Return to Robinswood Quotes

“You’re a damaged and, in lots of ways, a broken man because you are a good soul who tried to do the right thing. But in a war, the lines of good and bad, right and wrong, are so blurred, it’s impossible to determine which is which.”
― Jean Grainger, Return to Robinswood

“In my country, we all participated. It is not enough to say that Hitler dragged the rest of us, kicking and screaming, to do his bidding. We did it willingly. That will be the scar that will never heal. Nor should it. We betrayed our neighbours, we took the precious possessions of those people the system deemed to be not in keeping with the perfect Aryan ideal – we did it. Us. The German people. The country that created Wagner and Dürer and Nietzsche also created Himmler, Goebbels and Göring. They didn’t drop from the sky, something alien. No. They were of my people, the Brownshirts who smashed up Jewish property, who humiliated Jews in the streets, who shipped them off to die in conditions that do not even bear thinking about – we all did it. We drove the trains, we sold their clothes, we moved into their houses, we spent their money. And even if we didn’t do those things, we kept our heads down while it all went on around us. All but a small few of us have blood on our hands, and now and for the rest of time, we must pay.”
― Jean Grainger, Return to Robinswood

“My wife, Birgitta, had no time for the Nazis. She thought they were just thugs and bullies, and I agreed. But some of what Hitler was saying at the start… Well, I was fooled and so were so many others. Not that it is an excuse. We should have stopped them, but instead we joined them.”
― Jean Grainger, Return to Robinswood

“Germany will be rebuilt, and the people will flourish once more. German people were just as much victims of the regime as we were. Powerful men make decisions, and the rest of us pay the price.”
― Jean Grainger, Return to Robinswood

“There should be no hierarchy on grief. The mother who lost a son should not be seen as better off than the mother who lost two.”
― Jean Grainger, Return to Robinswood

“account”
― Jean Grainger, Return to Robinswood

“was”
― Jean Grainger, Return to Robinswood

“This terrible war has had such a devastating effect on the entire world, but amid the rubble and the grief, there is hope to be had when humanity and kindness shine through, don’t you think?”
― Jean Grainger, Return to Robinswood

“This latest thing, National Socialism, is evil personified,”
― Jean Grainger, Return to Robinswood

“bringing the evil of National Socialism to your door.”
― Jean Grainger, Return to Robinswood

“bats can’t take off from the ground – they need the wind beneath their wings to take flight.”
― Jean Grainger, Return to Robinswood

“Money does matter. People who say it doesn’t either have too much or none, but it does ease a passage through life.”
― Jean Grainger, Return to Robinswood

“He finished his lunch, wrapping up what was left. Isabella always packed too much.”
― Jean Grainger, Return to Robinswood

“She, like many others in England, was shocked by the way the black soldiers were treated by their fellow countrymen.”
― Jean Grainger, Return to Robinswood

“Well, it is certainly something to think about. I’ll talk to Isabella, see what she thinks. As you’ve no doubt come to realise, the women are the decision-makers in this family.”
― Jean Grainger, Return to Robinswood