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Ida Fink

63 quotes

“Once again it was quiet, too quiet after what had happened. ("The End")”
Ida Fink (1921–2011) said by 2011 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“She went back into the room and carefully locked the door to the balcony, as if she could lock out all the evil events of the night. ("The End")”
Ida Fink (1921–2011) said by 2011 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“She watched him lying there, defenseless as a child and, like a child, unconscious of the evil that had been unleashed. ("The End")”
Ida Fink (1921–2011) said by 2011 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Julia emerged from her reverie and repeated: "By then it was too late." She asked whether I remembered Emanuel, who had escaped from Lodz and wound up staying in the ghetto. Because when she said "it was too late," she was thinking of him. Then she said one more sentence (which she didn't finish) about sudden love in the dying ghetto, powerful and tender, torn from life, the love that Eugenia...I didn't ask any more questions. ("Eugenia")”
Ida Fink (1921–2011) said by 2011 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Sabina was tall and thin, with a startled expression, as if she knew in advance that the world and its inhabitants had nothing good in store for her. (first lines of "Sabina Under the Sacks")”
Ida Fink (1921–2011) said by 2011 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“She went for so long without talking that silence became a habit.”
Ida Fink (1921–2011) said by 2011 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Finally she says, "What I remember best is the silence. But you can't talk about silence. Silence is the opposite of talk," she explains.”
Ida Fink (1921–2011) said by 2011 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“She says, "Other people suffered so much.... But no one beat or tortured me.... I never saw a German.... But still it's as if they killed me. Because I'm not the same person. My name, my date of birth-they're not mine. The doctor said it's shock. I don't know what happened before then, or what I was like. So it's as if I didn't exist.”
Ida Fink (1921–2011) said by 2011 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Tiny drops of moisture bead up on her forehead. She wipes them off with the back of her hand and with this gesture seems to wipe away the thoughts that torment her, because once again she smiles and says, "Did you ever see someone who was killed in the war but who is still alive?”
Ida Fink (1921–2011) said by 2011 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Because many places that year had posted signs that said NO DOGS OR JEWS ALLOWED, the only amusements left were strolls along the river that flowed through the clean, Germanized town.”
Ida Fink (1921–2011) said by 2011 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“September came, and with it the war; the radio spoke a strange new language of exhortations and abbreviations.”
Ida Fink (1921–2011) said by 2011 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“None of us had actually been thinking about a journey at the moment when it really began; and yet that moment was accompanied by the hollow rumbling of wheels and the whistle of a locomotive piercing the silence of the night. (p5)”
Ida Fink (1921–2011) said by 2011 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Sometimes even I would return from work, open the door, and feel as if I were seeing a stage on which the last act of a play was about to begin at any moment. (p18)”
Ida Fink (1921–2011) said by 2011 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I heard the gentle click of Aunt Julia's knitting needles. No one knew what she was knitting, but we all knew why. (p18)”
Ida Fink (1921–2011) said by 2011 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The car was silent. But just as we reached the door, came the first whispers: "Jews. They caught some Jews." (p29)”
Ida Fink (1921–2011) said by 2011 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It's hard to reconstruct those days, to push through the nebulous expanses of memory. The fog thickens and thins, the picture blurs and clears. All the bits and pieces must be assembled into one continuous whole, and the task is difficult, and, above all, painful. (p33)”
Ida Fink (1921–2011) said by 2011 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It suddenly seemed to me that the further away we got from Poland, the more complicated everything became-nothing was getting easier. We were dragging along all the obstacles we had overcome, and they were spawning new ones, and no sooner did we overcome these than they gave birth to even more. I looked at the young, pink-faced woman, and I could hear her musical, childlike laughter, and her voice, saying, "The important thing is to find a boyfriend." Would she give us away? (p66)”
Ida Fink (1921–2011) said by 2011 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“How can I explain what happened in the weeks that followed? At the time, we blamed it on the stupidity of the girls who were involved. Possibly they didn't realize that they were passing sentence on us-sealing our doom. Their behavior on the final day would seem to suggest as much. Possibly they weren't evil. But a blind hatred was deeply rooted in all of them, and neither words nor kindness could penetrate that dark jungle of primitive instinct. (p84-5)”
Ida Fink (1921–2011) said by 2011 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“the seemingly quiet days were in fact full of anxiety and insecurity. We were walking on shaky ground, mined with guesses and speculations. We dissected every fragment of every sentence, every look, every smile; we studied them, as if under a magnifying glass-and we waited. In those early days we felt a growing sense of siege. We wondered: What next? (p87)”
Ida Fink (1921–2011) said by 2011 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“After he left, no one laughed out loud anymore. Quiet snickering, muffled by blankets, rippled through the room. And those laughing whispers frightened us more than the hysterical screams. (p93)”
Ida Fink (1921–2011) said by 2011 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The only things we didn't discuss were the things that mattered most. Those we circled around, avoided, pushed away. (p135)”
Ida Fink (1921–2011) said by 2011 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“That was the Sunday when, as Anna and I parted at the train station, Walenty said the words I never forgot: "Why is she hugging and kissing you as if you two were never going to see each other again?" (p166)”
Ida Fink (1921–2011) said by 2011 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“For the first time, I decided to break our most sacred rules, to let someone in on our secret. Perhaps I was too weak to bear one more blow alone. (p173)”
Ida Fink (1921–2011) said by 2011 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“If the police didn't show up before then. Always that little word: if. (p178)”
Ida Fink (1921–2011) said by 2011 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The days were filled with a kind of double waiting: waiting for news of Jadwiga and waiting for the police. I made myself get through the time, as if I were trudging through a snow drift: step by step, hour by hour, not a moment of rest from the hard labor of waiting, except perhaps at night. (p184)”
Ida Fink (1921–2011) said by 2011 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Ruhe? The city whose name promised serenity greeted us with ominous banners: countless swastikas fluttered above the station square. This treacherous city was celebrating some sinister holiday. We should have left immediately, but we walked defiantly through the square, the black twisted crosses above our heads. (p222)”
Ida Fink (1921–2011) said by 2011 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Later she used to say: The place where everything almost ended. She meant the long, gray stone building on the circular plaza planted with trees. But why that place? After all, there were other places equally, if not more deserving of that description. And yet, thirty years later, it was that place she went to see, only that one place. (p226)”
Ida Fink (1921–2011) said by 2011 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“In the evening, in my spacious attic room, I wrote, "Will I find peace here? Peace. I yearn for peace." Out of habit, I hid the sheet of paper under the mattress, where it stayed, blank, except for that one line of fine handwriting at the top. (p228)”
Ida Fink (1921–2011) said by 2011 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Again we thought, let us survive-but now we were talking about the bombs and the rattling guns. (p237)”
Ida Fink (1921–2011) said by 2011 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Our fate suddenly came to a halt and hung there for a moment, suspended over the abyss it had been racing toward, hung there for a few minutes (five? six?) and then, just as suddenly, turned...This was why I had come here, just for that moment at the crossroads, that sudden turn, that circus trick performed by our fate. (p248-9)”
Ida Fink (1921–2011) said by 2011 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“They were saying that we had eaten up all our fruit while it was still green, and that we were right to do so, because who knows what would happen to us by winter. What they were saying was absolutely true. ("The Garden that Floated Away")”
Ida Fink (1921–2011) said by 2011 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Father called us to his office, to the animated Mrs. Kasinska, who, once the price was agreed on, promised to make Kennkarten for us so we could be saved, so we would not be killed. ("The Garden that Floated Away")”
Ida Fink (1921–2011) said by 2011 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The moment when the silhouette of an SS-man appeared in the pointed arch of the pigsty and his hand carelessly brushed the apple tree, dried by the summer heat-that moment gave us a taste of suspension in that limbo between life and death. ("A Dog")”
Ida Fink (1921–2011) said by 2011 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It was silent in the forest. There were no birds, but the smell of the trees and flowers was magnificent. We couldn't hear anything. There was nothing to hear. The silence was horrifying because we knew that there was shooting going on and people screaming and crying, that it was a slaughterhouse out there. But here there were bluebells, hazelwood, daisies, and other flowers, very pretty, very colorful. That was what was so horrifying-just as horrifying as waiting for the thundering of the train, as horrifying as wondering whom they had taken. ("Jean-Christophe")”
Ida Fink (1921–2011) said by 2011 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The girl who had been crying was now sobbing louder; all of us were aware that every passing minute brought the train's thunder nearer, that any moment now we would hear death riding down the tracks. One girl cried "Mama!" and then other voices cried "Mama!" because there was an echo in the woods. ("Jean-Christophe")”
Ida Fink (1921–2011) said by 2011 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“And what will you say when they ask you about your parents?" "Mama's at work." "And Papa?" He was silent. "And Papa?" the man screamed in terror. The child turned pale. "And Papa?" the man repeated more calmly. "He's dead," the child answered and threw himself at his father, who was standing right beside him, blinking his eyes in that funny way, but who was already long dead to the people who would really ring the bell. ("The Key Game")”
Ida Fink (1921–2011) said by 2011 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“...everybody thinks I'm crazy, but I'm not. I know-every crazy person says that, but really, there's nothing wrong with my head. If only God would make me crazy! It's my heart that's sick, not my head, and there's no cure for that. ("Crazy")”
Ida Fink (1921–2011) said by 2011 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It was near the end. They had already shot my sons and my husband. I remember that people were saying, 'How can she do it? Why should she save herself? For whom?' But you know, the life force has such strong roots, you can't tear it out. Even after those we love most have died. But you are young, what do you know about that? ("The Other Shore")”
Ida Fink (1921–2011) said by 2011 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“One pebble had fallen; I awaited the avalanche. ("The Other Shore")”
Ida Fink (1921–2011) said by 2011 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“There are thoughts that wither under the gaze of others, that are wounded by the breath of others, that the slightest disruption destroys. ("The Other Shore")”
Ida Fink (1921–2011) said by 2011 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I always wanted to paint. Always, before the war, that is. But I was thirteen then." ("Splinter")”
Ida Fink (1921–2011) said by 2011 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Only the end of the war brought us the truth about his last hours. The peasant who delivered the note did not dare to tell us what he saw, and although other people, too, muttered something about what they had seen, no one dared to believe it, especially since the Germans offered proofs of another truth that each of us grasped at greedily; they measured out doses of it sparingly, with restraint a perfect cover-up. They went to such trouble, created so many phantoms, that only time, time measured not in months and years, opened our eyes and convinced us.”
Ida Fink (1921–2011) said by 2011 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“There was the square, thick with people as on a market day, only different, because a market-day crowd is colorful and loud, with chickens clucking, geese honking, and people talking and bargaining. This crowd was silent. In a way it resembled a rally-but it was different from that, too. I don't know what it was exactly. I only know that we suddenly stopped and my sister began to tremble, and then I caught the trembling”
Ida Fink (1921–2011) said by 2011 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“This time was measured not in months but in a word-we no longer said "in the beautiful month of May," but "after the first 'action,' or the second, or "right before the third.”
Ida Fink (1921–2011) said by 2011 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“He had that horrifying clarity of vision that comes just before death.”
Ida Fink (1921–2011) said by 2011 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“He stood between a lawyer's apprentice and a student of architecture and to the question, "Profession?" he replied, "Teacher," although he had been a teacher for only a short time and quite by chance. His neighbor on the right also told the truth, but the architecture student lied, declaring himself a carpenter, and this lie saved his life—or, to be more precise, postponed the sentence of death for two years.”
Ida Fink (1921–2011) said by 2011 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“What our cousin experienced, locked up in that room, will remain forever a mystery.”
Ida Fink (1921–2011) said by 2011 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Once again, after the second action, a postcard turned up. It was written in pencil and almost indecipherable. After this postcard, we said, "They're done for." But rumors told a different story altogether-of soggy earth in the woods by the village of Lubianki, and of a bloodstained handkerchief that had been found. These rumors came from nowhere; no eyewitnesses stepped forward.”
Ida Fink (1921–2011) said by 2011 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The execution itself did not take long; more time was spent on the preparatory digging of the grave.”
Ida Fink (1921–2011) said by 2011 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Each day and night of those weeks could fill a book, if only the pen could take on this burden of despair and helpless loneliness.”
Ida Fink (1921–2011) said by 2011 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source