Quote 19
There was […] the matter of the forty million people I picked up by the time the whole thing was finished […]. (18.35)
This is Death, giving us the death toll of World War II and the Holocaust. First, how do you check his figure for accuracy? Second, how do we process death on this scale? How can we deal with it? Think about it? Talk about it?
Quote 20
Sometimes there was humor in Max Vandenburg's voice, though its physicality was like friction – like a stone being gently rubbed across a large rock. (35.125)
Max is fighting a war for his own survival. It's taken much of his humor from him. Yet, he manages to laugh and make others laugh, in spite of his plight.
Quote 21
Max Vandenburg sat beneath the steps, holding his rusty scissors like a knife. (50.146)
This is the fear-filled scene where Max hides from a Nazi who's come to measure the Hubermanns' basement to see if it's deep enough for a bomb shelter. We aren't sure how he plans to use the scissors, but the options are pretty apparent. What do you think?