…I dedicate this dialogue from the movie version of Katherine Ann Porter’s great book, “Ship Of Fools”, between two guests on the cruise ship who, as undesirables, were intentionally seated together: Glocken, the dwarf and Lowenthal, the Jew:
Lowenthal : [chuckles] Oh, I want to show you something. I take it out every once in a while and look at it when I want to feel good.
Glocken : Well, the order of the Iron Cross, second class – and a war hero besides. You may be the biggest fool on this whole boat.
Lowenthal : [looks offended] Why do you say that?
Glocken : [says agitated] Where have you been during this voyage?
Lowenthal : Do you think this boat is a cross-section of the German people? Huh, no. You don’t know the average German the way I know him. The people that produced a Goethe, a Beethoven, and a Bach are not to be sneezed at, you know.
Glocken : Fifty percent of the people who produced a Goethe, a Beethoven, and a Bach voted for (the nazi) Rieber’s party last week!
Lowenthal : [grumbles disagreed] Forty-four percent.
Glocken : Lowenthal, you are blind; you’re absolutely blind! You can’t see what’s going on in front of your own face.
Lowenthal : What do you mean? Ah, you mean this business about the Jews? You don’t understand us. The German-Jew is something special. We are Germans first and Jews second. We have done so much for Germany; Germany has done so much for us. A little patience, a little good will; it works itself out.
[scoffs endearingly]
Lowenthal : Huh, listen, there are nearly a million Jews in Germany. What are they going to do? Kill all of us?
To my Jewish relatives and friends., along with, more generally, people of good will: look around. See what is going on in front of your eyes in the United States and around the world. Then think about Lowenthal’s confident conclusion.
Now: can it happen again?
