Discovering the World
Georg Brandes
1905
XI
There were other inimical forces, too, besides the police and the Enemy, more uncanny and less palpable forces. When I dragged behind the nursemaid who held my younger brother by the hand, sometimes I heard a shout behind me, and if I turned round would see a grinning boy, making faces and shaking his fist at me. For a long time I took no particular notice, but as time went on I heard the shout oftener and asked the maid what it meant. “Oh, nothing!” she replied. But on my repeatedly asking she simply said: “It is a bad word.”
But one day, when I had heard the shout again, I made up my mind that I would know, and when I came home asked my mother: “What does it mean?” “Jew!” said Mother.
“Jews are people.” “Nasty people?” “Yes,” said Mother, smiling, “sometimes very ugly people, but not always.” “Could I see a Jew?” “Yes, very easily,” said Mother, lifting me up quickly in front of the large oval mirror above the sofa.
I uttered a shriek, so that Mother hurriedly put me down again, and my horror was such that she regretted not having prepared me. Later on she occasionally spoke about it.
Credits
Published in: The Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization, vol. 7.