There are several major aspects of

humor Humour (English in the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth English) or humor (American English) is the tendency of experiences to provoke laughter and provide amusement. The term derives from the humorism, humoral medicine of the ancient Gre ...

related to

the Holocaust The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; a ...

humor of the Jews The tradition of humor in Judaism dates back to the Torah and the Midrash from the ancient Middle East, but generally refers to the more recent stream of verbal and often anecdotal humor of Ashkenazi Jews which took root in the United States ove ...

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...

and in Nazi concentration and extermination camps, a specific kind of "

gallows humor Black comedy, also known as dark comedy, morbid humor, or gallows humor, is a style of comedy that makes light of subject matter that is generally considered taboo, particularly subjects that are normally considered serious or painful to discus ...

German humor German humour is the conventions of comedy and its cultural meaning within the country of Germany. German humour encompasses traditions such as Kabarett and other forms of satire as well as more recent trends such as TV shows and stand-up comedy. ...

on the subject during the Nazi era; the appropriateness of this kind of

off-color humor Off-color humor (also known as vulgar humor, crude humor, or shock humor) is humor that deals with topics that may be considered to be in poor taste or vulgar. Many comedic genres (including jokes, prose, poems, black comedy, blue comedy, insult c ...

in modern times; modern

anti-Semitic Antisemitism (also spelled anti-semitism or anti-Semitism) is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who holds such positions is called an antisemite. Antisemitism is considered to be a form of racism. Antis ...

sick humor.

Aspects of Holocaust humor

The 2011 book ''Dead Funny'' by

Rudolph Herzog Rudolph Herzog (born 1973, Munich) is a German film director, producer and writer.

explores, among other things, the first two aspects: the humor of the oppressed and the humor of the oppressors."The Sound of Young America: Writer and Filmmaker Rudolph Herzog"
, transcript of the interview at the ''

Bullseye with Jesse Thorn ''Bullseye with Jesse Thorn'' (formerly ''The Sound of Young America'') is a public radio program and podcast based in Los Angeles, California, and distributed by National Public Radio (NPR). The weekly show is currently heard on over 50 public ra ...

'' podcastMonica Osborne, "Springtime for Hitler", ''

The New Republic ''The New Republic'' is an American magazine of commentary on politics, contemporary culture, and the arts. Founded in 1914 by several leaders of the progressive movement, it attempted to find a balance between "a liberalism centered in hum ...

'', August 21, 2011, a review of Herzog's book One of Herzog's points is that the German humor of the era reveals the extent to which ordinary German citizens were aware of the atrocities of the regime. , a pioneer in Holocaust humor research, maintained that humor was a defense mechanism that helped to endure the atrocities of the Holocaust. She wrote that until recently the question of humor in concentration camps was little known to general public and had little attention in scientific community. Among many reasons for this was the common belief that the discussion of humor in the Holocaust may be seen as diminishing the Holocaust, hurting the feelings of the inmates, and trivializing the issue of extermination - if it was possible to laugh, then it was not so terrible after all. Another reason is the reluctance of the survivors to recall harsh memories associated with the unnatural circumstances that evoked humor. Also, the scholars treated humor to be only of second importance in the life of Holocaust survivors. In 2009

Yad Vashem Yad Vashem ( he, יָד וַשֵׁם; literally, "a memorial and a name") is Israel's official memorial to the victims of the Holocaust. It is dedicated to preserving the memory of the Jews who were murdered; honoring Jews who fought against th ...

published a book in Hebrew "Without humor we would have committed suicide". In 2014 it was published also in English "It kept us alive: humor as a defense mechanism in the Holocaust". In this book you can find interviews with 55 Holocaust survivors, carried out by Dr. Ostrower where the main question was "Can you describe or tell us about humor in the Holocaust?"
הומור כמנגנון הגנה בשואה
Humor as a defense mechanism in the Holocaust"/ref>

Terrence Des Pres Terrence Des Pres (1939 in Effingham, Illinois – November 16, 1987 in Hamilton, New York) was an American writer and Holocaust scholar. Life Terrence Des Pres graduated from Southeast Missouri State College in 1962. He went on to complete ...

Sander Gilman Sander L. Gilman, born on February 21, 1944, is an American cultural and literary historian. He is known for his contributions to Jewish studies and the history of medicine. He is the author or editor of over ninety books. Gilman's focus is on ...

, and

Sidra DeKoven Ezrahi Sidra DeKoven Ezrahi (born October 31, 1942) is Professor Emerita of Comparative Literature at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Early life and education DeKoven Ezrahi is the daughter of Janet and Herman DeKoven. Her mother was a social worke ...

were among the first scholars to consider the appropriateness of humor about the Holocaust and who has the right to tell Holocaust jokes. Considering the cruelty of the jokes about the Holocaust, one has to distinguish the "gallows humor", i.e., the humor of the victims, from "sick humor" of the oppressors or haters of the particular social group. The "gallows humor" is a

coping mechanism Coping refers to conscious strategies used to reduce unpleasant emotions. Coping strategies can be cognitions or behaviours and can be individual or social. Theories of coping Hundreds of coping strategies have been proposed in an attempt to ...

, while "sick humor" is an instrument of aggression.

Holocaust humor of Nazi ghettos and camps

Viktor Frankl Viktor Emil Frankl (26 March 1905 – 2 September 1997) was an Austrian psychiatrist who founded logotherapy, a school of psychotherapy that describes a search for a life's meaning as the central human motivational force. Logotherapy is part ...

, a psychiatrist and a

Holocaust survivor Holocaust survivors are people who survived the Holocaust, defined as the persecution and attempted annihilation of the Jews by Nazi Germany and its allies before and during World War II in Europe and North Africa. There is no universally accep ...

of the

Auschwitz concentration camp Auschwitz concentration camp ( (); also or ) was a complex of over 40 concentration and extermination camps operated by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland (in a portion annexed into Germany in 1939) during World War II and the Holocaust. It con ...

in his 1946 book ''

Man's Search for Meaning ''Man's Search for Meaning'' is a 1946 book by Viktor Frankl chronicling his experiences as a prisoner in Nazi concentration camps during World War II, and describing his psychotherapeutic method, which involved identifying a purpose in life to f ...

'' wrote: "To discover that there was any semblance of art in a concentration camp must be surprise enough for an outsider, but he may be even more astonished to hear that one could find a sense of humor there as well; of course, only the faint trace of one, and then only for a few seconds or minutes. Humor was another of the soul's weapons in the fight for self-preservation"... "The attempt to develop a sense of humor and to see things in a humorous light is some kind of a trick learned while mastering the art of living." Frankl further gives an example of humor in dreary circumstances. They were being transported to another camp and the train was approaching the bridge across the

Danube The Danube ( ; ) is a river that was once a long-standing frontier of the Roman Empire and today connects 10 European countries, running through their territories or being a border. Originating in Germany, the Danube flows southeast for , pa ...

. Over the river was the

Mauthausen death camp Mauthausen was a Nazi concentration camp on a hill above the market town of Mauthausen, Upper Austria, Mauthausen (roughly east of Linz), Upper Austria. It was the main camp of a group with List of subcamps of Mauthausen, nearly 100 further ...

. "Those who have never seen anything similar cannot possibly imagine the dance of joy performed in the carriage by the prisoners when they saw that our transport was not crossing the bridge and was instead heading ''only'' for

Dachau , , commandant = List of commandants , known for = , location = Upper Bavaria, Southern Germany , built by = Germany , operated by = ''Schutzstaffel'' (SS) , original use = Political prison , construction ...

." When the inmates learned that there was no

crematorium A crematorium or crematory is a venue for the cremation of the dead. Modern crematoria contain at least one cremator (also known as a crematory, retort or cremation chamber), a purpose-built furnace. In some countries a crematorium can also be ...

in the camp, they "laughed and cracked jokes in spite of, and during, all had to go through." "An abnormal response to an abnormal situation is in the nature of normal behavior". Chaya Ostrower recognized three major categories of jokes in the book of interviews, ''Without Humor We Would Have Committed Suicide'': self-humor, black humor, and humor about food. She noticed that food jokes were unique for the Holocaust period. Self-humour: One of the interviewees in ''Without Humor...'' was telling about their hair being cut upon arrival to Auschwitz. Many women were crying, but she started laughing. When asked why, she answered that never in her life had she had a hairdo for free.

Black humor Black comedy, also known as dark comedy, morbid humor, or gallows humor, is a style of comedy that makes light of subject matter that is generally considered taboo, particularly subjects that are normally considered serious or painful to discus ...

was a means of reducing anxiety of the awareness of death. An example well-known in

Warsaw Warsaw ( pl, Warszawa, ), officially the Capital City of Warsaw,, abbreviation: ''m.st. Warszawa'' is the capital and largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the River Vistula in east-central Poland, and its population is officia ...

: "Moishe, why are you using soap with so much fragrance?" - "When they turn me into soap, at least I will smell good". Jokes about soap were in response to rumors which started circulating in 1942 about soap produced from the fat of the Jews. Other jokes of this kind: "See you again on the same shelf!" or "Don't eat much: the Germans will have less soap!"Sover, Arie. 2021. Jewish Humor: An outcome of Historical Experience, Survival, and Wisdom. London: Cambridge Scholars
, Section "Jewish Humor in the Holocaust"
pp. 139-142
Humor about food constituted about 7 percent of humor discussed in the study. The interviewees mention that there was lots of humor about food, because food was a common subject, because there was always not enough of it. An interviewee recalls: there was a group which liked to discuss recipes. Suddenly one of them lost her mood and stopped talking. "What's wrong with her?" - "I think her cake has burned". The Holocaust-era archive clandestinely collected by a team led by Holocaust victim

Emmanuel Ringelblum Emanuel Ringelblum (November 21, 1900 – March 10 (most likely), 1944) was a Polish historian, politician and social worker, known for his ''Notes from the Warsaw Ghetto'', ''Notes on the Refugees in Zbąszyn'' chronicling the deportation of Jew ...

Ringelblum Archive The Ringelblum Archive is a collection of documents from the World War II Warsaw Ghetto, collected and preserved by a group known by the codename Oyneg Shabbos (in Modern Israeli Hebrew, Oneg Shabbat; he, עונג שבת), led by Jewish historian ...

") documented the everyday life in Nazi-organized Jewish ghettos, in particular, the

Warsaw Ghetto The Warsaw Ghetto (german: Warschauer Ghetto, officially , "Jewish Residential District in Warsaw"; pl, getto warszawskie) was the largest of the Nazi ghettos during World War II and the Holocaust. It was established in November 1940 by the G ...

. Among other things, the archive documented the humor perspective of the inhumane Jewish life. The archive includes jokes about Poles, Nazis, Hitler, Stalin, etc. A good deal of them were self-jokes about life, death, disease, hunger, and humiliation.

Modern times

Telling Holocaust jokes in public is illegal in

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

Anti-Semitism

Demonstrating that Holocaust humor is international, Dundes and Hachild cite two versions of a joke recorded in Germany and the United States in early 1980s: "How many Jews will fit a

Volkswagen Volkswagen (),English: , . abbreviated as VW (), is a German Automotive industry, motor vehicle manufacturer headquartered in Wolfsburg, Lower Saxony, Germany. Founded in 1937 by the German Labour Front under the Nazi Party and revived into a ...

" – "506: six in the seats and 500 in the ashtrays". Dundes, Alan, and Thomas Hauschild. “Auschwitz Jokes.” In: ''Humour in Society'', C. Powell and G.E.C. Paton (eds., 1988,
excerpt: pp.56, 57
)

Admissibility of Holocaust humor

Adam Muller and Amy Freier note that in modern times increasingly many people are becoming comfortable joking about the Holocaust. They attribute this, among other reasons, to the fact that since the generation of

s had passed, and there is no more witnesses of the atrocities, who could provide emotional firsthand testimonies. Nevertheless the "Holocaust etiquette" prescribes to consider it as a unique, solemn and, to a degree, sacred event, and laughter related to the matter disrupts this convention and is viewed as bad taste. Some other people see modern Holocaust "comedy as a vehicle for coming to terms with the memory of Nazis' horrors".ADAM MULLER, AMY FREIER
"HUMOUR, THE HOLOCAUST, AND THE TERROR OF HISTORY"
''AMERICANA'', E-JOURNAL OF AMERICAN STUDIES IN HUNGARY, VOLUME XIII, NUMBER 1, SPRING 2017

Public controversies

*2009: Despite being Jewish herself,

Roseanne Barr Roseanne Cherrie Barr (born November 3, 1952) is an American actress, comedian, writer, producer, and former presidential candidate. Barr began her career in stand-up comedy before gaining acclaim in the television sitcom '' Roseanne'' (1988– ...

was heavily criticized for her photo-shot of Hitler with a tray of "burnt Jew cookies" for a satirical Jewish magazine ''

Heeb ''Heeb'' is a Jews, Jewish website (and from 2001 to 2010, a quarterly magazine) aimed predominantly at young Jews. The name of the publication is a variation of the ethnic slur "hebe", an abbreviation of Hebrew. However, in this case, the word " ...

''. * 2016:

Katie Waissel Katie Waissel (born 27 January 1986) is an English singer-songwriter who came into the public eye when she finished seventh in the seventh series of ''The X Factor''. She is also known for being a housemate in '' Celebrity Big Brother 18'', wh ...

competed in the British reality series ''

Celebrity Big Brother 18 ''Celebrity Big Brother 18'' was the eighteenth series of the British reality television series ''Celebrity Big Brother'', hosted by Emma Willis and narrated by Marcus Bentley. The series launched on 28 July 2016, just two days after the conclus ...

'' in 2016. Housemate

Christopher Biggins Christopher Kenneth Biggins (born 16 December 1948) is an English actor and television presenter. Early life Biggins was born in Oldham, Lancashire, the son of William and Pamela Biggins. He was brought up in Salisbury, Wiltshire, attended St P ...

was removed after making a racist joke about the Holocaust towards Waissel, who is Jewish. * 2020:

Concerns and controversies at the 2020 Summer Olympics A number of concerns and controversies arose leading up to the 2020 Summer Olympics, which took place in Tokyo, Japan. The games were postponed until July 2021 as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. The IOC stated that their Japanese partners ...

: On 21 July 2021, Japanese media reported that

Kentarō Kobayashi is a Japanese comedian, actor, dramaturge, theatre director, and manga artist. Outside Japan, he is most well known for directing and acting in "" videos (e.g. ""), and for playing the Mac (opposite Jin Katagiri who plays the PC) in the "Get ...

, who was the director of the opening and closing ceremonies, utilized

The Holocaust The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; a ...

in a script for his comedy in 1998, and he made malicious and anti-Semitic jokes including "Let's play Jews genocide game (Let's play Holocaust)." After that Kobayashi was dismissed by the Olympic Committee. * 2022: British comedian

Jimmy Carr James Anthony Patrick Carr (born 15 September 1972) is a British-Irish comedian, presenter, writer, and actor. He is known for his deadpan delivery of controversial one-liners and distinctive laugh, for which he has been both praised and criti ...

received a significant amount of backlash after saying that the

Romani Holocaust The Romani Holocaust or the Romani genocide—also known as the ''Porajmos'' ( Romani pronunciation: , meaning "the Devouring"), the ''Pharrajimos'' meaning the hard times ("Cutting up", "Fragmentation", "Destruction"), and the ''Samudaripen'' ( ...

was a "positive" during his

Netflix Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a fil ...

comedy special, ''His Dark Material''. Carr's remarks were widely condemned by Holocaust memorial and anti-racism charities, as well as by a number of politicians in the UK, with calls for Netflix to remove the special from its library.

In film

* ''

The Bloom of Yesterday ''The Bloom of Yesterday'' (german: Die Blumen von gestern) is a 2016 German-Austrian comedy film directed by Chris Kraus. Cast Reception The film won the Grand Prize and the Audience Award at the 2016 Tokyo International Film Festival an ...

'' (2016) * '' The Last Laugh'' (2016), a documentary which explored the limits of humor regarding the Holocaust * ''

Jakob the Liar ''Jakob the Liar'' is a 1999 American war comedy-drama film directed by Peter Kassovitz, produced by Steven Haft, Marsha Garces Williams and written by Kassovitz and Didier Decoin. The film is based on the book of the same name by Jurek Becker ...

'' (1999) * ''

La Vita è Bella ''Life Is Beautiful'' ( it, La vita è bella, ) is a 1997 Italian comedy drama film directed by and starring Roberto Benigni, who co-wrote the film with Vincenzo Cerami. Benigni plays Guido Orefice, a Jewish Italian bookshop owner, who emplo ...

'' (''Life Is Beautiful'') (1997)Film review: Viano, Maurizio (1999), "''Life is Beautiful'': Reception, Allegory and Holocaust Laughter", *''Annali d’Italianistica'', no. 17, pp 155-173;
also printed
in ''Jewish Social Studies'', vol. 5, no. 3, 1999, pp. 47-63;
a different version published
in ''Film Quarterly'', vol. 53, no. 1, 1999, pp. 26-34, Alan R. Perry, "Benigni's "La vita è bella":

and the Alchemy of Meaning", ''Italica'', vol. 96, no.2, 2019, pp. 303-330,

Sander L. Gilman Sander L. Gilman, born on February 21, 1944, is an American cultural and literary historian. He is known for his contributions to Jewish studies and the history of medicine. He is the author or editor of over ninety books. Gilman's focus is on m ...

, "Can the Shoah Be Funny? Some Thoughts on Recent and Older Films", ''Critical Inquiry'', Vol. 26, No. 2 (Winter, 2000), pp. 279-308, , Millicent Marcus, "The Seriousness of Humor in

Roberto Benigni Roberto Remigio Benigni (; born 27 October 1952) is an Italian actor, comedian, screenwriter and director. He gained international recognition for writing, directing and starring in the Holocaust comedy-drama film ''Life Is Beautiful'' (1997), f ...

's ''Life Is Beautiful''", In: '' After Fellini: National Cinema in the Postmodern Age'', pp. 268-284 * ''

Train of Life ''Train of Life'' (in French ''Train de vie''; in Romanian ''Trenul vieţii'') is a 1998 tragicomedy film by France, Belgium, Netherlands, Israel and Romania made in the French language. It tells the story of an eastern European Jewish village's ...

'' (1998) * ''

Europa, Europa ''Europa Europa'' (german: Hitlerjunge Salomon, lit. "Hitler Youth Salomon") is a 1990 historical war drama film directed by Agnieszka Holland, and starring Marco Hofschneider, Julie Delpy, Hanns Zischler, and André Wilms. It is based on the 1 ...

'' (1990)