Voice/Vision Holocaust Survivor Oral History Archive

Fred Kendal - May 25, 1983

Anti-Semitism After the War

Did you ever encounter any anti-Semitism here?

Yes, yes, and when I do I normally stand up to them. Not to the point where it has to become a conflict but the point of saying, "Hey." I encountered some of it in from the army and I encountered some of it in the army that was not directed at me because the individual that was--as a matter of fact, he was a sergeant and this was while we were in basic training. The individual that came in--he didn't, he didn't think that I was Jewish, he thought I that I was Italian. And he came into the barrack and he wanted the little Jew boy and we just came back from a real long, hard, full pack march and just--we were cleaning our weapons and we were ??? the fort. And I was cleaning my weapon and when he came in and he wanted the little Jew boy for KP duty, I knew who he was talking about because the fellow that was there who happened to have been a Detroit fellow, and he was a very nice guy but he was a very short fellow and he talked with a lisp a little bit and he just--I thought he was a little bit clumsy. Not because he was Jewish, he could have been anybody but he was just--and but he wasn't there and when he said that I jumped up and I said, "Here is the Jew boy. What do you want?" He says, "Not you, dago," he says, "I want the Jew boy."


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