Rachela Muracka

“Initially holding up well, the girls quickly lost the sparkle in their eyes, their smiles and the spring in their step. Some of them continued to smile, but more sorrowfully.”
― Witold Pilecki, The Auschwitz Volunteer: Beyond Bravery

“He is happy who lives in accordance with complete virtue and is sufficiently equipped with external goods, not for some chance period but throughout a complete life.”
― Aristotle, The Nicomachean Ethics

“I told him: “I have been inside for two years and seven months. I have had a job to do here. Lately I have had no instructions. Now the Germans have shipped out our best people with whom I’ve been working. I would have to start from scratch. I can see no further point in staying here. Therefore, I’m going to leave.” Captain 159 [Stanisław Machowski] looked at me in some surprise and said: “Yes. I can see that, but can one pick and choose when one wants to come to Auschwitz and when one wants to leave?” I replied: “One can.”
― Witold Pilecki, The Auschwitz Volunteer: Beyond Bravery

“Those who looked death bravely in the eye were usually not chosen.”
― Witold Pilecki, The Auschwitz Volunteer: Beyond Bravery