Selected text
Our daughter Elena knew that she was a Jew from childhood. She encountered everyday anti-Semitism in school. When she was in the eighth grade, the geography teacher, quite a respected person, delivered a lecture explaining that Jews didn’t take part in the Great Patriotic War. My daughter is a girl with principles, so she approached the teacher after the class and said that she didn’t agree; her grandfather, a Jew, fought all through the war in the front lines and had been at Stalingrad. The teacher said she hadn’t realized my daughter was Jewish. Then Lena asked: “And if you knew I was Jewish, would you have given that lecture?” The teacher said, “I would have sent you out of the classroom and given the lecture anyway – such was the order by the Party organization.
Period
Location
Russia
Interview
Irina Khokhlova