"My mother said the Jews' clothes are covered in tears."
Those children who were forced to work at the burial sites are aging adults when Dubois meets them. Some, like this person, recall working the sites and desperately desiring to take the possessions of the dead for themselves. They were incredibly poor, starving, and freezing, but often it was the mother of the child who forbade the theft. These women understood the dishonor of such a deed, having witnessed the injustice of their deaths.
"A bullet, a Jew, a cartridge."
This was the motto of the German troops during the annihilation. They were interested in preserving resources, but only within the boundaries of Jewish slaughter. Rather than saving their ammunition altogether, they merely dedicated one bullet to every victim.
"Killing a Jew was an insignificant, legitimate, authorized, and encouraged act that conformed with the directives of the Reich. Protecting a Jew led to capital punishment."
Under these regulations, the German troops forbade the protection of the Jews. There was no help for these innocent victims, who often had no idea they were targets until the moment of their deaths. The Third Reich was interested in the annihilation of the entire people group and encouraged its soldiers to accomplish this, despite their limited resources.
"I am not here to judge the people's guilt, we are here to know what happened."
This is the Father's explicit goal in his various surveys and investigations. He is concerned with uncovering the truth behind an entire race of people's disappearance in the East. He refrains from condemning the survivors, rather concerning himself with their healing and with honoring the memories of the deceased.
