John Brown: A Swastika on my Desk

Transcript

They had some bullies at school but they didn’t recognise bullying in those days. In fact one of the chaps used to pinch me and I – I won’t mention his name, but anyway, my mum spoke to him ‘cause he used to go to the polio fellowship. And she spoke to this chap, she said, why did you – upset, you know, why do you?..' – and I think after mum speaking to him, he left me alone. Because he was a big chap and I’m a little chap, I’m only five foot three, and he was tall, strong, you know, disabled with one leg in a calliper but, you know, but a few were – there were bullies in that school. And because of me being a very sensitive person probably, and a quiet person and was always doing the right thing, not always getting – don’t get into trouble sort of thing, you’re picked on.

And I remember in 1956 I was thirteen, I had a swastika put on my desk. What do I know about politics? But obviously what happened was, they knew I was Jewish, probably because I used to have the Jewish holiday off, although I wasn’t practising but I used to have the New Year off, obviously thus must have known I’m Jewish ‘cause of that, and they put a swastika on my desk. You know, this is what I was – so I confronted bullying and anti-Semitism in school. I don’t know if they picked me ‘cause I was Jewish or they picked me ‘cause I’m quiet, I don’t know. You just don’t know why people pick on you, but I wasn’t that different ‘cause they were all disabled there. They say if you went to ordinary school – able bodied school, they’d pick on you because you’re disabled. In my case, I had two barriers to break.

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