Auschwitz Lullaby Quotes
"The best way to survive in the new Germany was to be invisible."
"The logic of Auschwitz could not be compared with what reigned on the other side of the electric barbed-wire fences."
"The only rule that governed the camp was to survive at any cost and not expect help from anyone."
"In times like these, we all have to make sacrifices."
"The only way for nature to stay the course is for us to let her choose who should live and who should die."
"If we can save anyone, our daily struggles will have been worth it."
"The one sure thing here is that we’re all going to die."
"Sometimes I think none of us will make it out of here alive."
"Delaying the deaths of a few was pointless if we were all going to die here."
"I never could understand how the guards had achieved such an advanced degree of dehumanization."
"Mothers have no ideologies. Our children are our only cause, our fatherland."
"For men, killing and dying for ideas may come naturally. For us bearers of life, to murder for ideals is the worst aberration created by humankind."
"Human life meant nothing in this infernal place."
"The smiles of my children made me forget for a moment the torment of the recent weeks."
"To those racists, we’re nothing but brute animals; yet they see you as an Aryan who’s lost her mind by coming to this camp with her Gypsy children."
"Everything you try to hold on to in this camp disappears."
"They can only keep our bodies locked up, this mess of bones and flesh that slowly turns to dust, but never our souls."
"The image had captured a moment of joy and made it eternal."
"For a few seconds, we were once again one body, joined by the umbilical cord."
"Exhaustion is time’s best friend. It lets us turn the pages quickly, like in a bad book."
"That nothing ever happens is a good sign in the camp. Because in Auschwitz, when something happens, there are always bad consequences."
"Sometimes we have to lose everything to find what is most important."
"Despite everything I had seen at Auschwitz, I was still unable to keep from crying when I looked at a dying child."
"The infernal heat, the constant thirst, and the scarcity of food make us all vulnerable to disease."
"How could I forget? Seven years ago my belly stretched from here to the wall and I was sweating like a pig."
"All human beings are irreplaceable, of infinite value, and nothing can substitute the life that is taken."
"Evil is much bigger than an antisocial behavior or a psychological deficiency. Above all, it is a lack of love for one’s self and for others."
"When you find the one you love, everything inside is on fire."
"As long as I’m alive and have the strength, I will do everything possible to get them to treat us like human beings."
"The only thing they cared about was our fertility."
"They murdered our bodies but also corrupted our souls, stealing the most precious part of us, our very humanity."
"Every day more and more trains of Hungarian Jews arrived, and it seemed we had become a nuisance to the Nazis."
"I tried to rise above it. We could not let the night be ruined by gloomy thoughts or sorrow over those who were no longer with us."
"The Nazis need young people to work their arms factories. Surely you and the other teachers will get out of here alive."
"I’ve had a full life. I’m sad for my children, but who knows what kind of world would await them after the war anyway."
"We’re surrounded by soldiers. It would be suicide to let the children go out through the latrines."
"I knew that camp logic had no rhyme or reason. The most absurd orders were carried out with astonishing efficiency."
"One good mother was worth more than the entire murderous machine of the Nazi regime."
"Mothers have only one homeland, one ideal, one race: our family."
"In some way, he continued protecting my family. It may have been the last shred of humanity left to the man."
"Memory fights to hold on to them through the strength of tears and the painful sigh of love."
"In those final moments, I thought of the smell of real coffee in our apartment and the minutes before breakfast when everyone was asleep."
"I felt deeply afraid. I prayed for God to chase away from my mind all the bad omens."
"The only thing that kept me going was my children and the camp’s children."
"I accepted his will, and with this assurance I fell asleep just as the day dawned."