“I so explicitly stress my membership in the group of Jews expelled from Germany …because I wish to anticipate certain misunderstandings which can arise only too easily when one speaks of humanity. In this connection I cannot gloss over the fact that for many years I considered the only adequate reply to the question, who are you? to be: A Jew. That answer alone took into account the reality of persecution. As for the statement with which Nathan the Wise (in effect, though not in actual wording) counter-ed the command: ‘Step closer, Jew’ – the statement: I am a man – I would have considered as nothing but a grotesque and dangerous evasion of reality.”
Hannah Arendt
