The Holocaust Historiography Project
How Jewish Traders Cheat

How Jewish Traders Cheat

This story introduces a Jewish hawker who tries to sell bad cloth to a young German peasant girl.

It is a festival evening in the village when the Jew turns up with his wares. The Jew flatters the peasant woman and spreads out his wares.

"Everything the heart desires, Levy has for sale."

But the German peasant girl turns down his offers.

The Jew persists, and shows her some stuff of

"… purest wool. That will make a dress for you, woman, so that you will look like a Baroness or a Princess, like a Queen. And cheap, too, that I can tell you!"

But the peasant woman knows the Jew too well.

"I am buying nothing from you," she says, and goes away.

The Jew packs up and goes away cursing. He consoles himself with the knowledge that there are lots of other peasants who can be more easily duped than this one. The story concludes:

Woe to the woman, however, who lets herself be taken in by his chatter. It will happen to her. As has happened to so many other peasant women once they have let the Jew in. There is no escape. There is an old saying:

"The Jewish hawker
Is a cheat and seducer.
He lies all the time
And you — you pay the price.

So many have gone through the mill.
Would you be saved from these penalties.
Then don't let the Jew come in
And buy only from a German."