Gradually I came to realize that people will more readily swallow lies than truth, as if the taste of lies was homey, appetizing: a habit.
Thousand got away to other countries; thousands returned to Spain tempted by false promises of kindness. By the tens of thousands, these Spaniards died of neglect in the concentration camps.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote highlights the plight of Spaniards who suffered neglect in concentration camps after being lured by false promises during times of conflict.
Martha Gellhorn's quote reflects the tragic consequences of dislocation and the false hope offered during war. It underscores the suffering endured by thousands of Spaniards who sought refuge or return to their homeland only to find themselves in dire conditions, neglected and forgotten in concentration camps. This serves as a stark reminder of the human cost of conflict and the betrayal of those seeking safety and kindness in desperate times.
Themes
In practice
Example use cases
This quote could be used in a speech about the impact of war and refugees.
More from Martha Gellhorn
All quotes βIt would be a bitter cosmic joke if we destroy ourselves due to atrophy of the imagination.
the ends never justify the means because IT never ends.
Citizenship is a tough occupation which obliges the citizen to make his own informed opinion and stand by it.
I followed the war wherever I could reach it.
By its existence, the Peace Movement denies that governments know best; it stands for a different order of priorities: the human race comes first.
Similar quotes
The great theme of modern British history is the fate of freedom. The 18th century inherits, after the Civil War, this very peculiar political animal. It's not a democracy, but it's not a tyranny. It's not like the rest of the world, the rest of Europe. There is a parliament, laws have to be made, elections are made.
Empire in the past was always a far harsher and much more accident-prone business than conventional history books imply. And the costs of these overseas invasions were borne not just by those on the receiving end but - frequently - by ordinary, vulnerable people among or associated with the invaders.
My argument is that history is made by men and women, just as it can also be unmade and rewritten, always with various silence and elisions, always with shapes imposed and disfigurements tolerated.
For a long time, I've been interested in cultural memory and historical erasure.
History will tell you that borders are not inevitable, they hardly existed at the end of the 19th century.
It was Rome, on the fifteenth of October, 1764, as I sat musing amidst the ruins of the Capitol, while the barefooted friars were singing vespers in the Temple of Jupiter, that the idea of writing the decline and fall of the city first started to my mind.