-life story, a spine-chilling account of what it is like to be part of a family that is, quite literally, being shaken apart, pressured beyond the breaking point. Here is a close-knit family victimized at the brutal hands of a band of revolutionary fanatics. Here is a mother willing to sacrifice everything to spare her teenage children, and a father who is helpless to protect the ones he loves most dearly.
Read their story, live and sympathize with the Danfield's, and then decide what you would have done in their place.