--- title: "Meaning & Key Takeaway of: … and just as suddenly he was with Stern…" description: "\"“… and just as suddenly he was with Stern and it was a night twenty years ago in a city once called Smyrna, once long ago in the century before the age..." image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/509/edward-whittemore-29242_long-ago_and-just-as-suddenly-he-was-with-stern-a_2861046.png" --- # … and just as suddenly he was with Stern and it was a… ![“… and just as suddenly he was with Stern and it was a night twenty years ago in a city once called Smyrna, once long ago in the century before the age of genocide, before the monstrous massacres had come swirling out of Asia Minor to descend on Smyrna while Stern and Joe were there … the massacres…” quote by Edward Whittemore](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/509/edward-whittemore-29242_long-ago_and-just-as-suddenly-he-was-with-stern-a_2861046.png) [Download](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/509/edward-whittemore-29242_long-ago_and-just-as-suddenly-he-was-with-stern-a_2861046.png) [Open image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/509/edward-whittemore-29242_long-ago_and-just-as-suddenly-he-was-with-stern-a_2861046.png) > ““… and just as suddenly he was with Stern and it was a night twenty years ago in a city once called Smyrna, once long ago in the century before the age of genocide, before the monstrous massacres had come swirling out of Asia Minor to descend on Smyrna while Stern and Joe were there … the massacres ignored then by most of the world but not by everyone, and not by Hitler, who had triumphantly recalled them only days before his armies invaded Poland to begin the Second World War…. Who after all speaks today of the annihilation of the Armenians? The world believes in success alone.”” [Edward Whittemore](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/edward-whittemore/) ## About This Quote This interpretation was drafted with AI assistance. It is one reading of the quote, not the author's own explanation. Historical amnesia and selective memory obscure past atrocities, yet truth persists despite denial. **In simple terms:** People forget past horrors, but they still matter. Key Takeaway Remember and teach history to prevent repetition. Themes history memory genocide denial truth Mood somber critical Type historical political When to use this quote - educational curricula - public memorials - media coverage - personal research - political discourse Key Concepts collective forgetting political manipulation ethical responsibility Questions to Reflect On - Why do societies choose to forget certain events? - What role does individual memory play in collective history? A Different Perspective The quote may oversimplify complex geopolitical causes of war. ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ No ratings yet [Long ago](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/long-ago/) [Second world war](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/second-world-war/) [World war](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/world-war/) ## Related quotes > [I often wonder how different the world would be if Hitler had not been turned down when he applied to art school.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/george-carlin/i-often-wonder-how-different-the-world-would-be-if-hitler-had-not/) [George Carlin](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/george-carlin/) > [We're living in an age of genocide. ...And we do believe that there is not only the genocide of war, and the genocide that…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/dorothy-day/we-re-living-in-an-age-of-genocide-and-we-do-believe-that-there-is/) [Dorothy Day](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/dorothy-day/) > [I have issued the command, and I'll have anybody who utters but one word of criticism executed by a firing squad, that our war…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/adolf-hitler/i-have-issued-the-command-and-i-ll-have-anybody-who-utters-but-one/) [Adolf Hitler](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/adolf-hitler/) > [A war film can be propaganda and they're very valuable as propaganda, as we realized in Britain in the Second World War. 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