How we cite our quotes: All quotations are from Life Is Beautiful.
Quote #4
PRINCIPAL: Listen to this problem. I remember it because it shocked me. A lunatic costs the state four marks a day. A cripple, four and a half marks. An epileptic, three marks and a half. Considering that the average is four marks a day and there are 300,000 patients, how much would the state save if these individuals were eliminated?
DORA: I can't believe this.
PRINCIPAL: That was my exact reaction. I can't believe a seven-year-old child has to solve this kind of equation. It's a difficult calculation. Proportions, percentages. They need at least some algebra to do those equations. That's high school material for us.
PRINCIPAL: Yes.
RODOLFO: 300,000 times four. If we killed them all, we'd save 1,200,000 marks a day.
PRINCIPAL: Exactly. Bravo! But you're an adult. They make seven-year-old children do this in Germany! It's truly another race.
Another example of the normalization of prejudice throughout this society. The math problem is discussing euthanizing the sick, mentally ill, and other "unfit people" in order to save the state money, and Rodolfo's treating it like he's adding apples and oranges.
Side note: The idea of killing or sterilizing the "unfit" to improve genetic quality for the rest of a race or nation is called eugenics. Today, we tend to associate the idea with the European fascism of the mid-20th century, but the United States had its own love affair with the idea. In fact, many states passed eugenics laws at the beginning of the 20th century, and California's laws helped inspire Hitler's virulent brand of the social philosophy (Source).
Quote #5
GUIDO: What time is it? We're leaving right on time. What organization! You've never taken a train, huh?
JOSHUA: No. Is it nice?
GUIDO: It's really nice. It's wooden inside. Everybody stands up. There's not one seat.
JOSHUA: There aren't any seats?
GUIDO: What? Seats on a train? It's obvious you've never been on one. No, everybody stands real close together.
To protect his son, Guido pretends that the situation is normal, and sadly, in this society, it is. Over the years of developing its racial policy and spreading hatred, this society has decided this is the proper course of action regarding the Jews and other undesirables—load them into trains meant for cattle.
Quote #6
GUIDO: These guys are crazy! This has to weigh a hundred kilos! It's got to be 3,000 degrees in here. Vittorino, I can't cope anymore!
VITTORINO: After only the first one?
GUIDO: Why, are there more to move?
VITTORINO: We're here until tonight.
Nazis see the Jews and other prisoners of the concentration camp as less than human. With this view, they are able to treat them with extreme cruelty, working them to exhaustion and eventual death.