It started as a card game, but it got antisemitic really fast

– SYDNEY

The summer between my junior and senior year of high school, we took a family vacation with my cousins and grandparents on a cruise to Alaska. When you are trapped on a boat with nothing but family who can drive you crazy, you seek out friends. My cousins, brother and I made friends with some of the other kids our age. One night we were playing Cards Against Humanity, a card came that thrives on being politically incorrect and over the top inappropriate. The question card that someone drew was the following: “How did they do it? How did they put the _____ in ____?” Everyone threw their two cards down that they felt best fit the questions. A few minutes later, the girl who was deciding which cards won was reading the options allowed. She reads, “How did they do that? How did they put the…Jews…” She hesitated. “How did they put the Jews in Auschwitz?” There was a moment of stunned silence, before the teenage boy who played those cards started to laugh. My cousins and I just looked at each other for a second, before my elder cousin told him how not okay it was. The guy claimed that it was just a game, a joke, but whatever the intention was, its impact was hateful. We stopped hanging out with those kids after that night. My cousins and I still talk about how uncomfortable that night was.

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