Was the old man really a racist?
Every item I've read about this film makes the claim that the old man is
an anti-Semitic bigot. Yet his comments about the Jews being responsible for
the war, the various negative physical descriptions about Jews, etc. suggest
that he's basically a product of ignorance, not a true bigot. He probably
doesn't know what a Jew is; he's just parroting propaganda he's heard on the
radio broadcasts to which he faithfully listens.
Doesn't he figure out, eventually, that Claude is Jewish? If he really were
a racist, wouldn't he reject the little boy? The remark that he makes to
Claude at the end of the film seems to be kind of an apology for his earlier
remarks.
I'm not crying, you fool, I'm laughing!