The Other Victims of the Holocaust

3rd shift at Arby's isn't as fun as it sounds. We work with minimal staff...four people at the most. So when we get busy, we get busy. But there are always a couple of hours of hardly any customers.


Such as it is, those hours are dedicated to cleaning and joking around.

Last weekend, it was 3 of us working on a Saturday. Myself, Roger, and Chris.

Chris and I share an appreciation for dark humor. Roger, however, does not.

Roger, you see, got back from Iraq a few months ago. Having seen the dark side of human nature has taken a bit out of ol' Rog.

Nothing a little humor could cure, right? That's what we thought to.


The night started out simple, a barrage of dead baby jokes. Such as, "What do you get when you stab a dead baby? An erection!"

Chris and I were having were having some good laughs, Roger just stayed quiet for the most part. At one point, he asked us how we could possibly find humor in dead kids.

I said, "When you chop them up enough, you can find anything."


He certainly didn't like that and went back to his task of cleaning.

We got busy.

Later on when the action died down, we back to joking.

I asked Chris, "What's worse than finding a worm in your apple?"

He didn't know.

I said, "The Holocaust stupid."

He had a good laugh at that but Roger got furious.

He said, "That's it. That's where I draw the line. I can stand here and listen to you two joke about dead babies and minorities, but I won't let you joke about that. My grandmother was in a Concentration Camp."

Well, that brought about some awkward silence.

Finally I said, "I thought you were Catholic."

Roger said, "Yes, I am. But my grandmother was Jewish."

Our joking momentum having been interrupted by Mr. Sensitive Soldier did not sit well we me. I could have dropped the whole thing and moved on, but no. That's not how I roll."

I asked Roger, "How do you fit a hundred Jews into a car?"

Roger just gave me an angry look.

I said, "You dump them in the ashtrays."

Roger threw the pan he was holding to the floor.

Roger screamed, "How dare you! You stand there and make fun of mass genocide. You don't know anything. I want you to stand there and think about all of those families that were ruined and destroyed by that. I want you to stand there, think about that, and still tell me you think it's funny."


That's when I got serious.

I said, "You know Roger, you are right. It was a terrible part of our history. And this is an issue that is sensitive to you. I understand that. All of those Jewish lives that were affected. Yeah, I get it. But you stand there and talk about the Jews, but I doubt you have given any thought about the other victims of the Holocaust."

Roger looked at me, puzzled.

He asked, "Who are you talking about?"

I said, "After the Holocaust was over, there is a group of people that became affected that history tends to ignore. But I haven't forgot about them as you have."

Again, he asked "Who?"

I said, "All of those Germans who lost their jobs."


He looked at me, flabbergasted.

I continued.

"Yeah. All of those Germans who worked at those camps have now found themselves without a job. Think about. Daddy Homburg comes home to his family and says, 'Sorry kids, daddy no longer has job. We must eat the rats now, ya'. You see, I have thought about the Holocaust and and who have suffered. And I have now put a human face on it. Look at that."

Chris and I handled the rest of the night well with just the two of us.