Here in Our Auschwitz and Other Stories Quotes

“The Polish Army got as far as Kyiv in May 1920, and the Red Army reached the outskirts of Warsaw that August. In the end, the Poles were victorious but exhausted, and the peace treaty of 1921 did not create an independent Ukraine. It left Zhytomyr, where the Borowskis resided, on the Soviet side of a new Polish-Soviet border. The defeat of the Red Army ended Lenin’s dream of spreading revolution westward to Europe by force, and forced the Bolsheviks to found a state.”
― Tadeusz Borowski, Here in Our Auschwitz and Other Stories

“Crematorium Esperanto is a language we can all learn. Dehumanization, as Borowski shows us, is a human process. The meaning of death is that we organize our actions around it. Fascism is not limited to a certain time and place; it is a certain orientation of life toward death. Extermination does not sanctify a victim or dignify a cause. It only instructs us about human possibility.”
― Tadeusz Borowski, Here in Our Auschwitz and Other Stories

“He began university studies that fall. The seminars in private apartments created intimacy between students and professors. The central figure, Professor Jerzy Krzyżanowski, taught students that studying literature required history—and also that critique and mockery were part of scholarship. Tadeusz was happily absorbed by his courses in Polish literature, European intellectual history, and Shakespeare, led by outstanding scholars, people risking their own lives to teach. He read constantly, in bed, on the tram, during lectures. The impoverished son of political refugees found a circle of bright friends who shared a secret and a love of learning”
― Tadeusz Borowski, Here in Our Auschwitz and Other Stories

“history up to that point.”
― Tadeusz Borowski, Here in Our Auschwitz and Other Stories

“we have red triangles as politicals, so we let the”
― Tadeusz Borowski, Here in Our Auschwitz and Other Stories

“— Авґустин написав шістдесят три книжки! Коли вандали взяли в облогу Картаґен, він якраз робив коректуру і за нею помер! — маніякально продовжував Аполлоній. — Від вандалів не залишилося нічого, натомість Авґустина читають і сьогодні. Ergo, — він підняв до стелі руку з розчепіреними пальцями, — війна мине, а поезія залишиться.”
― Tadeusz Borowski, Here in Our Auschwitz and Other Stories

“— Чи Христос був би хорошим солдатом? Ні, радше дезертиром. Принаймні перші християни втікали з війська. Не хотіли противитися злу.”
― Tadeusz Borowski, Here in Our Auschwitz and Other Stories

“Pamiętasz, jak lubiłem Platona. Dziś wiem, że kłamał. Bo w rzeczach ziemskich nie odbija się ideał, ale leży ciężka, krwawa praca człowieka. To myśmy budowali piramidy, rwali marmur na świątynie i kamienie na drogi imperialne, to myśmy wiosłowali na galerach i ciągnęli sochy, a oni pisali dialogi i dramaty, usprawiedliwiali ojczyznami swoje intrygi, walczyli o granice i demokracje. Myśmy byli brudni i umierali naprawdę. Oni byli estetyczni i dyskutowali na niby”
― Tadeusz Borowski, Here in Our Auschwitz and Other Stories