Sooner or later in life everyone discovers that perfect happiness is unrealizable, but there are few who pause to consider the antithesis: that perfect unhappiness is equally unattainable. The obstacles preventing the realization of both these extreme states are of the same nature: they derive from our human condition which is opposed to everything infinite.

It was the very discomfort, the blows, the cold, the thirst that kept us aloft in the void of bottomless despair, both during the journey and after. It was not the will to live, nor a conscious resignation; for few are the men capable of such resolution, and we were but a common sample of humanity.

We must be listened to: above and beyond our personal experience, we have collectively witnessed a fundamental unexpected event, fundamental precisely because unexpected, not foreseen by anyone. It happened, therefore it can happen again: this is the core of what we have to say. It can happen, and it can happen everywhere.

Să distrugi omul e greu, aproape tot atât de greu cât să-l creezi: n-a fost uşor, n-a durat puţin, dar voi, hitleriştii, aţi reuşit s-o faceţi. Iată-ne docili sub privirile voastre: din partea noastră nu mai aveţi de ce vă teme, nu vor mai fi acte de revoltă, nici cuvinte de sfidare şi nici măcar o privire de condamnare.

Să închizi între fire de sârmă ghimpată mii de indivizi de vârste, condiții, origini, limbi, culturi și obiceiuri diferite și să-i supui unui regim de viață constant, controlabil, identic pentru toți și mai prejos de orice necesitate e cel mai diabolic experiment pentru a stabili ce este esențial și ce este dobândit în comportamentul animalului-om în lupta pentru existență.

Vai de cel ce visează: momentul conştient care însoţeşte trezirea este cea mai grea suferinţă. Dar nu ni se întâmplă des şi nici visele nu sunt lungi: nu suntem decât nişte animale obosite.

All the bargaining-transactions outlined above are based on the smuggling of materials belonging to the Lager. This is why the SS are so eager to suppress them: the very gold of our teeth is their property, as sooner or later, torn from the mouths of the living or the dead, it ends up in their hands. So it is natural that they should take care that the gold does not leave the camp.

He was a bricklayer; for fifty years, in Italy, America, France, then again in Italy, and finally in Germany, he had laid bricks, and every brick had been cemented with curses. He cursed continuously, but not mechanically; he cursed with method and care, acrimoniously, pausing to find the right word, frequently correcting himself and losing his temper when unable to find the word he wanted; then he cursed the curse that would not come.

Clausner shows me the bottom of his bowl. Where others have carved their numbers, and Alberto and I our names, Clausner has written: 'Ne pas chercher à comprendre.