Thomas Harding > Quotes

“Since he died some of the colours have disappeared. I have lost the violet of seeing him, the indigo of touching him, the blue of talking to him and the green of smelling him. But I can still see some of his colours. I still have the red of the feelings in my heart, the orange of his possessions, and the yellow of our memories.

Which is why it feels so confusing. He is gone, but not entirely. The white light is no longer with me, but a few of his colours remain; vibrant, illuminating. Sometimes I lose sight even of these colours. I search in the shadows, hungry for another glimpse, desperate that I may have lost them forever. This is my darkness.”
― Thomas Harding, Kadian Journal: A Father's Story

“To paraphrase Hannah Arendt—as portrayed in the recently released movie of the same name—the Nazi war criminal’s actions stemmed from her well-known phrase “banality of evil,” not as a result of mental illness but as a result of a lack of thinking. Their greatest error was delegating the process of thinking and decision-making to their higher ups. In Rudolf Höss’s case, this would have been his superiors, particularly Heinrich Himmler.

To many this conclusion is troubling, for it suggests that if everyday, “normal,” sane men and women are capable of evil, then the atrocities perpetrated during the Holocaust and other genocides could be repeated today and into the future.

Yet, this is exactly the lesson we must learn from the war criminals at Nuremberg. We must be ever wary of those who do not take responsibility for their actions. And we ourselves must be extra vigilant, particularly in this day of accelerated technological power, heightened state surveillance, and global corporate reach, that we do not delegate our thinking to others.”
― Thomas Harding

“Once a victim, always victim-that's the law”
― Thomas Harding, Tess of the D'Urbervilles; A Pure Woman Faithfully Prsented Volume 1

“The British government had become fearful of how its citizens would react to a wave of Jewish refugees from Germany, and had clamped down on immigration.”
― Thomas Harding, Hanns and Rudolf: The True Story of the German Jew Who Tracked Down and Caught the Kommandant of Auschwitz

“In Britain, these Jewish refugees were greeted with a mixture of grudging acceptance by some and open hostility by others.”
― Thomas Harding, Hanns and Rudolf: The True Story of the German Jew Who Tracked Down and Caught the Kommandant of Auschwitz

“The day before the wedding, Wendy practised her part with her brother, Peter, who was to give her away. He took her arm and guided her along the corridor that ran through their family’s small home at 19 Alvanley Gardens in north London. Both”
― Thomas Harding, Legacy: One Family, a Cup of Tea and the Company that Took On the World

“At the time there were no consequences to consider. It didn’t occur to me that I would be held responsible. You see, in Germany it was understood that if something went wrong, then the man who gave the orders was responsible.”
― Thomas Harding, Hanns and Rudolf: The German Jew and the Hunt for the Kommandant of Auschwitz