- "It was like a page from some story book, from some historical novel about the captivity of Babylon or the Spanish Inquisition." (Section 1)
Eliezer's description of the scene in the street when the Jews of Sighet assemble for deportation. - "Never shall I forget that nocturnal silence which deprived me, for all eternity, of the desire to live. Never shall I forget those moments which murdered my God and my soul and turned my dreams to dust." (Section 3)
Eliezer's comment on how he felt about his first night at Auschwitz. - "The student of the Talmud, the child that I was, had been consumed in the flames. There remained only a shape that looked like me. A dark flame had entered into my soul and devoured it." (Section 3)
Eliezer's feelings on his first morning in Auschwitz. - "Long live liberty! A curse upon Germany!" (Section 4)
The words of the young man from Warsaw the moment before he is hanged. - "That night the soup tasted of corpses." (Section 4)
Eliezer's comment after he has witnessed the agonizing death of the child who was hanged. - "I've got more faith in Hitler than in anyone else. He's the only one who's kept his promises, all his promises, to the Jewish people." ( Section 5)
A Hungarian Jew in the camp hospital tells Eliezer he expects Hitler to annihilate all the Jews before the end of the war. - "The idea of dying, of no longer being, began to fascinate me. Not to exist any longer. Not to feel the horrible pains in my foot. Not to feel anything, neither weariness, nor cold, nor anything." (Section 6)
Eliezer's thoughts as he runs with the other prisoners on the forced evacuation of Buna. - "I could hear only the violin, and it was as though Juliek's soul were the bow. He was playing his life. The whole of his life was gliding on the strings-his lost hopes, his charred past, his extinguished future. He played as if he would never play again." (Section 6)
Eliezer listens to Juliek play the violin after they arrive in Gleiwitz. - "Here, every man has to fight for himself and not think of anyone else. Even of his father. Here, there are no fathers, no brothers, no friends. Everyone lives and dies for himself alone." (Section 8 )
The head of the block give advice to Eliezer, telling him not to care for his father. - "From the depths of the mirror, a corpse gazed back at me. The look in his eyes, as they stared into mine, has never left me." (Section 9)
The last words of the novel. Eliezer, recovering from food poisoning in the hospital, looks at himself in the mirror.
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