I did not dare to look into their faces for fear of seeing myself – my own terror, my own loneliness.
-- Edith (Chapter 1 paragraph 6)

Importance: Edith worked in a Red Cross ward for foreign patients. She knew firsthand the fear and loneliness the men felt. She restrained herself from thinking about her own situation but they were a constant reminder.

I didn’t think about it at the time, but of course now I realize that my father’s insistence that we Jews must be better was based on our country’s firm belief that we were not as good.
-- Edith (Chapter 2 paragraph 26)

Importance: Even in the 1920s, the Jews were discriminated against in Vienna. Edith’s father felt the pressure that his family must outperform others who were considered by the government to be superior to them.

You see in those days, boys were simply better educated than girls. They read more, traveled more, thought more.
-- Edith (Chapter 3 paragraph 2)

Importance: Edith was...