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Prisoner without a Name, Cell without a Number Quotes
Prisoner without a Name, Cell without a Number
by
Jacobo Timerman621 ratings, 3.92 average rating, 68 reviews
Prisoner without a Name, Cell without a Number Quotes
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“The entire affective world, constructed over the years with utmost difficulty, collapses with a kick in the father's genitals, a smack on the mother's face, an obscene insult to the sister, or the sexual violation of a daughter. Suddenly an entire culture based on familial love, devotion, the capacity for mutual sacrifice collapses. Nothing is possible in such a universe, and that is precisely what the torturers knowâ€� From my cell, I'd hear the whispered voices of children trying to learn what was happening to their parents, and I'd witness the efforts of daughters to win over a guard, to arouse a feeling of tenderness in him, to incite the hope of some lovely future relationship between them in order to learn what was happening to her mother, to get an orange sent to her, to get permission for her to go to the bathroom.”
― Prisoner without a Name, Cell without a Number
― Prisoner without a Name, Cell without a Number
“Now they're really amused, and burst into laughter. Someone tries a variation while still clapping hands: 'Clipped prickâ€� clipped prick.' Whereupon they begin alternating while clapping their hands: 'Jewâ€� Clipped prickâ€� Jewâ€� Clipped prick.' It seems they're no longer angry, merely having a good time. I keep bouncing in the chair and moaning as the electric shocks penetrate [....]”
― Prisoner without a Name, Cell without a Number
― Prisoner without a Name, Cell without a Number
“Argentina's impotence in finding adequate political responses to that most elemental of needs, survival.
The Japanese work and save for years in order to be able to live one day like the Argentines, who neither work nor save.
Memory is the chief enemy of the solitary tortured man.
The same problem as Argentina, an unwillingness to be aware of one's own drama.
Hope is synonymous with anxiety and anguish.
Deliberately, I evaded conjecture on my own destiny, that of my family and the nation. I devoted myself simply to being consciously a solitary man entrusted with a specific task.
Those slogans Argentines like to quote of themselves: "God is Argentine. Nothing will happen here.", "As long as bulls don't turn homosexual, the Argentine economy will flourish."
The military has assumed power by dislodging elected governments in 1930, 1943, 1955, 1962, 1966 and now in 1976.
The great silence, which appears in every civilized country that passively accepts the inevitability of violence and then the fear that suddenly befalls it. That silence which can transform any nation into an accomplice.
Hatred toward the Jew needs no system, discipline or methodology.
In every totalitarian mind, hatreds are transformed into fantasies and confirm to a view of the world that matches these fantasies and these very fantasies lead to the development of their operational tactics.
The chief obsession of the totalitarian mind lies in its need for the world to be clearcut and orderly. Any subtlety, contradiction or complexity upsets and confuses this notion and becomes intolerable.”
― Prisoner without a Name, Cell without a Number
The Japanese work and save for years in order to be able to live one day like the Argentines, who neither work nor save.
Memory is the chief enemy of the solitary tortured man.
The same problem as Argentina, an unwillingness to be aware of one's own drama.
Hope is synonymous with anxiety and anguish.
Deliberately, I evaded conjecture on my own destiny, that of my family and the nation. I devoted myself simply to being consciously a solitary man entrusted with a specific task.
Those slogans Argentines like to quote of themselves: "God is Argentine. Nothing will happen here.", "As long as bulls don't turn homosexual, the Argentine economy will flourish."
The military has assumed power by dislodging elected governments in 1930, 1943, 1955, 1962, 1966 and now in 1976.
The great silence, which appears in every civilized country that passively accepts the inevitability of violence and then the fear that suddenly befalls it. That silence which can transform any nation into an accomplice.
Hatred toward the Jew needs no system, discipline or methodology.
In every totalitarian mind, hatreds are transformed into fantasies and confirm to a view of the world that matches these fantasies and these very fantasies lead to the development of their operational tactics.
The chief obsession of the totalitarian mind lies in its need for the world to be clearcut and orderly. Any subtlety, contradiction or complexity upsets and confuses this notion and becomes intolerable.”
― Prisoner without a Name, Cell without a Number
