Martin Koby - April 20, 1999
Relations with non-Jews
Okay. What--was there ever any--do you remember any incidents of anti-Semitism?
Oh, yeah. That, that was a standard thing. That was...
From your friends?
Yeah.
Your friends too?
Yeah, "You Jews killed Jesus Christ, you're God killers."
So give me an example.
That's it. You know.
Regularly they would say that?
Oh, all the time. When something came up, "God damn Jew, you killed Jesus Christ. You killer." What are you talking about? I, I didn't know about Jesus Christ. You know, you uh, you learn slowly, you know. You can't go and say--go to the house and say, "Mama, what's--who's Jesus Christ?"
Did, did you do that?
You're not supposed to know about that.
You didn't do that?
What.
You didn't go home and say, "what are they say..."
No. Uh, I think I did once and I--that was it. I was told not to ask questions like that.
Didn't it, didn't, didn't it bother you, didn't you want to know what this about?
Sure it did bother me. But who am I going to ask?
Did you ask anybody?
No. I talked with my cousins and they were just as ignorant as I was. Uh...
But it wasn't something that...
That--Pesach, Pesach time, Pesach time.
Yeah.
"Well, Jews, you got to be careful. You Jews catch Christian boys and use the blood for the matzos."
They said that to you?
Yeah.
Your friends too.
Yeah. There were friends, the people I used to sit with, I used to help with the--used to um, kind of forced uh, became a forced tutor, to teach you know, the multiplication tables or spelling or writing, you know or read a book.
Did you play soccer too?
No, we did not play soccer.
No soccer.
No.
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