Holocaust Humour, Bittere Gelechter - Bitter Laughter - The Most Taboo Issue?

Jokes about the Holocaust? Oy, how could you!  A SHANDA (Yiddish for shame)!

When my mother, Gitel (may she rest in peace), was a refugee from the Nazi Hordes and interned in a Soviet Forced Labour Camp she would sing a Yiddish song that went like this if the enemy was present.
With a firm hand rules Stalin our land,
Our blood not to shed.
Among those she trusted she would sing:
With an iron hand rules Stalin our land,
Our blood not to shed.
This of course had the opposite meaning to the 'official' version. Even though she had risked her life to sing this song it would still bring a smile to her lips decades after the war ended.

John Morreall Ph.D. writes in Humor in the Holocaust:Its Critical, Cohesive, and Coping Functions 
"During the Holocaust, humor served three main functions. First was its critical function: humor focused attention on what was wrong and sparked resistance to it. Second was its cohesive function: it created solidarity in those laughing together at the oppressors. And third was its coping function: it helped the oppressed get through their suffering without going insane."

Sigmund Freud wrote extensively about humour and its value to the human psyche. In his 1927 essay Humour (Der Humor) writes "The ego refuses to be distressed by the provocations of reality, to let itself be compelled to suffer. It insists that it cannot be affected by the traumas of the external world; it shows, in fact, that such traumas are no more than occasions for it to gain pleasure".

Ricky Gervais has been widely criticized for making jokes about the Holocaust e.g. on the Golden Globes Award Show of 2009. I would like to wish him a Yasher Koach (More Power to You)! Most people find the Holocaust to be such a huge and tragic subject that they avoid it. He has enabled many people to engage with
the material on an informal basis. Whether you approve or condemn him you wind up thinking about the Holocaust in other than habitual patterns. This is a good thing. King Lear is considered one of the greatest tragedies. But take the fool out of the play and you would have another boring story of a dad robbed blind by his children. The play would probably close after one week and the critics would write "Lear minus the bozo is a snooze oh. Don't go!"



The brilliant and beloved cartoonist Sam Gross has been vilified for writing "We Have Ways of Making You Laugh: 120 Funny Swastika Cartoons by Sam Gross." In gratitude I say to Mr. Gross "Yasher Koach" i.e. May You Be Strengthened!