Quotes About War

I simply can't imagine the world will ever be normal again for us. I do talk about "after the war," but it's as if I were talking about a castle in the air, something that can Ii never come true.

Yo no creo que la guerra sólo sea cosa de grandes hombres, gobernantes y capitalistas. ¡Nada de eso! Al hombre pequeño también le gusta; si no, los pueblos ya se habrían levantado contra ella.

Now that the war has long been over, I know why my fear vanished beneath that spacious sky. You see, once I was alone with nature I realized, without actually being aware of it, that fear doesn't help, that it doesn't get you anywhere. Anyone who's as frightened as I was should look to nature and realize that God is much closer than most people think. From that moment on, though countless bombs fell close by, I was never truly afraid again.

I could spend hours telling you about the suffering the war has brought, but I'd only make myself more miserable. All we can do is wait, as calmly as possible, for it to end...the whole world is waiting, and many are waiting for death.

All's fair in love and war.

Thursday, 6 January, 1944

I could spend hours telling you about the suffering the war has brought, but I'd only make myself more miserable. All we can do is wait, as calmly as possible, for it to end. Jews and Christians alike are waiting, the whole world is waiting, and many are waiting for death.

He said life would have been much easier if he'd been a Christian or could become one after the war. I asked if he wanted to be baptized, but that wasn't what he meant either. He said he'd never be able to feel like a Christian, but that after the war he'd make sure nobody would know he was Jewish. I felt a momentary pang. It's such a shame he still has a touch of dishonesty in him.

Friday, December 10, 1942

Thursday, 15 June, 1944

Wednesday, July 7, 1943

Además, nos quedan tres peroles para hacer conservas y una pileta para usar como depósito de agua. —También tenemos unas diez arrobas de patatas de invierno en el cuarto de las especias. Estos son los comentarios que oigo todos los días, que si habrá invasión, que si no habrá invasión. Discusiones sobre pasar hambre, morir, bombas, mangueras de incendio, sacos de dormir, carnets de judíos, gases tóxicos, etcétera

For a long time now I didn't know why I was bothering to do any schoolwork. The end of the war still seemed so far away, so unreal, like a fairy tale.

The Diary of a Young Girl

One day this terrible war will be over. The time will come when we'll be people again and not just Jews!

Mr. Bolkestein, the Cabinet Minister, speaking on the Dutch broadcast from London, said that after the war a collection would be made of diaries and letters dealing with the war. Of course, everyone pounced on my diary. Just imagine how interesting it would be if I were to publish a novel about the Secret Annex. The title alone would make people think it was a detective story.

Seriously, though, ten years after the war people would find it very amusing to read how we lived, what we ate and what we talked about as Jews in hiding. Although I tell you a great deal about our lives, you still know very little about us. How frightened the women are during air raids; last Sunday, for instance, when 350 British planes dropped 550 tons of bombs on IJmuiden, so that the houses trembled like blades of grass in the wind. Or how many epidemics are raging here.

The last entry in Anne's diary is dated August 1, 1944. On August 4, 1944, the eight people hiding in the Secret Annex were arrested. Miep Gies and Bep Voskuijl, the two secretaries working in the building, found Anne's diaries strewn all over the floor. Miep Gies tucked them away in a desk drawer for safekeeping. After the war, when it became clear that Anne was dead, she gave the diaries, unread, to Anne's father, Otto Frank.

Pim is expecting the invasion any day now. Churchill has had pneumonia, but is gradually getting better. Gandhi, the champion of Indian freedom, is on one of his umpteenth hunger strikes.

Stundenlang könnte ich von all dem Elend erzählen, das der Krieg mit sich bringt, aber das macht mich nur noch trauriger. Es bleibt uns nichts anderes übrig, als ruhig und gefasst das Ende dieser Notzeit abzuwarten. Die Juden warten und die Christen warten. Der gesamte Erdball wartet...viele warten auf ihren Tod!

He said life would have been much easier if he'd been a Christian or could become one after the war. I asked if he wanted to be baptized, but that wasn't what he meant either. He said he'd never be able to feel like a Christian, but that after the war he'd make sure nobody would know he was Jewish.

but wait till it happens to you! The ack-ack guns make so much noise you can't hear your own voice.

One must apply one's reason to everything here, learning to obey, to hold your tongue, to help, to be good, to give in, and I don't know what else. I'm afraid I shall use up all my brains too quickly, and I haven't got so very many. Then I shall not have any left for when the war is over. Yours

begin with, will be used up too quickly and I won't have any left by the time the war is over. Yours