Prisoners perform at the Westerbork camp in the Netherlands. Courtesy of Yad Vashem
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 Ferne Pearlstein, director of The Last Laugh, 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 our program. After the live broadcast, the recording will be available to watch on demand on the Museum's Facebook page.