The Germans will never forgive the Jews for Auschwitz.
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The quote is associated with Theodor Adorno's analysis of a "secondary antisemitism", often explained as an antisemitism not despite of but because of Auschwitz. It first appeared in Henryk M. Broder's 1986 book Der ewige Antisemit: Über Sinn und Funktion eines beständigen Gefühls, chapter 5: Der Täter als Bewährungshelfer oder Die Deutschen werden den Juden Auschwitz nie verzeihen (Frankfurt am Main, Fischer-Taschenbuch-Verlag, 1986. p. 125, 130) and is used by Broder as late as November 29, 2009: „Die Deutschen werden den Juden Auschwitz nie verzeihen” (Zvi Rex, israelischer Psychoanalytiker). The 2005 edition of Der ewige Antisemit (Berliner Taschenbuch Verlag) however makes no mention of a Zvi Rex anymore but has instead: „Und Auschwitz, sagte mal ein kluger Israeli, 'Auschwitz werden uns die Deutschen nie verzeihen'" (p. 158).Zvi Rex
What people don't understand about Oscar is the power of the man, his strength, his determination. Everything he did he did to save the Jews. Can you imagine what power it took for him to pull out from Auschwitz 300 people ? At Auschwitz, there was only one way you got out, we used to say. Through the chimney! Understand ? Nobody ever got out of Auschwitz. But Schindler got out 300 ....!
Oskar Schindler
…it makes no sense whatsoever to call the perpetrators of the Holocaust ‘the Germans’ if by that is meant that the German victims of Naziism – including many Jews who went on regarding themselves as Germans to the end of the line – somehow weren’t Germans at all. That’s what the Nazis thought, and to echo their harebrained typology is to concede them their victory.
Clive James
One can forgive many Germans, but there are some Germans it is difficult to forgive. It is difficult to forgive Heidegger.
Martin Heidegger
It seemed as impossible to conceive of Auschwitz with God as to conceive of Auschwitz without God. Therefore, everything had to be reassessed because everything had changed. With one stroke, mankind's achievements seemed to have been erased. Was Auschwitz a consequence or an aberration of "civilization"? All we know is that Auschwitz called that civilization into question as it called into question everything that had preceded Auschwitz. Scientific abstraction, social and economic contention, nationalism, xenophobia, religious fanaticism, racism, mass hysteria. All found their ultimate expression in Auschwitz.
Elie Wiesel
Following World War II, the Jews... The Zionists tried to present themselves as oppressed, and to have opportunities in the world. They invented a false claim. They said that Hitler, the Germans, and the Austrians burned six million Jews in crematoria - six million Jews. They tried very hard to convince the world that this issue, this lie, was true, and they succeeded.
Ali Meshkini
Rex, Zvi
Rexroth, Kenneth
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