...they had, in other words, built a kind of mock-up or sample or theme park dedicated to human suffering...
-- Narrator/Eduardo ("Signor Hoffman")

Importance: Eduardo says this after learning that the Ferramonti di Tarsia concentration camp is entirely a replication of the original site. The realization spurs significant unrest in Eduardo while visiting Calabria, Italy, but also inspires his journeys to Poland and Guatemala in the latter half of the book. This passage also unveils one of Eduardo's most intimate fears: that he is as much a participant and contributor to the commodification and exploitation of his ancestor's suffering and loss.

And I was about to say something to him...maybe how highly I thought of his ability to use his art to make a small story great, to raise to the sublime and appealing those men who were nobodies, men who were fragile and dejected and even commonplace.
-- Narrator/Eduardo ("Signor Hoffman")

Importance: Eduardo has this thought when he...