People have to liberate themselves, because liberation is not a single act. It's a question of eternal vigilance. Otherwise, you'll just become enslaved by someone else.
Norman FinkelsteinRead
I was probably unusually close to my parents, so I do what I can now to preserve the integrity of their memory. The Holocaust deserves to be remembered.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The importance of remembering past atrocities to honor those affected.
In this quote, Norman Finkelstein emphasizes the deep connection he had with his parents, which drives his commitment to preserving their memory and the memory of the Holocaust. He underscores the necessity of remembering such tragic events in history, not only to honor the victims but also to educate future generations, ensuring that the lessons learned are not forgotten.
Themes
HolocaustMemoryParentsIntegrityHistory
In practice
Example use cases
When giving a speech about historical tragedies, you can use this quote to highlight the importance of remembrance.
More from Norman Finkelstein
All quotes βMy original interest in the Nazi holocaust was personal. Both my father and mother were survivors of the Warsaw Ghetto and the Nazi concentration camps. Apart from my parents, every family member on both sides was exterminated by the Nazis.
Norman FinkelsteinRead
Both my father and mother were survivors of the Warsaw Ghetto and the Nazi concentration camps. Apart from my parents, every family member on both sides was exterminated by the Nazis.
Norman FinkelsteinRead
When you are a people's movement, you have one thing. Your only asset is people. And you have to deal with real people. Not the people of your imagination. Not the people you wish people would be. But people as they exist actually out there in the real world.
Norman FinkelsteinRead
Similar quotes
For one thing, before the 20th century, there were plenty of genocides. We tend to forget about them, partly because they weren't as well documented and partly because, until recently, people didn't care. We used euphemisms like 'sackings' and 'sieges' instead of calling them 'genocides.'
Steven PinkerRead
The thing about black history is that the truth is so much more complex than anything you could make up.
Henry Louis GatesRead
Momma said that ghosts couldn't move over water. That's why Africans got trapped in the Americas.. They kept moving us over the water, stealing us away from our ghosts and ancestors, who cried salty rivers into the sand. That's where Momma was now, wailing at the water's edge, while her girls were pulled out of sight under white sails that cracked in the wind.
Laurie Halse AndersonRead
The deciphering of ancient scripts changed forever the way Europeans were able to imagine the story of humanity, destroying centuries of received authority about the past with repercussions as important for our understanding of time and history as the geological studies of the same period.
Neil MacgregorRead
So I have cultivated the vast garden of human experience which is history, without troubling myself overmuch about laws, essential first causes, or how it is all coming out.
Samuel Eliot MorisonRead
The Great War was nobody's fault - or everybody's.
Margaret MacmillanRead