Edith Hahn Beer > Quotes

“I thought: Now I am like Dante. I walk through hell, but I am not burning.”
― Edith Hahn Beer a, The Nazi Officer's Wife: How One Jewish Woman Survived the Holocaust

“The soul withdrew to a rational silence. The body remained there in the madness.”
― Edith Hahn Beer a, The Nazi Officer's Wife: How One Jewish Woman Survived the Holocaust

“During that long terrible ride to Munich, I finally swallowed the bitter pill of my lover's rejection and poisoned myself with it. I murdered the personality I was born with and transformed myself from a butterfly back in into a caterpillar. That night I learned to seek the shadows, to prefer silence”
― Edith Hahn Beer a

“But I think that every time you hurt somebody you care for, a crack appears in your relationship, a little weakening - and it stays there, dangerous, waiting for the next opportunity to open up and destroy everything.”
― Edith Hahn Beer a, The Nazi Officer's Wife: How One Jewish Woman Survived the Holocaust

“Life is beautiful, and it begins tomorrow.”
― Edith Hahn Beer a, The Nazi Officer's Wife: How One Jewish Woman Survived The Holocaust

“You know, we have moments of passion when we are in pain. And then of course the moment ends, and with it the passion and the pain, and we forgive and forget. But I think that every time you hurt somebody that you care for, a crack appears in your relationship, a little weakening - and it stays there, dangerous, waiting for the next opportunity to open up and destroy everything.”
― Edith Hahn Beer a

“It was the individuals who made their own rules in this situation. No one forced them to behave in an unkind manner. The opportunity to act decently toward us was always available to them. Only the tiniest number of them ever used it.”
― Edith Hahn Beer a, The Nazi Officer's Wife: How One Jewish Woman Survived The Holocaust

“That's all it takes, you see -- a moment of kindness. Someone who is sweet and understanding, who seems to be sent there like an angel on the road to get you through the nightmare.”
― Edith Hahn Beer a, The Nazi Officer's Wife: How One Jewish Woman Survived the Holocaust

“They had been harboring a hatred for us which we had grown accustomed to calling “prejudice.” What a gentle word that was! What a euphemism!”
― Edith Hahn Beer a, The Nazi Officer's Wife: How One Jewish Woman Survived the Holocaust

“One class. No masters. No slaves. No black. No white. No Jew. No Christian. One race-- The human race.”
― Edith H. Beer a

“You see, even the inhuman ones were not always inhuman. This was a lesson that I would learn again and again—how completely unpredictable individuals could be when it came to personal morality.”
― Edith Hahn Beer a, The Nazi Officer's Wife: How One Jewish Woman Survived The Holocaust

“Once, after the Anschluss, I was stopped by a policeman for jaywalking. He ordered me to pay a stiff fine. “But I am Jewish,” I said. That was all he needed to hear to know that I was penniless and could not possibly pay, and he let me go. So you see, when they tell you that they did not realize how the Jews were being despoiled, you must never believe them. They all knew.”
― Edith Hahn Beer a, The Nazi Officer's Wife: How One Jewish Woman Survived the Holocaust

“When an idea is idiotic to begin with, its applications never make any sense.”
― Edith Hahn Beer a, The Nazi Officer's Wife: How One Jewish Woman Survived The Holocaust

“One class. No masters. No slaves. No black. No white. No Jew. No Christian. One race--the human race.”
― Edith Hahn Beer, The Nazi Officer's Wife: How One Jewish Woman Survived the Holocaust

“They wanted to know, you see. They were afraid that with our typical Austrian faces, we might be able to pass. They didn’t want to be fooled. Even then, in the 1920s, they wanted to be able to tell who was a Jew.”
― Edith Hahn Beer a, The Nazi Officer's Wife: How One Jewish Woman Survived the Holocaust

“She brought forth a piece of wood into which she had burned a French saying which our friend Franz had used to cheer us, in Osterburg: La vie est belle, et elle commence demain. “Life is beautiful, and it begins tomorrow.”
― Edith Hahn Beer a, The Nazi Officer's Wife: How One Jewish Woman Survived The Holocaust

“Berta, whose boyfriend had walked so far to see her, went out without her star and was immediately arrested and sent to a concentration camp.”
― Edith Hahn Beer a, The Nazi Officer's Wife: How One Jewish Woman Survived the Holocaust

“Mama had a decayed tooth that was killing her. Our Jewish dentist was no longer allowed to practice, but with Pepi’s help, Mama found an Aryan dentist who would pull the tooth. He wanted gold. Mama gave him a gold chain. He wanted more. She gave him another. He wanted more. She gave him her last. Three gold chains for one tooth.”
― Edith Hahn Beer a, The Nazi Officer's Wife: How One Jewish Woman Survived the Holocaust

“I think my father knew how to be Jewish, but he didn't teach us. He must have thought we would absorb it with our mother's milk.”
― Edith Hahn Beer a, The Nazi Officer's Wife: How One Jewish Woman Survived the Holocaust

“You will ask how I felt about spending so much time with people who supported the Hitler regime. I will tell you that, since I had absolutely no choice in the matter, I no longer dared to think about it. To be in Germany at that time, pretending to be an Aryan, meant that you automatically socialized with Nazis. To me, they were all Nazis, whether they belonged to the party or not. For me to have made distinctions at that time—to say Hilde was a “good” Nazi and the registrar was a “bad” Nazi—would have been silly and dangerous, because the good ones could turn you in as easily and capriciously as the bad ones could save your life.”
― Edith Hahn Beer a, The Nazi Officer's Wife: How One Jewish Woman Survived the Holocaust

“Often, the teachers would ask me what language we spoke at home. This was a not-so-subtle way of discovering if we spoke Yiddish (which we didn’t) and were therefore Jewish (which we were).”
― Edith Hahn Beer a, The Nazi Officer's Wife: How One Jewish Woman Survived the Holocaust

“In the morning, real nurses taught us the rudiments of anatomy and instructed us in the preparation of dressings and bandages. But then in the afternoon, representatives of the Frauenschaft, the women’s auxiliary of the Nazi Party, came to instruct us in our real mission: to boost the morale of the wounded and spread the propaganda of German invincibility. “You must make sure that every single soldier in your care knows that, despite the cowardly British air attack last May, the Cologne cathedral is still standing,” said the sturdy, uniformed instructor. “You must also tell everyone that there has been no bombing in the Rhineland. Am I clear?” “Yes, ma’am,” we all said. In fact, the Rhineland was being crushed by Allied air attacks.”
― Edith Hahn Beer a, The Nazi Officer's Wife: How One Jewish Woman Survived the Holocaust

“Something always happened, you see. A Yiddish song on Hanukkah, a British rabbi's prayer on the radio, some kindness on a train or in the street that reminded me, no matter how far I retreated, no matter how deep into self-denial my fear drove me, that the Jews would always be my people and I would always belong to them.”
― Edith Hahn Beer a, The Nazi Officer's Wife: How One Jewish Woman Survived the Holocaust

“But then the Nazis arrested Uncle Richard and Aunt Roszi too. They spent six weeks in prison. To get out, they gave the Nazis everything they possessed: real estate, bank accounts, bonds, dishes, silver. Then they left immediately, heading east. Russia swallowed them. My mother waited and prayed for word of them, but none came.”
― Edith Hahn Beer a, The Nazi Officer's Wife: How One Jewish Woman Survived the Holocaust

“How can a gang of pompous little men so quickly destroy the democratic institutions of a great country?!”
― Edith Hahn Beer, The Nazi Officer's Wife: How One Jewish Woman Survived the Holocaust

“Did the rest of the Austrians understand what was happening to the Jews? Did they understand that we were being dispossessed, that we were beginning to go hungry? By way of answer let me tell you a story. Once after the Anschluss, I was stopped by a policeman for jaywalking. He ordered me to pay a stiff fine. "But I am Jewish," I said. That was all he needed to hear to know that I was penniless and could not possibly pay, and he let me go. So you see, when they tell you that they did not realize how the Jews were being despoiled, you must never believe them. They all knew.”
― Edith Hahn Beer a

“My father's decision to let me go to high school had a monumental on my life, because for the first time I had friends who were boys. It had nothing to do with sex, I assure you....No, it was about intellectual development. You see, in those days, boys were simply better educated than girls. The read more, traveled more, thought more. So now, for the first time, I began to have friends with whom I could really talk....”
― Edith Hahn Beer a, The Nazi Officer's Wife: How One Jewish Woman Survived the Holocaust

“One day Anton Rieder, my old crush from high school, sat down next to me. He had been fatherless since we were kids. He knew the feeling—the loss of direction, the insecurity, the premature aging. “You are still beautiful,” he said. “And you were always gallant.” “I’ve enrolled at the Consular Academy. I’m going there not because I am so eager to be a diplomat, but because they have given me a scholarship.” “But it will be wonderful for you, Anton. You will be able to travel, maybe even go to England or America.” “Come with me.” “What?” “I know you go with Pepi Rosenfeld, but believe me, he’s too smart for his own good—his brains will always get in the way of his conscience. He’s not fine enough for you. I have always been in love with you; you know that. Leave him and come with me. I have nothing. Now your father is dead, and you have nothing. We’ll be perfect together.” He reached across the library table and took my hand. He was so handsome, so earnest. For a moment, I thought: “Maybe. Why not?” And then of course all the reasons why not spilled onto the long oak table, and Anton could not fail to see them there; and like a wise young diplomat, he rose and kissed my hand and took his leave.”
― Edith Hahn Beer a, The Nazi Officer's Wife: How One Jewish Woman Survived the Holocaust

“My manner was quiet. My habit was to listen. I behaved in a friendly way toward everyone; I became close to no one.”
― Edith Hahn Beer, The Nazi Officer's Wife: How One Jewish Woman Survived The Holocaust

“But I think that every time you hurt somebody you care for, a crack appears in your relationship, a little weakening—and it stays there, dangerous, waiting for the next opportunity to open up and destroy everything”
― Edith Hahn Beer, The Nazi Officer's Wife: How One Jewish Woman Survived The Holocaust