Part Two: Joe, Kibbutz Summary and Analysis

Joe: Growing up, Judt attended the Emanuel Public School in London. Many of the teachers had been in employment there since the First World War. Many of the older teachers were staunch believers in corporal punishment. Judt struggled in school primarily due to the incessant anti-Semitism he was faced with daily. The only subject he thrived in was German. This course was taught by Paul Craddock, or "Joe," who had survived some unspecific wartime experience and therefore had a complete lack of humor. Joe spent several hours each day drilling grammar, vocabulary, and style. He ran daily tests of memory, reasoning, and comprehension. He verbally assaulted the students if they performed less than perfectly on their exams. The students simultaneously feared and respected him, and Judt reflects on how he can still speak German with...