There’s an article on the Guardian website right now about antisemitism, and it included a link to this site, which is a collection of horrible antisemitic tweets, and jokes about concentration camps, and the like.
But the awful thing is…well, my mother is Jewish. In a sense at least? I know almost nothing about my Jewish heritage, only that my mum’s side of the family are, or…were? My grandparent’s grandparents escaped a pogrom in Russia, my mum went to a Jewish school, but literally no-one I know practises any sort of religion anymore…
…aaaaaand I’ve heard my mum make concentration camp jokes. In a bitter sort of way. I swear, I remember sort of what it was, a throwaway comment in the kitchen – “We’re Jews, so we know how ovens work.” Something like that.
I have a feeling that should be a bigger deal. I have a feeling I really need to know exactly why she said that. But who do I ask? My family has all these cracks in it I don’t want to open, and I’m sure Judaism came into it at some point. Oh, I don’t know
December 2, 2014 @ 10:19 pm
my mum used to say some antisemitic and anti-rroma things (those being half of her ancestors and she really liked to know about them; the other half were norwegian). come to think of it she said anti-norwegian things too but that’s different.