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Monday, March 18
The Indiana Daily Student

From tragedy to comedy: Jewish students warn against desensitization caused by Holocaust jokes

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When a “Family Guy” episode titled “Road to Germany” appeared on his television screen, Jordan Schiff, a Jewish IU sophomore, plopped down on his couch to watch one of his favorite shows. When the show’s genius 1-year-old character Stewie dressed up in Hitler’s characteristic toothbrush mustache and swastika armband, though, Schiff was not amused.

“There was something unsettling about watching a baby impersonate the mastermind behind the deaths of millions of people,” he said.

Holocaust jokes were part of the discussion in a documentary titled “The Last Laugh” that aired on PBS on Tuesday for Holocaust Remembrance Day. The filmmakers asked mainstream comedians, including Mel Brooks, Sarah Silverman and Gilbert Gottfried, what their stance on Holocaust jokes was. The clear consensus was that they were fair game.

The documentary points out that even Holocaust victims used humor in concentration camps as a means of defiance and survival, but the film notes Holocaust jokes also run the risk of diminishing the suffering of victims, which poses questions about where comedians should draw the line.

While he said he is not sensitive to jokes about Jewish stereotypes, Schiff draws the line at Holocaust jokes in general. He said these jokes pose a problem because the victims and the many survivors who have died since the Holocaust can’t speak up against the jokes.

Schiff’s grandfather escaped to the United States from Germany right before the Holocaust began. If his grandfather were still alive to hear the jokes, Schiff said he knows these Holocaust jokes would upset him.

“I think people need to ask themselves if they would say whatever joke to the face of someone who was affected by the Holocaust,” Schiff said. “If the answer’s yes, then there’s a problem.”

Halle Fromson, a Jewish IU sophomore, said her family members would also be upset to hear the Holocaust jokes that she constantly hears in TV shows, movies and in person.

Fromson said she’s no longer surprised when she hears Holocaust jokes. In fact, these jokes have become normal, which only further justifies people who choose to make them.

“Holocaust jokes are on the table now,” she said.

While Schiff said people should never joke about the Holocaust, he doesn’t want to punish them for it. People who make these jokes are usually good people who mean no real harm, he said.

“They’re not thinking about the millions who died,” he said. “They’re just trying to be funny or repeating what they’ve heard. It doesn’t make them bad people.”

Schiff said he wants people to ask themselves how they would feel if they heard people joking about a part of their identity or a tragic part of their family history.

However, the comedians in “The Last Laugh” came to the consensus that any joke is fair game if the tragedy is far enough in the past.

“Tragedy plus time equals comedy, and I always felt, why wait?” Gottfried said in the documentary.

But Fromson says wait. She said time doesn’t erase the horrors of the Holocaust or make it OK for comedians to joke about it.

Holocaust jokes diminish the suffering of millions and desensitize people to the genocide, Fromson said. For many people today, the Holocaust has turned from a tragedy to a joke.

“The more people joke about it, the less serious it becomes,” she said.

Only 100,000 Holocaust survivors remain alive today. When the last Holocaust survivor dies, Schiff said the only things people will have to remember the tragedy is artifacts, the media and stories that have been passed down. He said it’s important for people to make sure what remains is reality rather than jokes.

“We can’t let that happen and forget what the Holocaust was really about,” Schiff said. “Now’s the time for us to stand against this and not let what really happened get lost in jokes.”

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