survivor

is not the true witness. Through prevarication, skill or luck, he never touched bottom. Those who have, and who have seen the face of the gorgon, did not return, or returned wordless.

We who survived the Camps are not true witnesses. We are those who, through prevarication, skill or luck, never touched bottom. Those who have, and who have seen the face of the Gorgon, did not return, or returned wordless. Primo Levi

is necessarily mad. One cannot absorb that much madness and not be influenced by it. One time or another their madness will explode.

I believe that all the survivors are mad. One time or another their madness will explode. You cannot absorb that much madness and not be influenced by it. That is why the children of survivors are so tragic. I see them in school. They don't know how Elie Wiesel

is one who looks back and sees omens, lives by symbols and messages they missed. They remember the tree that died, the gull that splattered onto the hood of the car.

Survivors look back and see omens, messages they missed. . . . They remember the tree that died, the gull that splattered onto the hood of the car. They live by symbols. They read meaning into the barrage of spam on the unused computer, the delete key that stops working, the imagined abandonment in the decision to replace it. Joan Didion

is one who has no right to deprive future generations of a past that belongs to our collective memory.

For the survivor who chooses to testify, it is clear: his duty is to bear witness for the dead and for the living. He has no right to deprive future generations of a past that belongs to our collective memory. To forget would be not only dangerous but offensive... to forget the dead would be akin to killing them a second time. Elie Wiesel

survivor, n.All

survivor