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Quote by April Voytko Kempler

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The Altered I: Memoir of Joseph Kempler, Holocaust Survivor

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April Voytko Kempler

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“But I can't help thinking about the graves I saw on this summer's trip, and the millions of people in them, and the millions more without graves. The ones who are smoke. And I find that I can feel it, at last. Or that I've always felt it, without knowing what it was: the Holocaust, roaring down the generations like a wave of radiation, eradicating, in everyone it touches, the ability to trust people, experience joy; fall in love, believe in love when you see it in others. ("Dancing Men")”

“Me da vergüenza reconocerlo, pero compartí la adquisición únicamente con el rabino. Lo cortamos todo en trocitos que escondimos en los bolsillos, bajo las esteras y donde pudimos, y los comimos migaja a migaja, con excepción de lo que se llevaron las ratas que abundaban en el campo. A diferencia del mundo de afuera, donde los seres humanos vivían en sociedad y morían en soledad, allí moríamos colectivamente, pero cada uno sobrevivía por su cuenta. Es tremendo reconocer que lo mismo era válido tanto para la gente como para las ratas.”

“I want to remember my past To see before my eyes The image of my parents The house in which I grew up The village in which my family lived for generations I don't want to remember my past I fear for what my memory Might bring before my eyes I wonder whether I can continue my life If I'll rescue from oblivion What I want to recall.”

“I can’t recite the chronology or elaborate on the facts. I can’t explain the reasons or defend how we lived our lives. What I can tell you is how the events of 1933 sowed the seeds that fundamentally changed our future, that there was little hand-wringing or emotion, that circumstances were beyond control, that there was no recourse or appeal. I can tell you that events were incremental, that the unbelievable became the believable and, ultimately, the normal.”