Mohammad Ahmed

10/15/15
Honors 1000
The American Mask
Despite the perseverance of immigrants to dissolve in the mass of American society, they
were constantly subject to racism and discrimination. Thus was the case for a German family
aspiring to make a new living in the developing United States of America. Sixteen year old
Armand Wolfenstein, his father Jurgen, and his mother Anna-Marie decided to immigrate to the
United States after facing religious discrimination in their homeland in pursuit for a better life.
As the coast of Germany disappeared into the massive blue sea, with the cold, salty ocean
air briskly attacking my face and the hatred of anti-Semitism left behind, I could not have been
more free. It was 1921, three years after the end of the Great War, and the whole country of
Germany turned to the people of Jewish faith to blame their troubles on.1 They showed us no
respect and treated us as an inferior species.2 On one specific occasion, I recall overhearing a
conversation regarding Jews. A strange, angry man stated that mental inferiority and spiritual
impotency circulate accordingly in the very blood of the Jew.3 It was to escape this nightmare
that we left for the United States of America and the religious freedom it promised. Weeks before
my parents told me we were leaving, I heard them talking about finding work in a place called
New York City. I had heard of the tall buildings, abundant jobs, and busy lifestyle; all in all, it

1 Rippley, Lavern. German Americans. Gale Encyclopedia of Multicultural America.

2 Nahum Wolf, Are the Jews an Inferior Race?, The North American Review 195,
(Apr., 1912), 492. ProQuest.
3 Ibid.
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was an American city4. To me, American was synonymous with New York City because of
the hope for equality it provided, the magnificence of the city life, the nonexistent past, and the
busy to and fro bustling of the workers. To be from New York was to be American and to live
successfully and comfortably was also American.
My parents began to search for a job immediately upon our arrival in New York City. I had heard
them speaking of the abundance of work opportunities in the great city and was bewildered at
their concern and frantic search for a job. Eventually, after one week of constant searching and
striving, they managed to find an ad in the New York Times asking for a man and wife for
janitor of school.5 My parents reminded me to be grateful of this opportunity, but I failed to
appreciate our good fortune the way they did.
Coming from an underprivileged family, I attended a lower class school called Volksschule, and
was not able to attain a higher level of education once I had completed my eighth year.6 Once I
came to New York, my parents enrolled me in the High School of Commerce which was very
unlike the schooling I had received in Germany. In Germany, the lower class students received
poor education that was intended to make students study rather than learn and become followers
rather than leaders.7 At the High School of Commerce, classes were much more diverse and the
coursework was much more rigorous. In my first year, the classes I took were English, French,
Algebra, Biology, Greek and Roman History, Stenography, Drawing and penmanship, Physical
4 Martelle, Scott. The Roaring Twenties. Detroit: A Biography. Chicago, IL: Chicago
Review, 2012. 95-97.
5 Classified Ad 78 New York Times (1857-1922): 30.Mar 02 1920. ProQuest.
6 James L. McConaughy, Germanys Educational Failure, The School Review 26,
(June, 1918), 417. America: History & Life
7 Ibid.
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Training, and Music.8 After looking at my parents toil hard as lowly janitors at a school to make
ends meet made me appreciate their hard work and inspired me to work hard, so I could provide
them with comforts and leisure they sacrificed for me to live a better life in this new world.
I had imagined New York a city of glamour and easy lifestyle when in fact, New York
was a city of work and hardship, especially for immigrants. While my whole country hated me
for my religion, New York, a relatively religiously tolerant city, discriminated against me for my
country.9 I was not perfectly fluent in English, but had learned enough back in Germany to allow
me to have rough conversations. Because of my language barrier, children at school laughed at
me for the way I spoke. The other kids failed to see me as an individual; rather, they saw me as
an outsider, a person who did not belong10. I did, however, manage to make one friend by the
name of Gustav Friedrich. He was a fellow German who had also recently immigrated to
America from Germany. When he asked me about my religion and why I came to America, I
wanted to tell him the truth, but at the same time, I did not want to lose the first friend I had
made in this harsh city. Afraid to lose him to discrimination, I simply lied and told him I was
Christian and came here in search for a better life. To my relief, he accepted me. It was this event
that helped me realize how to get other kids to accept me as well.
As the years passed by and I grew older, the teasing became increasingly infrequent. As I had
done with my first friend Gustav, I simply lied to people about my ethnic background. As time
8 George H. Locke, The High School of Commerce, New York City, The School
Review 11, (Sep. 1903), 555. America History & Life.
9 Henry Pratt Fairchild, Immigration Standards after the War, Annals of the
American Academy of Political and Social Science 81, (Jan., 1919) 73. Academic
Onefile.
10 Tocqueville, Alexis De. A Fortnight in the Wilderness. Delray Beach, FL: Levenger.
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passed and I become increasingly fluent in my English, it became easier to appear as if I was
born and raised in America. Unlike immigrants, Americans born and raised on their homeland
were treated with respect and dignity.11 To me, the definition of being American changed over
time. It started off as becoming successful and was eventually changed to meaning being
accepted by others. Personally, I traded my German identity for an American identity and was
content with the opportunity cost. With this new identity I was able to go on to become a
businessman who was able to provide his parents with marvelous luxuries such as an automobile.
The greatest overall price paid by Armand and countless other immigrants was the loss of
identity. In an effort to assimilate themselves in American culture, immigrants were forced to cut
themselves off from their cultural past and adopt a new way of thinking. Rather than relying on
their old roots to determine how to act, immigrants disregarded the past and started focusing on
the history they made in the present day12. Although it didnt work for all, the American mask fit
perfectly onto the faces of countless immigrants.

11 Henry Pratt Fairchild, Immigration Standards after the War, Annals of the
American Academy of Political and Social Science 81, (Jan., 1919) 73. Academic
Onefile.
12 Modern Times. Dir.Charlie Chaplin. 1936. Film.
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