How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
'After two years of hearing that call over the loudspeakers, between the music,' Gutman said to me, 'the position of corpse-carrier suddenly sounded like a very good job.'
'I can understand that,' I said.
'You can?' he said. He shook his head. 'I can't,' he said. 'I will always be ashamed. Volunteering for the Sonderkommando, it was a very shameful thing to do.' (2.23-25)
Sometimes, when you betray someone, you also betray yourself. Gutman is haunted by his choice to volunteer as a corpse-carrier. He still can't wrap his mind around why he did it. By doing it, he hurt more than the collective effort of concentration camp prisoners to stay alive (which is bad enough already). He destroyed his ability to trust himself.
Quote #2
'If any member of my S.S. platoon had spoken in such a friendly way about the Jews,' said Arpad, 'I would have had him shot for treason! Goebbels should have fired you and hired me as the radio scourge of the Jews. I would have raised blisters around the world!'(3.13)
Arpad is an interesting character: while pretending to be an S.S. officer, he actually worked to help kill other Nazis. Nonetheless, many of his duties required him to be a Nazi in reality. When he criticizes Campbell here for what he thinks is his weak-sauce anti-Semitism, Arpad says he would have killed Campbell for being a traitor. Say what? Yeah, according to Arpad, Campbell wasn't pretending hard enough to be a Nazi, and that action makes him a traitor to Germany. Treason is complicated, folks.
Quote #3
I did not hang.
I committed high treason, crimes against humanity, and crimes against my own conscience, and I got away with them until now. (8.1-2)
You can be free of all charges, but you can't escape the verdict in your own head and heart. This entire novel exists not because Israel is putting Campbell on trial, but because Campbell has already tried himself and found himself guilty.
Quote #4
My wife never knew I was a spy. (10.1)
We're pretty sure not telling your wife that you're a spy is a betrayal. We're not saying Campbell did the wrong thing in lying. We're not saying there was a good alternative. We're just saying that he made a choice, and that choice was to be more loyal to spyhood than to Helga. Hard choice. Rough consequences.
Quote #5
My mother and father died. Some say they died of broken hearts. They died in their middle sixties, at any rate, when hearts break easily.
They did not live to see the end of the war, nor did they ever see their beamish boy again. They did not disinherit me, though they must have been bitterly tempted to do so. They bequeathed to Howard W. Campbell, Jr., the notorious anti-Semite, turncoat and radio star, stocks, real estate, cash and personal property which were, in 1945, at the time of probate, worth forty-eight thousand dollars. (11.1-2)
Campbell observes that his parents never turned their back on him, even though they must have believed he was a traitor to the U.S.—and to them. He's also got the added guilt of thinking they died because of him and their "broken hearts." Ouch. This moment also provides an interesting contrast, because later we learn that Jones's parents totally disown him for being a Nazi sympathizer.
Quote #6
For a little while I lied to Kraft about who I was and what I'd done. But the friendship deepened so much, so fast, that I soon told him everything. (12.1)
We think that Campbell is tired of being a fibster and just wants a friend. Too bad he unburdens his soul to another spy. Hey, you live by the sword…
Quote #7
'It's so unjust!' he said. 'It makes me ashamed to be an American! Why can't the Government step forward and say, "Here! This man you've been spitting on is a hero!''' He was indignant, and, for all I know, he was sincere in his indignation. (12.2)
This moment is betrayer magic. Kraft is backstabbing Campbell, but here he's waxing poetic on the U.S. government's "betrayal" of Campbell by not clearing his name. The layers of deception are too perfect—and too depressing.
Quote #8
I didn't have any idea how Jones had found out about me.
Kraft claimed to be mystified, too. He wasn't really mystified. He had written to Jones as an anonymous fellow-patriot, telling him the glad news that I was alive. He had also asked that Jones send a complimentary copy of his great paper to Bernard B. O'Hare of the Francis X. Donovan Post of the American Legion. Kraft had plans for me. (14.4-6)
What makes Kraft's betrayal so insidious is that he and Campbell were friends for over a year before Campbell even revealed his identity. Kraft's first move after that? He decided to plan Campbell's downfall.
What's interesting here is that Kraft plots Campbell's downfall in a way that relies on the propaganda techniques Campbell was such an expert at. It's like the perfect punishment for Campbell.
Quote #9
'Your soul feels love now for my soul?' she said.
'Obviously,' I said.
'And you couldn't be deceived by that feeling?' she said. 'You couldn't be mistaken?'
'Not a chance,' I said.
'And nothing I could say could spoil it?' she said.
'Nothing,' I said.
'All right,' she said, 'I have something to say that I was afraid to say before. I'm not afraid to say it now.'
'Say away!' I said lightly.
'I'm not Helga,' she said. 'I'm her little sister Resi' (23.53-61)
Hear that? It's the sound of Campbell's heart crumbling to tiny bits. This is a massive blow, and what makes it so rough is the set-up. Resi builds up the conversation about love to ensure that Campbell will profess his devotion a bunch of times. Right when it seems like Campbell has invested enough and fully expressed his love for Helga, Resi crushes his reality. It'd be kind of beautiful if it weren't so demented.
Quote #10
'Why did you do this to me?' I said.
'Because I love you,' she said. (24.2-3)
We figured it was important to look at this moment, because we believe Resi. That's the truly scary part. She totally pretended to be her sister and went ahead and slept with Campbell because she loves him. It's not the unconditional love that Campbell felt from Helga; it's the selfish love that drives so many people in this novel. But there it is.