The Woman Outside The Walls Quotes

“I am no longer afraid of being judged. I have hidden the truth for so many years, but I have little time left to me now, so facing judgement or even a prison sentence vould not be so very hard for me to bear”
― Suzanne Goldring, The Woman Outside The Walls

“Such good people, the ordinary people of Germany, kept in ignorance of what had been done in their name. Out here in the countryside, far away from any camps, they could have no idea of the evils perpetrated by their government”
― Suzanne Goldring, The Woman Outside The Walls

“Maybe she could really love this man after all, she thought. She'd never imagined before that she could, she'd only ever been able to think of him as her rescuer, her saviour, but now he was more than that. Dear, decent Reg had been transformed and was now her lover”
― Suzanne Goldring, The Woman Outside The Walls

“Not quite burnt, but a faint smell rises from the fabric, reminding her that purgatory awaits those who have not mended their ways. She puts the hot iron aside and examines the sheet. Luckily the brown scorch is not along the top edge with its drawn threadwork. Like her, the shameful mark is not visible and will never be seen”
― Suzanne Goldring, The Woman Outside The Walls

“She knows only the top edge of the sheet will show, but she can't help herself; she has to iron the whole thing, section by section. Smoothing out the tiny creases left by the wash and the breeze, it feels as if she is ironing out her life, removing its problems and putting all in order”
― Suzanne Goldring, The Woman Outside The Walls

“Is this the rewriting of history, she thinks. Do the facts have to be watered down before schoolchildren can learn about the real horror? She had prepared herself for Freddie to find their visit upsetting, but now she thinks he may not gain a full understanding of the inhumanity inflicted in that dreadful time”
― Suzanne Goldring, The Woman Outside The Walls

“Do all single parents, well, the conscientious ones that is, alone through choice, abandonment or bereavement, feel they have to perform the role of both parents?”
― Suzanne Goldring, The Woman Outside The Walls

“Sometimes the young can relate to the elderly on a different level and have a special relationship with them”
― Suzanne Goldring, The Woman Outside The Walls

“But what did he know? What did he really know about the filth, the stench that permeated every pore? He'd seen it of course, they all had. Some of them had been taken there in the early days, others had seen the newsreels. No amount of soap and water could ever cleanse those memories. That's why even now, even though she is in her early nineties, she has to scrub her nails clean, polish every stick of furniture, sweep every inch of floor and constantly wash clothes and linen. You could never be too clean, but being dirty is another matter. Diseases and death are the consequences of dirt”
― Suzanne Goldring, The Woman Outside The Walls

“Early every morning, for so many years she can't remember, after plumping her pillows and smoothing the ironed edge of the crisp white sheet that folds over her blankets, Anna lowers herself to her knees beside her bed, not for morning prayers, but to check that all is in order. It is harder now than when she first acquired the habit; her joints creak and it is an effort both to dip down to the bedside rug and then to stand up again”
― Suzanne Goldring, The Woman Outside The Walls