Kluger

It is interesting to note the restrictions placed on Jewish children in Vienna at the time of the Nazi reign. Kluger describes the times when she went shopping for bread, and the impolite manner with which clerks met her. There would be signs on the door saying, "Don't say hello, don't say good day/Heil Hitler is the German way, (p. 25)" in reference to Jews. The restrictions and disdain facing Jewish children in Nazi Germany could be compared to the same type of racism against blacks in America as well as exhibited in Toni Morrison's "The Bluest Eye". Similar to Pecola, Kluger was trying to find her own identity, living in a society were her native culture was antagonized. Kluger notes, "Suddenly I had become a disadvantaged child who couldn't do the things that the children in our circle usually learned to do, like swim in the municipal pool, acquire a bike, go with girlfriends to children's movies, or skate." Although the challenges facing African Americans in United States existed for several hundreds of years, those faced by Jews in Nazi Germany were on a much smaller scale timewise, but far more severe in intensity. Even though there were no extermination camps for blacks in America, racial tensions had consistently existed for years upon years. For Kluger, this type of quick racial aggression against the Jewish people was new to her. She says that since she was the youngest in her family, by the time she was old enough to learn the things that most kids do at that age like swim, skate, or bike, restrictions on Jews became so severe that she couldn't even do just that. "Anyone who was just a few years older experienced a different Vienna than I, who at age seven wasn't permitted to sit on a park bench and instead could take comfort, if I so chose, in the thought that I belonged to the Chosen People, (p. 25)" writes Kluger. This was what kept the Jewish people together when all hope seemed to be lost. Their motivation did not come from the thought that they were each individual persons being punished, but rather that they were together one group of people connected by their Jewish faith, suppressed and persecuted by the overwhelming power of the Nazis. This same type of bond can be seen today in black communities living in Central and South America, especially in Brazil, where slaves were allowed to carry on their traditions throughout hundreds of years of bondage. In America, however, slaves were generally prohibited from retaining and practicing whatever African culture they had kept with them. Instead, African slaves in the US adapted to create their own new bond amongst each through a dialect known as Gullah.