It was terrible. Dozens of people must have heard last night's murder, must even have seen the man walking up to Rubin's place. It would have been easy for one of them to jump up and raise the alarm. Together they could have dealt with the murderer in no time. They could have saved their comrade. But no one had looked up; no one had called out. A man had been slaughtered like a lamb. And everyone had just lain there, pretending to be asleep, burying their heads in their jackets, trying not to cough, trying not to hear the dying man writhing in agony.
How vile! What pathetic submissiveness!
But then he too had been awake, he too had kept silent, he too had buried his head in his jacket... Yes, there was a reason for this submissiveness - it was born of experience, of an understanding of the laws of the camp.
[Life and Fate, Grossman, V.]
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