Every few years, I would get an exchange student. One year, it was a German girl. She was friendly, easy-going and got along well with everyone. It was the last day before Christmas Break, so just before the bell, I made my standard pre-break salutation.
Me: “Have a Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Blessed Kwanzaa, or whatever holiday you celebrate.”
German girl: “Hanukkah? What is Hanukkah?”
Me: “It’s the Jewish holiday that comes up around Christmas.”
German girl: “I didn’t know that. We don’t have many Jewish people in Germany.”
The other students weren’t moving or making a sound, just shifting their eyes around looking at the other students. Everybody is thinking, “Are you going to tell her?”, “Nope, you?”
And this was me:
Then the bell rang, ending the period.
She was not screwing with us. That would take a Loki-level mischievous mind. That wasn’t her style.
She knows damn well what the Germans did to the Jews. She was comfortable with us, and just spoke without thinking. She probably thought about it a minute later, and was mortified. Fortunately, Christmas Break was two weeks long.
It wasn’t until later that I wondered why she didn’t ask what Kwanzaa was.