The Angel of Zin Quotes

“From the outset of the program to solve the Jewish question there had arisen certain psychological problems for the executioners. Once the classic method of the firing squad had been dismissed as inappropriate, it had been replaced by a single bullet in the back of the neck. The victim would kneel before a ditch that he himself had dug, the pistol would be fired, and he would fall into his grave. Simple and quick. This had been tried for a few months in some marshy fields outside Warsaw, but the SS soldiers who did the job began to complain of lack of sleep. “They had bad dreams,” Vogl said. “They truly suffered.” It was the necks. The muscular necks of the men—the slender white necks of the young women. The wrinkled necks of the old that reminded a man of his parents… the frail necks of children, even the fleshy little necks of babies. The memory of the necks began to haunt the executioners. The soldiers began to miss the targets at point-blank range. A bullet would plow into a shoulder, or slice off an ear, or even strike the earth. “Then”
― Clifford Irving, The Angel of Zin

“For the Poles and the Ukrainians, Captain”—he laid the stress gently on the nationalities—“the Jews were easy to dislike. Throughout history Jews have always been welcomed by sophisticated nations. We were philosophers, healers, traders, mathematicians—even, in our own land, warriors. We lived quietly, bothered no one. But in the end we were always kicked out. You know why? We were too independent. We never cared to rule. Worse, we would never convert. Usually we blended in, if it was allowed, but we always remained Jews. We had survived so long, while other great empires collapsed and died. That was almost unnatural. We were not only easy to dislike. We were easy to hate.” “To”
― Clifford Irving, The Angel of Zin

“He sank his head in his hand to blot out the light. For the first time in his life he suffered from more than a personal sense of loss. He suffered because others suffered.”
― Clifford Irving, The Angel of Zin

“Yiddish is the common language of Jews.” “You all speak it? Write it?” “All speak it.” She explained that it was a folk language, born in the Rhineland in the twelfth century. “Like a bastard—a German father, a Hebrew mother. The Jews spoke German, but they wrote it with Hebrew letters. When they moved eastward into the Pale, they added Polish, Russian, Lithuanian. They began to speak it, too. Anyone with an education can also write it.” “You’re”
― Clifford Irving, The Angel of Zin

“Except for the three grave sins of murder, incest and idolatry, it was axiomatic in Halakhah that every commandment of the Torah might be violated to save a human life. But the rabbi also knew the mitzvah that commanded a Jew to be unafraid of any danger in the proclamation of his true faith. “‘Let”
― Clifford Irving, The Angel of Zin

“A man is known by the company he keeps.”
― Clifford Irving, The Angel of Zin

“Do what has to be done, he thought. Do it quickly and well. You’re a professional. Pay the price… whatever it may be. Head”
― Clifford Irving, The Angel of Zin