Anti-Jew rants of vile nuns
NUNS at an orphanage told a young boy they would “beat the Jewishness out of him”, an inquiry heard yesterday.
The victim of the beating, who was at Smyllum Park in Lanark in the 40s and 50s, said he is “haunted” by memories of his time with the Daughters of Charity of St Vincent de Paul.
He told the Scottish child abuse inquiry in Edinburgh he was still so scared of nuns he could not watch the film comedy Sister Act.
The man said although he did not know of his Jewish heritage, having entered the home at a very young age, it was referred to while he was beaten a number of times.
His parents had fled the Nazis in Europe but were unable to look after him.
The witness also told how one boy punished alongside him for playing football on a Sunday vanished.
They were stripped and forced to stand outside and when they returned to the dormitory, the other boy was crying about the cold.
The witness said the boy was gone in the morning and never seen again.
He said: “There were rumours he had pneumonia. It still haunts me to this day what might have happened to him.”
The witness added: “I just want the world to know what happened at this place and that children in homes today don’t have to go through what we went through.”
The inquiry continues.