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Then came a decree one day that you had to wear a star. All Jews
had to wear a star if they went out of the house. So my mother
sewed on stars on my clothes. And I remember an incident. I have
a cousin. My cousin, Hans, who lives in Springfield,
Massachusetts, now. He's about my age, and at the time we looked
a little bit similar. And we had both gotten the same overcoats
from my father's former clothing store, so we looked like twins.
And Hans always says, "Let's go out. Let's go out and walk like
twins." So we put on the same socks, shirts, [as] much as
possible, same outfit and, uh, we walked as twins. We had
a...that was wonderful. Except I had a star. He didn't. Well,
that was the only thing different. He...his mom...his mother...my
Aunt Clara had married a non-Jew. So Hans was only half Jewish.
And I remember walking through Delft and once got stopped by a
German. It was the only time a German physically touched me. I
was stopped by this German. We were stopped by this German in
our...in our same overcoats. And the German said to my cousin,
Hans, "What're you doing walking with a Jew?" And I said, "He's
my cousin." And the German slapped me full in the face and I fell
on the ground. Pow. Like this...and he said something like "You
lousy Jew." And he said to my cousin, "Don't...Don't let me ever
see you walking with him. With a Jew."
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