I glanced at my mother, but she was a million miles away. Her eyes were focused on the rug at our feet, her face empty of emotion.
-- Yanek (chapter 5)

Importance: This quote is significant in that it showcases the propensity of the Nazi persecution of Jews like Yanek and his family to degrade the familial bonds of protection and even motherly instinct. This should not be read as a characterization of Mina, Yanek’s mother, as a weak woman or a negligent mother, but rather as a revelatory moment of the deeply personal effects of the terrors inflicted on persecuted peoples during the Third Reich. Here, Mina is frozen in shock and fear after the raid by the Nazis with the help of the Judenrat officers, and Yanek reflects on his observations with a strikingly chilling tone.

We cannot let these monsters tear us from the pages of the world.
-- Uncle Moshe (chapter 9)

Importance: This is perhaps...