His grandfather’s story highlights the potency of ancient stereotypes. The “dirty Jew” rhetoric that powered persecution of Jews since the Middle Ages had begun to penetrate the newspapers, pamphlets, and everyday conversations—every aspect—of twentieth-century German life. The ugly epithet had worked its way into the minds of the average citizen. Mauricio’s grandfather understood that well enough, even as a boy, to marshal all his powers to repel it amid the filth, squalor, and deadly threat of the German concentration camp.
