"For Anton that distance of five months between January and June, 1945, was incomparably longer than the distance between June of 1945 and the present day. It was on this distortion of time that he later blamed his inability to explain to his children what the War had been like."
The most important factor for this distortion of time during the period of adapting to life without his family to consider is Anton's age at that time. He was a young boy and the concept of death or war is something that shouldn't be expected of a young boy to grasp. He easily adapted to the change, as most children would and it is only later when he started to get older is when he started to feel and experience grief for what he had lost. How could he explain to his children what the War had been like when he was a child himself during the War.
"After many years, also mathematically calculable, he would at last stop and remain floating, weightless, at the center of the earth, where he would be able to reflect upon the state of things in eternity."
After visiting the street where his old home used to be, Anton has an existential crisis and think what it would be like falling into a hole in the earth without end. This philosophical lamentation is a reflection of a man who is finally coming to a point of facing his past and the terrible thing that happened to him.
"How could anyone embroil himself in such a web of lies? Love was what caused it all-love, through thick and thin."
After a heated confrontation with Fake Ploeg's son, Anton is left wondering what makes the son defend his criminal father with such vigor. The son is determined in his conviction that his father was innocent, blinded by love.
