„Even if surrounded with explanations, Auschwitz can never be grasped.“

„Our minds are finite, and yet even in these circumstances of finitude we are surrounded by possibilities that are infinite, and the purpose of human life is to grasp as much as we can out of the infinitude.“

—  Alfred North Whitehead English mathematician and philosopher 1861 - 1947

Zdroj: Attributed from posthumous publications, Ch. 21, June 28, 1941.

„The Germans will never forgive the Jews for Auschwitz.“

—  Zvi Rex 1909

The quote is associated with Theodor Adorno's analysis of a "secondary antisemitism", often explained as an antisemitism not despite of but because of Auschwitz. In Der ewige Antisemit (The Eternal Antisemite) Broder wrote in chapter 5, titled The offender as probation officer, or The Germans will never forgive the Jews for Auschwitz: And for Auschwitz, a sagacious Israeli once said, for Auschwitz the Germans will never forgive us. In 1988, Gunnar Heinsohn identified Broder's sagacious Israeli as Zvi Rix, a friend of his (Heinsohn's), born in Vienna in 1909 and died in Rechovot/Israel in 1981, who had used to concentrate the drive of antizionism in the sentence: »For Auschwitz the Germans will never forgive us!« In 2005, Heinsohn in his book Söhne und Weltmacht (Sons and World-Power) suggested, that Rix had read his Hobbes, and quoted from Leviathan: "To have done more hurt to a man than he can [...] expiate inclineth the doer to hate the sufferer."
But Rix may as well have read the book Post Mortem. The Jews in Germany--now (1968) by Leo Katcher, where the German Jewish journalist Hilde Walter is quoted as follows: "It seems the Germans will never forgive us Auschwitz. That is their sickness and they desperately want a cure. But they want it to be easy, painless. They refuse to go under the knife by facing up to the past and their part in it."
The script for Axel Corti's film Where To and Back Part 2: Santa Fe (winner of a Nymphe d'Or award at the Monte Carlo Festival in February 1986) has the Austrian Jew Treumann who has found refuge in New York during World War II say about his former countrymen: "They'll never forgive us for what they did to us." This caused protests from writers Hans Sahl as well as Stefan Heym, who claimed certain rights to variants of this line, screenwriter Georg Stefan Troller revealed in 2013. But when Troller met with Heym the next time in Paris, Heym generously waived any objections: Jewish jokes are wanderers like the famous punchlines of the comedians. The original author cannot be ascertained any more.
In 1982 a line, which Walter Mehring had sent his fellow refugee from Nazi Germany Hans Sahl in 1948, had been published in Germany:
Zdroj: „Und Auschwitz, sagte mal ein kluger Israeli, 'Auschwitz werden uns die Deutschen nie verzeihen'". Henryk M. Broder: Der ewige Antisemit. Kapitel 5: Der Täter als Bewährungshelfer oder Die Deutschen werden den Juden Auschwitz nie verzeihen. 1st edition Fischer-Taschenbuch-Verlag Frankfurt/Main 1986, p. 130; edition btb Berlin 2005, p. 158 books.google https://books.google.de/books?id=VQ4_AQAAIAAJ&q=israeli
Zdroj: Ein 1909 in Wien geborener und 1981 in Rechovot/Israel gestorbener Freund, Zvi Rix, pflegte den Grund des Antizionismus in der Sentenz zu verdichten: »Auschwitz werden uns die Deutschen niemals verzeihen!«. Gunnar Heinsohn: Was ist Antisemitismus? Eichborn, Frankfurt/Main 1988, p. 115.
Zdroj: Gunnar Heinsohn: Söhne und Weltmacht. Orell-Füssli 2005. V. Youth bulges im transnationalen Terror. p. 139
Zdroj: Thomas Hobbes: Of Man, Being the First Part of Leviathan. Chapter XI: Of the Difference of Manners. bartleby.com http://www.bartleby.com/34/5/11.html
Zdroj: Leo Katcher: Post Mortem. The Jews in Germany--now. Hamish Hamilton London 1968, p. 87-8 https://books.google.de/books?id=Qc27AAAAIAAJ&q=%22their+sickness%22, Delacorte Press 1968, p. 89 books.google https://books.google.de/books?id=z9JtAAAAMAAJ&q=%22It+seems+the+Germans%22 .
Atina Grossmann: Trauma, Memory and Motherhood, in Archiv für Sozialgeschichte vol. 38 (1998), p. 234 https://books.google.de/books?id=2LfZAAAAMAAJ&q=dps https://books.google.de/books?id=2LfZAAAAMAAJ&q=154+f. (also in Richard Bessel, Dirk Schumann: Life after Death 2003, p. 120 http://librarun.org/book/53490/134) with reference to Norbert Mühlen: The Return of Germany. A Tale of Two Countries https://books.google.de/books?id=QeM9AAAAIAAJ, Chicago 1953, p. 154-5, quotes, Jewish DPs in Germany after the war had joked among themselves: "The Germans will never forgive us for what they did to us." This however can not be found in Mühlen op.cit.
Zdroj: Alex Corti's Films Explore World War II's Impact http://www.nytimes.com/1988/07/24/movies/alex-corti-s-films-explore-world-war-ii-s-impact.html by Annette Insdorf. The New York Times July 24, 1988
Zdroj: „Judenwitze sind wie die berühmten Wanderpointen der Humoristen. Der eigentliche Urheber ist nicht mehr auszumachen. [...].“ Excerpt http://www.verlagberlinbrandenburg.de/upload/PDF/978-3-942476-56-0/F.F.dabei_Nr._16_2013_27.07.-09.08.2013.pdf from Therese Hörnigk (ed.): Ich habe mich immer eingemischt. Erinnerungen an Stefan Heym. Verlag für Berlin-Brandenburg 2013, p. 156

„We know now that a man can read Goethe or Rilke in the evening, that he can
play Bach and Schubert, and go to his day's work at Auschwitz in the
morning.“

—  George Steiner American writer 1929 - 2020

Preface.
Language and Silence: Essays 1958-1966 (1967)
Kontext: We come after. We know now that a man can read Goethe or Rilke in the evening, that he can play Bach and Schubert, and go to his day's work at Auschwitz in the morning. To say that he has read them without understanding or that his ear is gross, is cant. In what way does this knowledge bear on literature and society, on the hope, grown almost axiomatic from the time of Plato to that of Matthew Arnold, that culture is a humanizing force, that the energies of spirit are transferable to those of conduct?

„Tao mystics never talk about God, reincarnation, heaven, hell. No, they don't talk about these things. These are all creations of human mind: explanations for something which can never be explained, explanations for the mystery. In fact, all explanations are against God because explanation de-mystifies existence.“

—  Rajneesh Godman and leader of the Rajneesh movement 1931 - 1990

Never Born, Never Died (2002)
Kontext: Tao mystics never talk about God, reincarnation, heaven, hell. No, they don't talk about these things. These are all creations of human mind: explanations for something which can never be explained, explanations for the mystery. In fact, all explanations are against God because explanation de-mystifies existence. Existence is a mystery, and one should accept it as a mystery and not pretend to have any explanation. No, explanation is not needed — only exclamation, a wondering heart, awakened, surprised, feeling the mystery of life each moment. Then, and only then, you know what truth is. And truth liberates.

„The explanation for "free software" is simple — a person who has grasped the idea of "free speech, not free beer" will not get it wrong again.“

—  Richard Stallman American software freedom activist, short story writer and computer programmer, founder of the GNU project 1953

1990s, Why "Free Software" is better than "Open Source" (1998)

„Human beings today … are surrounded by huge institutions we can never penetrate“

—  J. G. Ballard British writer 1930 - 2009

"Kafka in the Present Day", originally published in [London] Sunday Times (1983)
A User's Guide to the Millennium (1996)
Kontext: Human beings today … are surrounded by huge institutions we can never penetrate: the City [London's Wall Street], the banking system, political and advertising conglomerates, vast entertainment enterprises. They've made themselves user friendly, but they define the tastes to which we conform. They're rather subtle, subservient tyrants, but no less sinister for that.

„… if you ask me whether or not I'm an atheist, I wouldn't even answer. I would first want an explanation of what it is that I'm supposed not to believe in, and I've never seen an explanation.“

—  Noam Chomsky american linguist, philosopher and activist 1928

„I'm not going to say it was 'only' a hundred thousand Jews that were killed in Auschwitzs because even if one Jew is murdered that's a crime.“

—  David Irving British writer and Holocaust denier 1938

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jgGP_evkvOk

„"No" — I could never be another person’s father, fate, god,
"No" — it should never happen to another child, what happened to me; my childhood. (Auschwitz).“

—  Imre Kertész, kniha Kaddish for an Unborn Child

Kaddish for a Child Not Born (1990)

„Before he can devote himself to God or a woman, a boy will devote himself to his father, even foolishly, even beyond explanation.“

—  Mitch Albom, kniha The Five People You Meet in Heaven

The Five People You Meet in Heaven (2003)

„"Auschwitz cannot be explained." And yet, it doesn’t take a Wittgenstein to notice that the sentence is faulty even from the point of pure linguistic logic;“

—  Imre Kertész, kniha Kaddish for an Unborn Child

Kaddish for a Child Not Born (1990)

„Supernaturalism can never provide a sufficient explanation of anything. There is never an instance where we can blame anything on the supernatural. Once we found the real reason behind anything that was once attributed to miracles, curses or omens, witchcraft or demonic possession, it always turned out to be a revelation of whole new fields of study previously unimagined and vastly more complex than the simple excuses we were told before. In each of these cases, the supernatural explanation was already wrong before the natural explanation was known. So you should never resort to the god-of-the-gaps fallacy that anything science can’t explain is explained by magic, because that doesn’t explain it either. If you call it a miracle, it means you don’t what it really is. Goddidit is not an explanation of anything, and it never was. Science can only ever work with natural explanations, not because of any unfair prejudice, but because natural explanations are the only ones that can be tested.“

—  Aron Ra Aron Ra is an atheist activist and the host of the Ra-Men Podcast 1962

Patheos, Correspondence with a Creationist http://www.patheos.com/blogs/reasonadvocates/2017/06/06/correspondence-with-a-creationist/ (June 6, 2017)

„Auschwitz cannot be explained.“

—  Imre Kertész, kniha Kaddish for an Unborn Child

And yet, it doesn’t take a Wittgenstein to notice that the sentence is faulty even from the point of pure linguistic logic;
Kaddish for a Child Not Born (1990)

„Mystical explanations are considered deep; the truth is, they are not even shallow.“

—  Friedrich Nietzsche German philosopher, poet, composer, cultural critic, and classical philologist 1844 - 1900

Sec. 126; variant translation: Mystical explanations are thought to be deep; the truth is that they are not even shallow.
The Gay Science (1882)

„It seemed as impossible to conceive of Auschwitz with God as to conceive of Auschwitz without God. Therefore, everything had to be reassessed because everything had changed. With one stroke, mankind's achievements seemed to have been erased. Was Auschwitz a consequence or an aberration of "civilization"? All we know is that Auschwitz called that civilization into question as it called into question everything that had preceded Auschwitz. Scientific abstraction, social and economic contention, nationalism, xenophobia, religious fanaticism, racism, mass hysteria. All found their ultimate expression in Auschwitz.“

—  Elie Wiesel writer, professor, political activist, Nobel Laureate, and Holocaust survivor 1928 - 2016

Hope, Despair, and Memory (1986)

„By way of that wretched sentence "Auschwitz cannot be explained" is the wretched author explaining that we should be silent concerning Auschwitz, that Auschwitz doesn’t exist, or, rather, that it didn’t, for the only facts that cannot be explained are those that don’t or didn’t exist.“

—  Imre Kertész, kniha Kaddish for an Unborn Child

Kaddish for a Child Not Born (1990)

„Auschwitz, I told her, appears to me in the image of a father; yes, the two terms, Auschwitz, and father, resonate the same echoes in me, and if the observation is that God is an exalted father, then God, too is revealed to me in the image of Auschwitz.“

—  Imre Kertész, kniha Kaddish for an Unborn Child

Kaddish for a Child Not Born (1990)

„There is more to Jewish history than Auschwitz.“

—  Romain Gary French writer and diplomat 1914 - 1980

Interview (1970), republished in Le Judaïsme n’est pas une Question de Sang [Judaism Isn’t About Blood] (2008) by Les éditions de l’Herne, as quoted in "A Chameleon on Show" in Forward (12 January 2011) http://www.forward.com/articles/134609/

„This is the Auschwitz generation, and there's no arguing with them!“

—  Gudrun Ensslin German terrorist 1940 - 1977

Violence is the Only Way http://www.nytimes.com/1988/01/03/books/violence-is-the-only-way.html?pagewanted=1