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.
The great bulk of the legal voters of the South were men who owned no slaves; their homes were generally in the hills and poor country; their facilities for educating their children, even up to the point of reading and writing, were very limited; their interest in the contest was very meagre--what there was, if they had been capable of seeing it, was with the North; they too needed emancipation.
The acceptance of the facts of African-American history and the African-American historian as a legitimate part of the academic community did not come easily. Slavery ended and left its false images of black people intact.
American history is not something dead and over. It is always alive,always growing, always unfinished.
The Great Migration can get forgotten if we don't pay attention or bear witness to it. It's part of my personal history and the history of millions of African Americans who left those oppressive conditions for better lives in the North. It's important to put that on the page.
If history starts as a guest list, it has a tendency to end like the memory of a drunken party: misheard, blurred, fragmentary.