“Consider also the special word they used: survivor. Something new. As long as they didn't have to say human being. It used to be refugee, but by now there was no such creature, no more refugees, only survivors. A name like a number -- counted apart from the ordinary swarm. Blue digits on the arm, what difference? They don't call you a woman anyhow. Survivor. Even when your bones get melted into the grains of the earth, still they'll forget human being. Survivor and survivor and survivor; always and always. Who made up these words, parasites on the throat of suffering!”

I borrowed this audiobook mostly because it was short. When I was working, I listened to a lot of talking books. I had a short commute to work, but I often had a lot of driving for work. Now that I am mostly retired, it takes me months to get through a book.

Once again, I figured out that I forgot to review this. It has been a long time since I listened, but just reading the quotations here reminded me of the pain Ozick showed me in these two stories. Although the first story is about the Holocaust and so obviously agonizing, it is the second story that I found most distressing. I was not as prepared for the hurting that surviving can bring. I think both these stories were even more powerful because I heard them rather than reading them.

If you haven’t read Ozick before, these stories would be a good place to start. She is an excellent writer. Her faith, Judaism, permeates her works which I find makes them very thought provoking.