The German Wife Quotes
"Life is all about the ebb and flow between those extremes, and sometimes, you just have to patiently ride it out."
"You know how the Jews are. They just love their money."
"Germany should be for Germans. We shall bear our national misfortune no longer."
"All Hitler and his ilk are doing is connecting with something that has always been there."
"Never in the history of the world has there been a drought that did not end."
"It's not right for these people to be mingling with the rest of us, enjoying the sunshine on their faces, sipping champagne, and laughing so freely."
"We should not be welcoming them to this country."
"If you knew and did nothing, you're as guilty as the men who pushed those innocent people into gas chambers."
"Everything will turn around next season. That money is going to save us."
"The fervor tonight shocked me. I don't know what happens to this country if those men find their way to power."
"It’s tiring trying to make sense of things that make no damned sense at all."
"We aren’t stuck in here, we’re safe in here."
"You think you’re like your daddy, don’t you?"
"We aren’t the kind of family to say I love you or to express our feelings aloud."
"We just have to keep our heads down and not draw attention to ourselves."
"The Nazis had not just made comments like Otto’s acceptable—they’d made them fashionable."
"I’ll fetch Gerhard," Lydia said, offering Otto a reassuring smile before she turned toward the staff wing."
"It was time, Sofie," she said, dropping her voice.
"If they are acting, they are doing a very convincing job of it."
"It’s best to stay focused on what we still have in common."
"I hope to God it doesn’t happen, but the day may come when it’s a problem for a man like me to have a Jewish friend."
"Is a place really ‘home’ if you’re not welcome there anymore?"
"The day off the farm seemed to have lightened his mood."
"I’m so glad we all wound up here together after all," Becca sighed happily.
"I know the difference between a dream and reality!"
"It’s good that I don’t sleep well at the moment."
"We need to answer the door before the children wake up."
"But she hasn’t done anything wrong!" I cried as Jürgen threw open the door.
"I might have dreamed the whole thing, except that I was shaking from head to toe."
"I’m strong. My family is strong. Besides, we don’t have a choice. You know that’s true, even if you wish it wasn’t."
"You get tonight to sulk, Sofie von Meyer Rhodes. But tomorrow, you get up, you get out of bed, and you carry on."
"It’s not always the strongest trees that survive the storm. Sometimes it’s the trees that bend with the wind."
"You will always know deep down inside what is true and what is right and they cannot touch your heart."
"Everything’s fine, Mr. Miller. Can I get you anything else?"
"I can’t pay you, but I can promise if you’re reliable and prove you’re trustworthy, you’ll be at the front of the line when a position does come up."
"It’s not a team when one player is doing all of the work, sis."
"You’re the only family I’ve got now, and you’d never be a burden to me."
"Sofie, it’s okay. Truly. My love, even Otto underestimates this technology sometimes."
"Sometimes a mind can play tricks on a person. There is no shame in that for you or for Henry."
"I remember sitting in that car with her, utterly terrified, deciding that I’d hold their memories so close that I’d never lose them."
"You’ve always been so much more outgoing than me, Sofie."
"It brings me comfort that I don’t remember much about my parents."
"Name a European city you love and German rockets may one day wipe it off the face of the earth."
"We tell ourselves that we’re only protecting our family, but the family is damaged by our decision to protect it."
"Every morning, I wake up and carry on as if this is all acceptable, so I’m complicit too, aren’t I?"
"I would do anything for you and the children. Anything."
"But the madness is spiraling all over Europe, and we’re just sitting here drinking wine?"
"The way my program has made such rapid progress has been through constant experimentation."
"We all lost, Lizzie. Every single man and woman and child touched by that war lost."
"You need to understand that these men on Sauerkraut Hill aren’t harmless."
"Every single time I opted not to take a stand, I was taking a stand—for the wrong side."
"We are the last people on earth who deserve a miracle."
"Mittelwerk is an extermination site, without even the pathetically small mercy of a fast death for its victims."
"Hell is simply the place where hope is lost."
"The world will see what we’ve done across the Reich."
"Whether I wait and surrender to the Allies or refuse to join the SS now, the outcome will be the same."
"Every day, when it feels like it’s all too much, when I want to scream with the insanity of it all, I think of you and the children and that is all I can do to keep going."