They did not know that liberal humanism was powerless in the face of fascism. How could they have allowed themselves to be consumed? How could they! How could they! The exquisite creation they had made of their own lives blinded them to the aspirations of less fortunate men and women. It was precisely their erudition, their cultivation, their financial security, their disdain for the mediocre that led them to the gas chambers.
Each year, a Jewish woman who has survived the Holocaust returns to an island where she spent part of her childhood keeping a vow she and a cousin made to return. Both of them have each, individually, thought that they are the sole survivor of their family which, well heeled and well educated, did not realise what would happen to them. When she learns that her cousin is, in fact, still alive and sees him in the company of his wife, she quietly walks out of the room. Her body is found soon after.