--- title: "3 Genocide Quotes By Timothy Snyder" description: "3 Genocide quotes by Timothy Snyder. Plus more from Timothy Snyder and more Genocide sayings from other authors." image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/391/timothy-snyder-882_death_but-this-number-like-all-the-others-must_369573.jpg" --- > [“...But this number, like all the others, must be seen not as 5.7 million, which is an abstraction few of us can…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/timothy-snyder/but-this-number-like-all-the-others-must-be-seen-not-as-5-7-million/) [Timothy Snyder](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/timothy-snyder/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/391/timothy-snyder-882_death_but-this-number-like-all-the-others-must_369573.jpg) > [“The organization of the camps in the east revealed a contempt for life, the life of Slavs and Asians and Jews anyway,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/timothy-snyder/the-organization-of-the-camps-in-the-east-revealed-a-contempt-for/) [Timothy Snyder](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/timothy-snyder/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/1a0/timothy-snyder-882_ethnic-cleansing_the-organization-of-the-camps-in-the-eas_1779441.jpg) > [“Now we will live!” This is what the hungry little boy liked to say, as he toddled along the quiet roadside, or…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/timothy-snyder/now-we-will-live-this-is-what-the-hungry-little-boy-liked-to-say-as/) [Timothy Snyder](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/timothy-snyder/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/476/timothy-snyder-882_bloodlands_now-we-will-live-this-is-what-the-hungry_2619974.jpg) ## Other authors on Genocide - [ ![](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wp-content/uploads/sms4s/authors/processed/b001/author-abhijit-naskar-99.jpg) Abhijit Naskar 26 quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/genocide/abhijit-naskar/) - [ ![](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wp-content/uploads/sms4s/authors/processed/b019/author-philip-gourevitch-75323.jpg) Philip Gourevitch 11 quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/genocide/philip-gourevitch/) - [ ![](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wp-content/uploads/sms4s/authors/processed/b018/author-noam-chomsky-71799.jpg) Noam Chomsky 11 quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/genocide/noam-chomsky/) - [Widad Akreyi 7 quotes](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/genocide/widad-akreyi/) - [ ![](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wp-content/uploads/sms4s/authors/processed/b022/author-steven-pinker-87519.jpg) Steven Pinker 7 quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/genocide/steven-pinker/) - [ ![](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wp-content/uploads/sms4s/authors/processed/b024/author-widad-akrawi-94932.jpg) Widad Akrawi 6 quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/genocide/widad-akrawi/) - [ ![](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wp-content/uploads/sms4s/authors/processed/b021/author-roxanne-dunbarortiz-81448.jpg) Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz 6 quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/genocide/roxanne-dunbar-ortiz/) - [ ![](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wp-content/uploads/sms4s/authors/processed/b006/author-christopher-hitchens-23938.jpg) Christopher Hitchens 6 quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/genocide/christopher-hitchens/) - [ ![](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wp-content/uploads/sms4s/authors/processed/b006/author-chris-bohjalian-23386.jpg) Chris Bohjalian 6 quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/genocide/chris-bohjalian/) - [ ![](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wp-content/uploads/sms4s/authors/processed/b004/author-arundhati-roy-15126.jpg) Arundhati Roy 6 quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/genocide/arundhati-roy/) - [Tom Gjelten 5 quotes](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/genocide/tom-gjelten/) - [ ![](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wp-content/uploads/sms4s/authors/processed/b021/author-samantha-power-82636.jpg) Samantha Power 5 quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/genocide/samantha-power/) ## More by Timothy Snyder > [“Nationalism is relativist, since the only truth is the resentment we feel when we contemplate others.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/timothy-snyder/nationalism-is-relativist-since-the-only-truth-is-the-resentment-we/) [Timothy Snyder](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/timothy-snyder/) > [“The time is out of joint. O cursed spite,/That ever I was born to set it right!” Thus Hamlet. Yet he concludes: “Nay, come,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/timothy-snyder/the-time-is-out-of-joint-o-cursed-spite-that-ever-i-was-born-to-set/) [Timothy Snyder](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/timothy-snyder/) > [“the democracies that arose after the First World War (and the Second) often collapsed when a single party seized power in some combination of…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/timothy-snyder/the-democracies-that-arose-after-the-first-world-war-and-the-second/) [Timothy Snyder](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/timothy-snyder/) > [“salami tactics—slicing off layers of opposition one by one. Most people were distracted, some were imprisoned, and others were outmatched.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/timothy-snyder/salami-tactics-slicing-off-layers-of-opposition-one-by-one-most/) [Timothy Snyder](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/timothy-snyder/) > [“We allowed ourselves to accept the politics of inevitability, the sense that history could move in only one direction: toward liberal democracy...We imbibed the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/timothy-snyder/we-allowed-ourselves-to-accept-the-politics-of-inevitability-the/) [Timothy Snyder](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/timothy-snyder/) > [“The key to this translation of ideology to politics in both cases was an effective appeal to human experience at the crucial time.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/timothy-snyder/the-key-to-this-translation-of-ideology-to-politics-in-both-cases-was/) [Timothy Snyder](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/timothy-snyder/) > [“Both of these positions, inevitability and eternity, are antihistorical. The only thing that stands between them is history itself. History allows us to see…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/timothy-snyder/both-of-these-positions-inevitability-and-eternity-are-antihistorical/) [Timothy Snyder](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/timothy-snyder/) > [“The whole notion of disruption is adolescent: It assumes that after the teenagers make a mess, the adults will come and clean it up.…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/timothy-snyder/the-whole-notion-of-disruption-is-adolescent-it-assumes-that-after/) [Timothy Snyder](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/timothy-snyder/) > [“As she observed, “the first essential step on the road to total domination is to kill the juridical person in man.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/timothy-snyder/as-she-observed-the-first-essential-step-on-the-road-to-total/) [Timothy Snyder](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/timothy-snyder/) > [“The first mode is the open hostility to verifiable reality, which takes the form of presenting inventions and lies as if they were facts.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/timothy-snyder/the-first-mode-is-the-open-hostility-to-verifiable-reality-which/) [Timothy Snyder](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/timothy-snyder/) > [“Once we subliminally accept that we are watching a reality show rather than thinking about real life, no image can actually hurt the president…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/timothy-snyder/once-we-subliminally-accept-that-we-are-watching-a-reality-show/) [Timothy Snyder](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/timothy-snyder/) > [“Confidence in duration is the antidote to panic and the tonic of demagogy.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/timothy-snyder/confidence-in-duration-is-the-antidote-to-panic-and-the-tonic-of/) [Timothy Snyder](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/timothy-snyder/) > [“Be calm when the unthinkable arrives. Modern tyranny is terror management. When the terrorist attack comes, remember that authoritarians exploit such events in order…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/timothy-snyder/be-calm-when-the-unthinkable-arrives-modern-tyranny-is-terror/) [Timothy Snyder](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/timothy-snyder/) > [“Life is political, not because the world cares about how you feel, but because the world reacts to what you do. The minor choices…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/timothy-snyder/life-is-political-not-because-the-world-cares-about-how-you-feel-but/) [Timothy Snyder](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/timothy-snyder/) > [“Extremism' certainly sounds bad, and governments often try to make it sound worse by using the word 'terrorism' in the same sentence. But the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/timothy-snyder/extremism-certainly-sounds-bad-and-governments-often-try-to-make-it/) [Timothy Snyder](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/timothy-snyder/) ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "ItemList", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/genocide/timothy-snyder/#itemlist", "name": "3 Genocide Quotes By Timothy Snyder", "numberOfItems": 3, "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "“...But this number, like all the others, must be seen not as 5.7 million, which is an abstraction few of us can grasp, but as 5.7 million times one. This does not mean some generic image of a Jew passing through some abstract notion of death 5.7 million times. It means countless individuals who nevertheless have to be counted, in the middle of life...”", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Timothy Snyder" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/timothy-snyder/but-this-number-like-all-the-others-must-be-seen-not-as-5-7-million/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/391/timothy-snyder-882_death_but-this-number-like-all-the-others-must_369573.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/391/timothy-snyder-882_death_but-this-number-like-all-the-others-must_369573.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/391/timothy-snyder-882_death_but-this-number-like-all-the-others-must_369573.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“...But this number, like all the others, must be seen not as 5.7 million, which is an abstraction few of us…” — Timothy Snyder", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "“The organization of the camps in the east revealed a contempt for life, the life of Slavs and Asians and Jews anyway, that made such mass starvation thinkable. In German prisoner-of-war camps for Red Army soldiers, the death rate over the course of the war was 57.5 percent. In the first eight months after Operation Barbarossa, it must have been far higher. In German prisoner-of-war camps for soldiers of the western Allies, the death rate was less than five percent. As many Soviet prisoners of war died on a single given day in autumn 1941 as did British and American prisoners of war over the course of the entire Second World War. pp. 181-182”", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Timothy Snyder" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/timothy-snyder/the-organization-of-the-camps-in-the-east-revealed-a-contempt-for/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/1a0/timothy-snyder-882_ethnic-cleansing_the-organization-of-the-camps-in-the-eas_1779441.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/1a0/timothy-snyder-882_ethnic-cleansing_the-organization-of-the-camps-in-the-eas_1779441.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/1a0/timothy-snyder-882_ethnic-cleansing_the-organization-of-the-camps-in-the-eas_1779441.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“The organization of the camps in the east revealed a contempt for life, the life of Slavs and Asians and…” — Timothy Snyder", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "“Now we will live!” This is what the hungry little boy liked to say, as he toddled along the quiet roadside, or through the empty fields. But the food that he saw was only in his imagination. The wheat had all been taken away, in a heartless campaign of requisitions that began Europe’s era of mass killing. It was 1933, and Joseph Stalin was deliberately starving Soviet Ukraine. The little boy died, as did more than three million other people. “I will meet her,” said a young Soviet man of his wife, “under the ground.” He was right; he was shot after she was, and they were buried among the seven hundred thousand victims of Stalin’s Great Terror of 1937 and 1938. “They asked for my wedding ring, which I….” The Polish officer broke off his diary just before he was executed by the Soviet secret police in 1940. He was one of about two hundred thousand Polish citizens shot by the Soviets or the Germans at the beginning of the Second World War, while Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union jointly occupied his country. Late in 1941, an eleven-year-old Russian girl in Leningrad finished her own humble diary: “Only Tania is left.” Adolf Hitler had betrayed Stalin, her city was under siege by the Germans, and her family were among the four million Soviet citizens the Germans starved to death. The following summer, a twelve-year-old Jewish girl in Belarus wrote a last letter to her father: “I am saying good-bye to you before I die. 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