Anna Stuart > Quotes

“I can't stop the bitter laugh. The journey this morning was simple, but the years preceding it have been a tangle of hurt and pain. We have been on the sort of dark, dirty road that no one should have to tread to get to this run-down place of dwindling hope”
― Anna Stuart, The Midwife of Auschwitz

“But love cannot be ravaged by guns and tanks and evil ideologies. Love cannot be cut off by distance or absence, by hunger or cold, by beatings or degradations. And love can reach out across blood, whatever the Nazis believed, and make connections that are worth a million sick ideologies.”
― Anna Stuart, The Midwife of Auschwitz

“A little of her would mourn the end of the play that she’d never get to see, but the moment she was caught up in the birthing, the trivialities of a pre-written drama would be swept away in the thrill of the unfolding natural one. It was such a privilege of a job. Every time that she helped to bring a new life into the world, her soul felt as if it were witnessing the birth of the Christ child all over again and any tiredness was dispelled by the joyous miracle. What power had guns and tanks against such simple renewal?”
― Anna Stuart, The Midwife of Auschwitz

“The SS shifted and Grese's eyes narrowed but the singing seemed to hold them bound and not one raised their weapon. The music rose up around the emaciated women in a halo of warm, swirling breath, pouring out their humanity, their togetherness, their refusal just to lie down and die in the dirt of the Nazi regime”
― Anna Stuart, The Midwife of Auschwitz

“We must be very, very certain of this,’ Ana told them. ‘If we join the Resistance, we may lose our lives.’ ‘And if we do not,’ Bartek replied, ‘we may lose our souls.”
― Anna Stuart, The Midwife of Auschwitz

“You are my concert and my party, my night out and my day in. You are all I need.”
― Anna Stuart, The Midwife of Auschwitz

“I think it’s easier to hate. Loving, that’s the tough bit. That’s the… the scary bit.”
― Anna Stuart, The War Orphan

“Compliance is but a shield. We will walk these streets with our heads bowed to their ridiculous orders, but underground…”
― Anna Stuart, The Midwife of Auschwitz

“We take any baby put on the list for the Lebensborn programme and we tattoo them with their mother’s number – small and neat and somewhere it won’t be noticed by the officers. Then, when this is all over, we will have a way of identifying them, finding them, taking them back into our arms.”
― Anna Stuart, The Midwife of Auschwitz

“Ce n’étaient pas des Nazis mais des Allemands venus faire leur vie à Lodz paisiblement avant que les soldats débarquent et leur inculquent qu’ils étaient supérieurs aux autres. Qui n’aurait pas envie d’entendre cela ? Elle ne leur pardonnerait pas pour autant. Ce n’était peut-être pas eux qui avaient changé le nom de la ville, imposé de nouvelles lois et parqué tous les gens différents derrière des fils barbelés mais ils ne s’insurgeaient pas contre ceux qui le faisaient. Jamais ils ne disaient ‘non c’est mal, ce n’est pas chrétiens. Oh que non. Même en entonnant leurs chants de Noël, ils étaient bien contents de se trouver du bon côté d’une guerre qui allait mettre le monde à leurs pieds, quoi que cela puisse coûter aux autres.”
― Anna Stuart, The Midwife of Auschwitz

“Hate may burn brightly, but love burns far longer.”
― Anna Stuart, The Midwife of Auschwitz

“Don’t give up on it, Olivia. You believe in socialism, I know you do.’ ‘I did,’ she said wearily. ‘I thought it was worth suffering in the present for a better future, but our leaders aren’t suffering, are they? They aren’t buying their clothes in Konsum. They aren’t sitting at state-approved tables, eating state-approved food so that everyone can live in safety, warmth and good health. They’re just happily taking all the wealth for themselves – like the worst of capitalists.”
― Anna Stuart, The Midwife of Berlin

“Why shouldn't a man have a strong woman at his side?”
― Anna Stuart, The Secret Diary

“The Jewish people were earnest, kind and respectful, and that was to be valued, especially in a world in which imposing yourself on others seemed to be becoming the norm.”
― Anna Stuart, The Midwife of Auschwitz

“No, Joe. It's our job. That's what this is all about; That's the whole point. We fought for out country side by side, and now we have to fight for our future the same way. I don't want you to do it for me, but with me”
― Anna Stuart, The Secret Diary

“Life was a gift from God and if He saw fit to keep her alive, it was for a reason and she must embrace that.”
― Anna Stuart, The Midwife of Auschwitz

“She'd talk to Joe. She'd remind him of the woman he'd fallen in love with - the active, determined, purposeful gunner girl. She was still that girl, even with the war over, and somehow she had to make him see that before she lost everything she'd fought for”
― Anna Stuart, The Secret Diary

“was there no word for a mother who had lost her child? If you lost your husband, you were a widow, if you lost your wife you were a widower, but a parent who lost a child…?”
― Anna Stuart, The Midwife of Auschwitz

“Ostpreussenstrasse,”
― Anna Stuart, The Midwife of Auschwitz

“For what was a life without a generation to lead the way and another to come behind?”
― Anna Stuart, The Midwife of Auschwitz

“If we join the Resistance, we may lose our lives.’ ‘And if we do not,’ Bartek replied, ‘we may lose our souls.”
― Anna Stuart, The Midwife of Auschwitz

“went slowly to the altar, gazing up at the suffering Christ above. Had he really died for man, just to have him turn into this? It must be so very disappointing.”
― Anna Stuart, The Midwife of Auschwitz

“You did all you could. You were very brave.’ ‘But not very strong,’ she said sadly. ‘That’s not true. It’s strong to stay alive. It’s strong to still be here.”
― Anna Stuart, The Midwife of Auschwitz

“Jesus taught her to turn the other cheek but the Nazis had come in slapping both cheeks at once and it was hard to forgive an offence when ten more were already coming at you. At times like this she felt herself more of an Old Testament Christian – yearning for fire and fury – than a New Testament one,”
― Anna Stuart, The Midwife of Auschwitz

“It will be over, my comrades. Your suffering will end.”
― Anna Stuart, The Midwife of Auschwitz

“This, then, was why God had brought her into his sacred cathedral – not to find peace, but purpose.”
― Anna Stuart, The Midwife of Auschwitz

“A wonderful emotion is it not, love? So much more nourishing than hate.”
― Anna Stuart, The Midwife of Auschwitz

“His hand creeps round her waist, pulling her close and stroking her stomach. It is flat yet, except to the two of them who know there is a new life growing within.”
― Anna Stuart, The Midwife of Berlin

“Ana fumbled for Ester's hand as the world spun around her. She'd feared Auschwitz would be hell but had not known hell could be so very deep or so desperately inhuman”
― Anna Stuart, The Midwife of Auschwitz

“They’re learning to empathise, to watch others and decide how they wish to form themselves. Some of that is superficial – their clothes, hair, speech – but they’re also working out core values and behaviours. They need to know about their role models to figure all that out.”
― Anna Stuart, The War Orphan