How we cite our quotes: (Paragraph, Sentence)
Quote #1
Let us remember Job who, having lost everything - his children, his friends, his possessions, and even his argument with God—still found the strength to begin again, to rebuild his life. (27, 1)
Suffering doesn't need to be the end, and trauma is something that, while stubborn and remarkably long-lived, can be overcome.
Quote #2
And yet real despair only seized us later. Afterwards. As we emerged from the nightmare and began to search for meaning. (8, 1-3)
Sometimes the true depth of trauma is really only understood after the fact, because during the experience so much of your mental resources are dedicated to surviving. Once the crisis blows over, so to speak, you can actually reflect on what happened.
Quote #3
If memory continually brought us back to this, why build a home? Why bring children into a world in which God and man betrayed their trust in one another? (9, 2-3)
Elie Wiesel's talking about how fundamentally trauma can warp someone's perspective of the world. Knowing that there are perfectly fine and friendly people in the world might not nearly be able to comfort you as much.
Quote #4
Indeed if memory helps us to survive, forgetting allows us to go on living. How could we go on with our daily lives, if we remained constantly aware of the dangers and ghosts surrounding us? (14, 3-4)
Being able to forget a traumatic experience, even if only in the present, is a powerful coping mechanism. It can be so powerful that it can cause people to repress memories entirely.
Quote #5
And then too, the people around us refused to listen; and even those who listened refused to believe; and even those who believed could not comprehend. Of course they could not. Nobody could. The experience of the camps defies comprehension. (22, 1-4)
One of these groups of people, of course, is Holocaust deniers. People who deny the Holocaust ever happened either a) are horribly Anti-Semitic or b) unable to comprehend that humanity is capable of doing something so terrible, or even that Western civilization can do something so terrible, despite ample evidence to the contrary.