The Royal Mail, Iran, and the Holocaust

When you go to the post office here, it takes forever. There’s always a long line and people do a lot of business there. I’m not sure why, but I see people bring envelopes full of money. Maybe the Royal Post handles bank transfers or something. Or it’s a front for the Mafia.

Anyway, this elderly man gets in line behind me and here’s our conversation:
Himself: Terrible news out of Iran, did you see about the earthquake.
Me: Yes, a lot of people died.
Himself: A lot more will be found dead. There were 40,000 people in that village.
Me: Let’s hope not.
Himself: I was on a Yankee ship once to the Aegean Islands, it was 1952. They’d had an earthquake and the crops shot out of the ground. The people there were starving, they’d kill you for a pot of jam. It was desperate.
Me: I can’t imagine.
Himself: I had a brother-in-law who was at Bergen-Belsen when the war ended. It became a clearing point and he worked there with a Jewish man who was a cannibal. His job was to put corpses into ovens. He ate brains to stay alive.”
Well I’m not sure what I said. What do you say to that? He then asked me if I was from Texas because I was wearing cowboy boots. I told him no as I stepped forward to buy my stamps.
I usually love how people talk to you at the drop of a hat but this conversation was a bit much.
11-13