How Humor Helped Heal the Pain of the Holocaust

Jewish comedian Robert Clary, who was imprisoned in the Buchenwald concentration camp and later acted in the 1960s sitcom Hogan’s Heroes, says that making people laugh during the Holocaust saved his life. Humor helped some people cope with atrocious conditions in ghettos and concentration camps as they suffered under Nazi brutality. It served as a form of protest and a way to maintain dignity in the most undignified of circumstances.

Join the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and Ferne Pearlstein, director of The Last Laugh, live on Facebook to explore how humor kept the human spirit alive during the Holocaust and helped survivors heal.

Speaker
Ferne Pearlstein, Director, The Last Laugh

Moderator
Dr. Edna Friedberg, Historian, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

Watch live at facebook.com/holocaustmuseum. You do not need a Facebook account to view their program. After the live broadcast, the recording will be available to watch on demand on the USHMM's Facebook page.