07.34

“Tough Guys Do God.” Article-interview by Sue Fox. Jewish Chronicle, 29 June, 25–26. Mailer comments on Jews and the Holocaust in this piece. He compares New York Jews to Berlin Jews before WWII: “The fact is the Jews of New York are in the same position as the wealthy Jews were in Berlin. We do have great control over press, publishing, the arts and department stores.” On the Holocaust: “I don’t think there is any explanation for the Holocaust without positing a devil, because I find the opposite to that philosophically odious and obscene. God was testing us? God was punishing us? Those are odious arguments.”