What I discovered in Auschwitz is the human condition, the end point of a great adventure, where the European traveler arrived after his two-thousand-year-old moral and cultural history.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
I was interned in Auschwitz for one year. I didn't bring back anything, except for a few jokes, and that filled me with shame. Then again, I didn't know what to do with this fresh experience. For this experience was no literary awakening, no occasion for professional or artistic introspection.
We cannot get by Auschwitz. We should not even try, as great as the temptation is, because Auschwitz belongs to us, is branded into our history, and - to our benefit! - has made possible an insight that could be summarized as, 'Now we finally know ourselves.'
Ultimately, a timeless story has to be about the human condition.
So many times I wanted to go to Auschwitz, but I couldn't take up the courage to go there.
The German mass murder of the Jews... brought my Jewishness to the surface.
When we write about Auschwitz, we must know that Auschwitz, in a certain sense at least, suspended literature. One can only write a black novel about Auschwitz or - you should excuse the expression - a cheap serial, which begins in Auschwitz and is still not over.
Only through acknowledgment of the erasure and void of Jewish life can the history of Berlin and Europe have a human future.
The Holocaust committed by the Nazis turned this country, where most of the European Jews used to live and where their culture used to flourish, into a massive grave. This is why initiatives to revive Jewish culture in Poland is so important.
Auschwitz will forever remain the black hole of the entire human history.
Auschwitz stands as a tragic reminder of the terrible potential man has for violence and inhumanity.