Gallows humor is one of the ways that human beings have consistently stood up to the most miserable instances of suffering. Turning this week to the Holocaust, it's hard to make jokes. But in fact many jokes came out of the ghettoes and the camps, as victims tried to fend off the brutality with humor. I recall one such example: A Nazi officer rounds up a group of Jews in the ghetto, and it's clear that he intends to kill them. One of the men cries out, "Please, please, don't shoot me. Have pity!" The Nazi officer says, "Fine. But I will ask you a question, and you have to answer corretly, and if you do, you will be allowed to live. One of my eyes is artificial--it is a glass eye--but it was made by one of the finest craftsmen in Berlin. No one can even tell which one it is. If you can tell, you will not be shot." The Jewish man looked closely at the Nazi and said, "It's the left one." The Nazi was amazed and said, "You are correct! But how did you know?" And the Jewish man said, "That one almost looked human."
The anecdote leads to some interesting thoughts. How can we joke about such things? How could people in those circumstances make up jokes? Perhaps humor is an innately _human_ capacity; it helps us maintain our humanity, even in the darkest circumstances. We are also led to think about the perpetrator of such crimes: are they inherently inhuman--monstrous even--as the man in the story suggests? Or is Arendt right: perpetrators of genocide are far from monstrous; they are instead all too human--banal, thoughtless, clownish. What is the cause behind events like the Holocaust or the Rwandan genocide? What in human nature or in society drives them? And how should we respond? What if we followed Wiesel's example, at least as he appears at the end of _Night_: would we be left with anything to hold on to?
I have to agree with Arendt, I don’t believe that these perpetrators are inhuman or monstrous especially because God created them. I also don’t believe that the perpetrator himself is evil, but that his actions are evil. I think people who do evil actions are due to their past. For example, (going off topic a little, i hope this makes sense) if you do a background check on a person who has murdered someone and find that this person is in a gang, you’ll mostly likely also find that this child grew up with having a broken family. That gang member most likely kills to feel a sense of belonging and they consider the gang as their family. That’s why I believe that although the gang member is doing these evil actions you could however; see a different side of them when they are all together – a caring and loving side for their gang. Maybe to them the killing is not seen as evil but as a sign of love and protection.
ReplyDeleteReferring back to the text, we see a similarity within Eichmann. To Eichmann being a Nazi(like a gang) made him feel like he was being praised because for once in his life he wasn’t failing at what he was doing. Once again a sense of belonging…
So I don’t think any of these perpetrators are monstrous (the gang member and Eichmann).. they were just both missing something in their lives for so long and wanted to fulfill that missing part but just chose the wrong path of doing so – maybe it was the only way, or the easiest way
I think that comedy is the one way that we can deal with such a heavy situation. It we don't have humor, the situation becomes too much to handle. To get through hard times we have to be able to laugh at it. This joke also makes me think of the show The Producers. The song Spring Time for Hitler makes a total joke out of the Holocaust. It makes it easier to deal with.
ReplyDeleteThere are some things in life that truly hurt to think about and I believe the events in Rwanda and the Holocaust fall into such a category. Humor is a natural part of being human; it is one thing that defines us from all the other organisms on the planet. Think about when you were younger and someone got hurt, in most cases comedy is used to distract from the situation and take another persons mind off the pain. Now think about an awkward situation you were placed in and laughed because you didn’t know what else to do. Both are extremely diluted examples of what you are describing.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately I’ve heard a fair few jokes about both events. Here is one my younger brother told me:
“What is worse than biting into your apple and finding a worm inside? Biting into your apple and finding half a worm. What’s worse than biting into your apple and finding half a worm? Genocide!” (this was, of course, before he knew what genocide was.)
Joking is a way to divert unease and take our minds off pain, and since these events are full of both I find it understanding that some jokes were born from that.
The jokes I cannot tolerate are the ones that take advantage of such horrifying times and poke fun at/ devalue the situation by being insensitive. I wish I could say I don’t know at least five jokes about the Holocaust that make my blood boil, but that is the kind of world we live in.
I think joking about certain issues like this is healthy. The joke you provided us with was one poking fun at the perpetrator. If the joke had targeted the victim, I personally would not find it appropriate or funny considering what they had to endure, but since the target was the one who was inflicting the evil, I found it quite amusing. I believe joking is always good as long as one knows his or her audience. Joking brings people together, it breaks the ice, and it allows people to share something.
ReplyDelete-Ryan LoRusso
I agree that humor is necessary for us to use to maintain our humanity as well as our sanity. I also agree with Ryan that it depends on your audience is that receives the brunt of the punch-line... however, in the joke that the Jewish man made about the glass eye, it was the victim making a joke about the perpetrator, and that is the only reason that is funny.
ReplyDeleteWhile it seems that humor makes gruesome, evil things easier to bear, I think that it also makes them easier to COMMIT. It's a product of repeated exposure-making the most heinous things commonplace. An example of this comes to mind when I think about the blonde jokes that we all thought were so funny back in the mid-1990's. "Why does a blonde wear panties?" "To keep her ankles warm". Here, humor makes a blatant chauvinistic joke made to objectify women, and both parties are effected. "What do you call a blonde with two black eyes? Nothing, you've already told her twice". Humor is used as a way to legitimize certain stereotypes, actions, and behaviors, and humor makes oppression, sexual and verbal abuse more ubiquitous and we become desensitized and complacent.
With the joke about the panties, men are effected in a way that makes the objectification of women seem OK, and women are effected because this type of joke reinforces societies push to make them sexual, complacent beings (and nothing else).
ReplyDeleteJoking is certainly a way for victims to keep their minds off of pain, especially when children are involved to keep then from realizing the sometimes horrific truth of a given situation.
-nicole luna
There are fine lines to joking, and what one deems OK and funny may really upset someone else (who ma even be ing the same situation). With regards to people who are suffering, sometimes it's just better to laugh than cry.
I can't help but think of the genocide triangle and the relation to joking. Joking can usefully used and acts as a coping mechanisim when the joking is done by the victim? But what about the observers or even perpetrators? Is it ok that perpetrators joke about the "evil" they inflict. Joking could be useful to the perpetrators to help them cope with their guilt for if what Arendt says is true, that evil-doers are banal, somewhere in their equation there must be some sort of denial and joking can only strengthen that characteristic.
ReplyDeleteTo respond to Claire's response, I would say, "to each his own". Yes I think that humor is a way to cope, for the victim, observer, and perpetrator. However to whom you're making the joke is a big factor. I am not saying that only if a perpetrator tells a joke to another perpetrator it is right, I'm saying that the perpetrator, observer, and victim are all people who have emotions and instincts and coping methods. Each will use their own in order to deal with their own issues, but I do not think it is fair to offend others in order to make yourself feel better.
ReplyDelete-Vanessa Norkus
When we are put in an uncomfortable situation, we laugh at the situations when we want to cover our insecurity of the matter or do not want to seem insensitive to others' feelings...
ReplyDeleteArendt's ideal perpetrator is apparent in the joke. The joke's situation establishes a sense of "clownish" by the Nazis. Even though, the joke is suppose to "lighten" the mood of the situation. I feel, it's still a mockery of gambling one's life.
Laughter is clearly a coping mechanism taken from the context of the situation and is used for the ease of that situation for one, some or everyone involved. Joking lightens the mood and loosens the tension. People use joking in commonplace, everyday life all the time, more times than we even realize. Think of all the "akward" moments one has had in their life and think of what was done to lessen the akwardness?Joking. Joking, whether in our everyday lives or in the Jewish ghettos, is something we must accept and take pride in, for without it the world would be all too serious. Joking brings about laughter and it is definitely an innate human capacity. In saying this, I do consider the fact that there is always a time and place for everything, so tact is necessary, however without this capacity to poke fun in ourselves and others, the world would be mundane, boring, and most importantly, devoid of the best thing of all....LAUGHTER!
ReplyDelete-Kathleen Voss
Joking was a way for the victims of the Holocaust to cope with what they were going through. Laughing is better than crying, and they were doing anything they could to make their situation better.
ReplyDeleteAnd to go off what Claire said. the perpetrators also joked to cope with the crimes they were committing. I agree with Arendt, and believe that the perpetrators were just human. But by being human they had the choice to not participate in the elimination of the Jews. Choosing to participate made them monstrous.
Finding humor in the Holocaust does seem contradictory, but for those that went through it I think it might be part of what allowed any of them to survive. When a person has the will and optimism enough to tell a joke, to make someone laugh, in such a situation it seems more likely that they will have the positivity that makes them willing to fight for their lives. It is a tool for both distraction and strengthening one's will. If someone can see the humorous in life (especially given such conditions) they have either numbed themselves to the horrible or they have a love of life and can remain positive about the situation.
ReplyDeleteI can understand for those in the Holocaust that humor was a way to stay human and alive. They needed it as much as they needed wanter. I can only understand in that context but I thought about it in the context of the Rwandan genocide and I simply could not. I just thought about the documentary and I could not get the images and what they said out of my head so there was and is no way I could understand humor out of that genocide. I feel that both were obviously tragic, but actually seing the act occur in the documentary about Rwandan was a a much more vivid picture and now when I think about it, I don't see any room for humor.
ReplyDeleteThe coping mechanism's that the Holocaust survivors used are common practice, which we all use to get through tough situations. The whole thing about laughing and joking, I find as a really common way that we as people are able to get through tough situations wether they impact our life in the same way as the Holocaust did, or whether it is just a copping mechanism to turn ourselves away from the harsh realities. in any way to laugh in the face of death, is exactly what many Holocaust survivors did.
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