George Orwell: About Jewish women

From War-time Diary; 1940

George Orwell
(25 June 1903 - 21 January 1950)

The other night examined the crowds sheltering in Chancery Lane, Oxford Circus and Baker Street. Not all Jews, but, I think, a higher proportion of Jews than one would normally see in a crowd of this size. What is bad about Jews is that they are not only conspicuous, but go out of their way to make themselves so. A fearful Jewish woman, a regular comic paper cartoon of a Jewess, fought her way off a train at Oxford Circus, landing blows on anyone who stood in her way. It took me back to old days on the Paris Metro.

Surprised to find that D, who is distinctly Left in his views, is inclined to share the current feeling against the Jews. He says that Jews in business circles turning pro-Hitler, or preparing to do so. This sounds almost incredible, but according to D they will always admire anyone who kicks them. What I do feel is that any Jew, i.e. European Jew, would prefer Hitler's kind of social system to ours, if it were not that he happens to persecute them. Ditto with almost any Central European, e.g. the refugees. They make use of England as a sanctuary, but they cannot help feeling the profoundest contempt for it. You can see this in their eyes, even when they don't say it outright. The fact is that the insular outlook and the continental outlook are completely incompatible.

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