...In our days many men have lived in this cruel manner, crushed against the bottom, but each for a relatively short period; so that we can perhaps a… - Primo Levi

It is lucky that it is not windy today. Strange, how in some way one always has the impression of being fortunate, how some chance happening, perhaps infinitesimal, stops us crossing the threshold of despair and allows us to live. It is raining, but it is not windy. Or else, it is raining and it is also windy: but you know that this evening it is your turn for the supplement of soup, so that even today you find the strength to reach the evening. Or it is raining, windy and you have the usual hunger, and then you think that if you really had to, if you really felt nothing in your heart but suffering and tedium - as sometimes happens, when you really seem to lie on the bottom - well, even in that case, at any moment you want you could always go and touch the electric wire-fence, or throw yourself under the shunting trains, and then it would stop raining.

An enemy who sees the error of his ways ceases to be an enemy.

По онова време бях много млад и все още си въобразявах, че е възможно да разубедиш началника си за каквото и да било, така че изложих два-три довода против, но веднага видях, че под техните удари Командора се втвърдява като медна плоча под чук.