Jack Szwergold 
I’ve debated whether to share this publicly or not, but after 25-ish years of staying silent, here it goes:
When I worked at the Onion on 1998, I seem to recall Scott Dikkers ranting about how the Jews didn’t fight back during World War II. (1/7)
The context of this was me and Onion production designer Scott Templeton coming back from seeing Roberto Benigni’s “Life is Beautiful” (1998) at the Majestic Theater.
We came back from seeing it and he immediately went on a “Why didn’t the Jews fight back?!?” rant. (2/7)
We all stood around trying to absorb and deal with the dysfunctional moment. Me, Scott Templeton, Chris Karwowski and Mike Loew.
During a pause, I chimed in, “My parents were Holocaust survivors.” Scott Dikkers immediately stopped.
Everyone stopped. (3/7)
People are stunned whenever I mention that fact about my family.
We broke away and went back to our offices. Chris Karwowski came to my desk and said the Poles fought back somewhat successfully against the Nazis and put up a good fight.
I appreciated that and thanked him. (4/7)
Later, Mike Loew came to my desk and rambled on about what Scott Dikkers said was uncool and weird.
He also rambled about how throughout his life people mistook him for Jew because of his last name. And he kinda apologized for Scott? I don’t remember since he was rambling. (5/7)
Am I calling Scott Dikkers an anti-Semite? I don’t know. Maybe? People are capable of change, so he could have changed.
But I do know that after 25-ish years of silence, I feel the need to let go of this painful memory of how I was treated by a place I helped grow. (6/7)
P.S. Sharing of my past to Onion colleagues ultimately led to not sympathy but bullying and harassment by Todd Hanson.
For some reason he wanted me gone from the Onion and would harass me about how I could better spend time researching my family. (7/7)