When Time Stopped: A Memoir of My Father's War and What Remains

by Ariana Neumann

religious institutions and zealousness too often brought out the worst in people.

The laws emboldened those with a racist agenda, who were now organized into groups like the Czech fascist association, Vlajka. Individuals too were now empowered to voice their hatred and to act, unpunished, on their prejudices. Racism and violence were being normalized.

In July 1941, the Nazis had prohibited Jews from keeping pets

Nazis tended to solemnity and humorlessness. They always showed what Nietzsche called “Tierischer Ernst,” a certain “animal earnestness,” a complete inability to laugh at themselves.

“You have to fight. Not with violence but with your mind, not for people but for ideas. Fight and work for what you believe in, Handa. That struggle is all that matters.”

“If you want to be truly just in this life, when you see people who are weak, you must stand with them. Because you are strong, and it is the weak who need you more, not the strong.”