Laugh or Cry

Rabbi Daniel Siegel

While many Holocaust survivors remain silent about their Shoah lives, a silence we must honour, as a people we do not keep silent but raise our voices. Through writing, art, poetry, music, dance and prayer, we keep vigilant memory of a past to safeguard our future and that of all humankind.

With this in mind, I went to see a much celebrated film that recently debuted in Australia, as part of The Jewish International Film Festival. JoJo Rabbit categorised as a “satirical black comedy” won top prize in the 44^th Toronto International Film Festival and has been nominated for five Hollywood Critics Association awards, including best picture.

Still, I went with hesitation, as perhaps did others of the many who gathered to see this film, being shown on two screens.

When Maus made its appearance, I debated if I should share its contents with my High School children. This graphic novel by American cartoonist Art Spiegelman, presents his father’s Holocaust experiences by depicting Jews as mice, Germans as cats, and Poles as pigs. Maus won a Pulitzer Prize. When does a provocative medium deliver a powerful and necessary message that otherwise could not be delivered?

Charlie Chaplain’s 1940 political satire comedy, The Great Dictator, was nominated for five academy awards. Yet, Chaplain wrote in his autobiography that he could not have made that film if he had known about the true extent of the horrors of the Nazi concentration camps at the time.

The above examples, in consideration of the awards they were accorded, might be deemed of a compelling nature for meaningful reflection upon the Holocaust and its Nazi perpetrators. Unlike, many would argue, the Holocaust jokes of comedians Rachel Silverman and Joan Rivers, which I will not share here.

Does it matter that all of the above were Jewish (Charlie was widely held to be Jewish though it has never been confirmed, Chaplain’s grandfather is reported to have been Jewish) or that one who was not Jewish, like Roberto Benigni of the award-winning Holocaust comedy drama Life is Beautiful, was son of a survivor of the Bergen Belsen concentration camp.

Weinman, the daughter of Holocaust survivors, regrets her decision that made for the Seinfeld Soup Nazi episode. “I think the notion of ‘Nazi’ being used as a very mild pejorative does trivialize that experience”.

The Last Laugh, a documentary film written and directed by Ferne Pearlstein focuses on Renee Firestone, a 91-year-old Auschwitz survivor whose entire family was murdered in the Holocaust. She contends that if you can’t laugh – even at the Holocaust – then the Nazis may as well have won. But, her fellow survivor, Elly Gross shares with Renee that she cannot laugh about the Holocaust or see any humour in speaking about the Nazis.

There was uproarious laughter in the theatre as a full house watched JoJo Rabbit and there was utter silence, making me wonder which is of greater power in giving hope to our collective humanity.

Miriam Itzkowitz

Please find below a perspective on JoJo Rabbit, from one of our senior students, Miriam Itzkowitz

A scene from JoJo Rabbit

The Jewish International Film Festival (JIFF) aims to provide Jews from around the world with movies of a Jewish theme or nature. Whilst many are often fascinating, funny and insightful, one which was racking up a lot of press internationally was Jojo Rabbit, a satire about a young boy whose imaginary friend is Hitler. I was fortunate enough to see it in its Australian premiere, and found it to be an incredible piece of work.

The story follows a young boy, Jojo, who is indoctrinated from a young age into the Nazi ideologies, through participating in the Hitler Youth, and hence, his imaginary best friend is Hitler. He soon discovers that his mother is hiding a Jewish girl, Elsa, in their house and tries to find information about Jews through discussion with her. However, much of the time she is simply pulling his leg. At the end of the movie, Jojo no longer hates Jews after realising the absurdity and stupidity of Nazism, after his time with Elsa, and rids himself of Hitler as his imaginary friend after the war ceases.

The storyline is very sweet, but the film itself is extremely provocative and satirical in its presentation of the film, really testing the limits with terrible German accents, expressing the bizarreness of the Nazi ideologies, overly repeating the phrase “Heil Hitler” constantly, and my personal favourite, the actor playing Hitler being half-Jewish/half-Maori, which I like to think would be to the chagrin of Hitler.

While the Holocaust is a very sensitive topic, I do think we can incorporate humour into better understanding it. Of course, the events which occurred are beyond terrible, and ideologies that arose from pure hate ruined many lives, but I think that laughing at the stupidity of a group who tried to abolish us is the best revenge we, as Jews, can have on Hitler and the Nazis.

Being able to be alive and laugh at Hitler being kicked out a window or the ridiculousness of what people believed demonstrates our ability to move on as a people, acknowledge the past, and feel proud for being Jewish and alive. I do acknowledge that this type of film isn’t to everyone’s taste. But, I strongly encourage people who are interested in a different type of Holocaust medium to see Jojo Rabbit, as it portrays a unique perspective on the Holocaust, shows how people can change, and, as sadistic as it sounds, gives us a chance to laugh at the anguish of someone who tried to murder our people.