Quote 10
“So we got stamped our passport and came quick to the good side of the stadium. Those they sent left, they didn’t get any stamp.” (I.4.92)
These types of Selektions are common scenes in the novel, where the Jews who are able to work are separated off from those deemed infirm, elderly, or immature.
Quote 11
“I’m telling you, it was a tragedy among tragedies. He was such a happy, beautiful boy!” (I.4.111)
The violence toward children is particularly difficult to stomach. Young children were sent to the gas chambers because they weren’t old enough to work. And Tosha is put in the impossible position of killing her own children, and her nephew Richieu, as a kind of mercy killing.
Quote 12
“We knew the stories – that they will gas us and throw us in the ovens. This was 1944 … we knew everything. And here we were.” (I.6.159)
The horror stories Vladek hears in Quote #2 become reality when he enters Auschwitz.