When We Flew Away: A Novel of Anne Frank Before the Diary

by Alice Hoffman

Hatred arises so quickly that one drop is all it takes before it spreads like ink on a page.

when some people are less than others, and only a select few have rights, anyone who doesn’t belong can never be safe.

But monsters prefer silence, they delight in quiet houses and desperate people. They take whatever they want while no one says a word. They steal people’s souls and keep them in a satchel that they carry over their shoulders.

You had to pretend some things in order to remain human, you had to try your best to be the person you were before this all began.

It had begun slowly and then it wasn’t slow at all. It was one thing and then it was everything. That was how the Nazis took over, so that people didn’t understand what was happening until their dignity was stripped away and they were no longer considered human. One, two, three and the world had shrunk to nothing.

You cannot expect the Nazis to act like normal people. Evil people tell themselves a story they come to believe. They tell themselves they are good, and everyone else is inhuman. They tell themselves they are doing what heaven would will them to do.

Love is everything, love is everywhere, it’s the one thing they can never take away from you.