I would like to endorse Joan Salter’s brave words (I confronted Suella Braverman because as a Holocaust survivor I know what words of hate can do, 17 January). I too was a child immigrant – I came here in 1958 from Poland, when rabid nationalism was making life for Jews difficult again. Jewish people were again being identified, discriminated against and humiliated. “You killed Jesus Christ” was the accusation they shouted at me in the park where I played. So “swarms” of us left.
We “invaded” the UK, Australia, Canada, the US and Israel. Having done so, I would hope that we contributed to the workforce and welfare of these countries. My father became an eminent academic, a fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, my mother was a talented medical biochemist, and I became a researcher and teacher. Read more of what became of my extended family in my recent book Never Tell Anyone You’re Jewish.
We need our immigrants. Those people in small boats have the strength of character, nous and resilience to make the UK a better place.
Dr Maria Chamberlain
Edinburgh
• I write from Germany, where we are acutely aware of the racial hatred stirred by Nazi propagandists in the 1930s. Recently, Friedrich Merz, the leader of our opposition, was taken to task over the expression Sozialtourismus or “social tourism” applied to asylum or sanctuary given to the distressed refugees who are given protection by our country. The toxic nature of Suella Braverman’s language would have almost certainly provoked serious censure or even resignation from office here in Germany. At least Merz had the generosity to apologise, while Braverman blatantly refused to. What signal is the UK sending to the world when such public talk is accepted by a so-called civilised nation?
Robert Hone
Hetlingen, Pinneberg, Germany
• My parents arrived in England in 1939. It was not an easy journey, nor was it easy to settle here. Their families in Austria and Czechoslovakia were sent off in various directions and killed. My parents were interned on the Isle of Man. As a child born in 1950, I learned to tell people I was Jewish in the first couple of sentences to prevent obnoxious jokes or antisemitic utterances. Lots of clubs, jobs, etc were implicitly off limits. A boyfriend would not introduce me to his grandmother, a baroness, because of my religion.
In 2008, I tried to buy watches for teenage asylum seekers from Sudan whom I was supporting. The shopkeeper refused a discount because of the Albanians, who he believed were “all thieves”. He had not met any.
Racism in this country is alive and increasingly well, encouraged by phrases that are so common and embedded in speeches that they are barely heard. Stereotyping is intellectually efficient – we develop a concept and retain it until it is proved deficient. Early in conversations with new people, I am again telling people I am Jewish.
Ruth Reinstein
Sheffield
• Joan Salter’s strong and much-needed challenge of Ms Braverman’s choice of dehumanising language reminded me of Victor Klemperer’s book The Language of the Third Reich, where he writes: “Words can be like tiny doses of arsenic, being swallowed unnoticed they seem to have no effect, only to show their toxic consequences after some time” (my translation from German).
Ulrich Scholz
Blomberg, Lippe, Germany
