Sophie Okonedo Quotes
I never suffered anti-Semitic racism because no one thought I was Jewish.
Okonedo, Sophie. "I Guess I'm Up for It." Interview by Liz Hoggard. The Guardian, 20 Feb. 2005.
This quotation was used by the Lyndon B. Johnson 1964 Campaign as: “We represent the majority of the people in Alabama who hate niggerism, Catholicism, Judaism, and all the isms of the whole world.” So said Robert Creel of the Alabama Ku Klux Klan. He also said, “I like Barry Goldwater. He needs our help.” The second statement was made at a different time.
Poland was one of the Nazi occupied nations which cooperated in the mass murder of Jews and facilitated the Holocaust. Even after the war, much of the Polish Catholic clergy maintained virulent anti-Semitic views and in 1946 Polish thugs with the encouragement of some priests engaged in a pogrom in Kielce of returning Polish Jewish refugees. Catholic Primate of Poland, Augustus Hlond, made numerous anti-Semitic statements further exacerbating the problem. Many cast blame on Pope Pius XII who was not very vocal during the Nazi era regarding the ill treatment and murder of Jews, Gypsies, and handicapped, giving a “green light” to the Polish Prelate and those lower anti-Semitic priests. Papal apologists note that Hitler could have turned on the Catholic Church; the Pope had to walk a fine line between condemning evil and risking the welfare of the Church. Nonetheless, many Catholic priests risked and some lost their lives speaking out against the Nazi evil and protecting Nazi targets.
In his early years, Stalin was a strong opponent of Anti-Semitism ({627514}) but he felt he needed to make a pact with Nazi Germany—the Hitler-Stalin Pact. In meeting with Nazi Foreign Minister Ribbontrop, Stalin as a quid pro quo promised to get rid of “Jewish Domination” (which never existed but there were many Jews in positions) among officials and intellectuals. He then fired his Jewish Foreign Minister Litvonof and replaced him with Vyacheslav Molotov to whom he have this instruction. This was the first major official Anti-Semitism of the Soviet Union but it continued thereafter. See {636526} & {636527}.
Sophie Okonedo CBE is a British actress and narrator. She began her film career in the British coming-of-age drama Young Soul Rebels (1991) before appearing in Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls (1995), and Stephen Frears's Dirty Pretty Things (2002).
