Agnes Grunwald-Spier > Quotes

“Zyklon B did not differentiate between men and women; the same death swept them all away. Because the same fate awaited all Jews. I approached the writing of this chapter with grave reservations; why should I focus on women? Any division of the Holocaust and its sufferers according to gender seemed offensive to me. The issue of gender seemed to belong to another generation, another era. But I did not want the story of the women of Theresienstadt to be left out. So I undertook this task in the name of the women of Theresienstadt and began to examine, for myself, in what way the lives of women in the ghetto differed from the lives of men, and how one could explain this distinction, if explanation is possible.1”
― Agnes Grunwald-Spier, Women's Experiences in the Holocaust: In Their Own Words

“The Somme is like the Holocaust. It revealed things about mankind that we cannot come to terms with and cannot forget. It can never become the past. Pat Barker, November 1995, on winning the Booker Prize”
― Agnes Grunwald-Spier, Who Betrayed the Jews?: The Realities of Nazi Persecution in the Holocaust

“Brothers, don’t forget. Recount what you hear and see! Brothers, make a record of it all! Reported last words of the 81-year-old historian, Simon Dubnow, on 7 December 1941 in Riga, Latvia, when he was dragged out of his home to the execution site.”
― Agnes Grunwald-Spier, Who Betrayed the Jews?: The Realities of Nazi Persecution in the Holocaust

“OdF Opfer des Faschismus – ‘Victim of Fascism’.”
― Agnes Grunwald-Spier, Who Betrayed the Jews?: The Realities of Nazi Persecution in the Holocaust

“No one is born hating another person because of the colour of his skin, or his background, or his religion. People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite. Nelson Mandela (1918– 2013), Long Walk to Freedom”
― Agnes Grunwald-Spier, Who Betrayed the Jews?: The Realities of Nazi Persecution in the Holocaust

“No one is born hating another person because of the colour of his skin, or his background, or his religion. People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite. Nelson Mandela (1918–2013), Long Walk to Freedom”
― Agnes Grunwald-Spier, Who Betrayed the Jews?: The Realities of Nazi Persecution in the Holocaust

“Certainly, it could be otherwise. Religion and race could completely recede as decisive factors in the life of a people and of nations in favor of humanity, which alone determines the value and essence of the person.”
― Agnes Grunwald-Spier, Who Betrayed the Jews?: The Realities of Nazi Persecution in the Holocaust

“The Nazis were meticulous in creating a legal framework for their persecution of the Jews. This was gradually built up from 1933 with increasing burdens laid on the Jews. Thus, the faithful citizen or member of the Volk had no good cause to question what was being done because there was valid legislation to justify every step. No one has rejected such an approach more succinctly than Edmund Burke who, in 1775, spoke for three hours in the House of Commons on ‘Conciliation with America’. The significant concept is, ‘It is not what a lawyer tells me I may do; but what humanity, reason and justice tell me I ought to do.’ Under the Nazis these were often two very different paths.”
― Agnes Grunwald-Spier, Who Betrayed the Jews?: The Realities of Nazi Persecution in the Holocaust

“However, German Jews, especially the leaders, did not consider the Nazis a serious threat because they did not think Hitler would be elected. In any event, they were convinced that even if the Nazis came to power they would not implement the anti-Jewish measures threatened in their propaganda.”
― Agnes Grunwald-Spier, Who Betrayed the Jews?: The Realities of Nazi Persecution in the Holocaust

“There is a saying in the Talmud that the saving of a single life is the equivalent of saving the entire world. It might well be said that the converse is also true, that the betrayal to death of a single person is equal to the death of an entire world. It might seem inconceivable, but the story of the destruction of the Jews of Europe is as much the story of a large number of such individual betrayals as of the mass murder of entire communities.”
― Agnes Grunwald-Spier, Who Betrayed the Jews?: The Realities of Nazi Persecution in the Holocaust

“As early as January 1923 the ‘pitiless extermination’ of Austrian Jews was threatened in letters being widely distributed with the help of district officials of lower Austria, demanding the Jews leave Austria voluntarily. The penalty for not complying with the threat would be all manner of violent deaths. A letter handed over to the authorities by the Wiener Morgenzeitung (WM) declared: In the near future the Aryan people will arise and mercilessly put an end to the Jewish domination. The Jews will first of all be stricken down, then indiscriminately murdered, exterminated and hung, their bodies being thrown in the Danube. Then and then only shall Vienna be free of this vampire. Help us, oh God of the Germans, in this task.2”
― Agnes Grunwald-Spier, Who Betrayed the Jews?: The Realities of Nazi Persecution in the Holocaust