Young Jewish guy #1: You know how you’re allowed to make jokes about 9⁄11 if you’re from New York?
Young Jewish guy #2: Yeah, totally. You’re definitely allowed to do that.
Young Jewish guy #1: Exactly. It’s just like a Jew being able to make a joke about the Holocaust.
Young Jewish guy #2: Of course. It’s like a rite of passage or something.
–Pier 3, Brooklyn
Film Nazi: The Holocaust did give us some good movies.
–Penn Station
Overheard by: Tom and Katie
Suit on cell : And they were playing loud Nazi music.
–Lincoln Center
Hip dude on cell, very casually: Sieg heil, my friend, sieg heil.
–Queens.
Girl: If it’s about the Holocaust, it’s going to get me hard… Not where I was going with that.
–55th & 3rd
Overheard by: seeareuh
Chick: Oh yeah, my grandmother was a prisoner in Auschwitz with Elie Wiesel.
Dude: That’s ballin’
–Brooklyn F Train
Blonde seventh grader, about Holocaust: Yeah, like, I’m Jewish on my mom’s side, you’re Asian. So, basically everyone in our class would have died from the Nazis.
Asian seventh grader, to other friend: Except for Laura.
Laura: What? Why?
Asian seventh grader: Because you’re white.
Laura: I’m not white! I’m like… Pinkish or something.
–93rd St & Amsterdam
New Yorker guy: You know that summer camp I went to? My friend is now the head of it and I’m going to help him out next month.
Girl, laughing: Awww, you’re going to teach the kiddies how to canoe and tie slip knots?
New Yorker guy: No, I’m gonna teach them about the Holocaust.
Girl (laughs then pauses): Wow, that is not what we did at Girl Scout camp in Wisconsin.
–6th Ave & 19th St
Student #1: It’s crazy to think the pope was part of the Hitler youth.
Student #2: Not really — the Hitler youth was like the YMCA of Germany.
–Van crossing GW Bridge
Black girl: But, I mean, other than the hating everyone part, he was the nicest neo‐Nazi I’ve ever met.
–Penn Station
Biker dude: I’m a Puerto Rican Nazi! I can’t be racist!
–Outside Pyramid Club, Ave A
Thug entering train at rush hour: Man, it’s like the fucking Holocaust in here.
–1 train
Overheard by: Stella Blue
Worker: I think the Holocaust sounds so bad because it’s the ‘Holocaust.’ We should start calling it the ‘Jollycaust.’
–Strand Bookstore
Blonde tourist: The date was okay… I mean, the only problem I have is with his politics. And then there was that whole, um, like… racial thing. You know, all that Aryan stuff.
–Crowded M96 crosstown bus
Overheard by: Socky
Construction worker #1: My boss, he’s got a mustache like Hitler.
Construction worker #2: Mine’s a Jew.
–Astoria
Girl: And it’s so weird to ask Jews if they are German. I just feel weird doing it, because of the Nazis and all.
–Columbia University
Overheard by: Dan
Girl #1: … And you went to Amsterdam?
Girl #2: Yeah, it was really cool. We went to the Reichsmuseum, the Van Gogh Museum, the Red Light District…
Girl #1: Did you go to the Anne Frank House?
Girl #2: Yeah, but we sort of did things backwards that day… We went to the Heineken brewery and then to a coffeehouse, so by the time we got to the Anne Frank House we were totally drunk and high.
Girl #1: What?! You went to the Anne Frank House drunk?
Girl #2: No, it’s okay… We went to a concentration camp while we were in Germany and saw all kinds of stuff about the war. By the time we got to Amsterdam, we were like, ‘Enough with the Nazis, already!’
–11th & University
Overheard by: I did the same thing when I was in Amsterdam
