A German screenwriter has written a history of anti-Nazi humor in Germany during WWII — “Heil Hitler, Das Schwein is Tot!” (Hail Hitler, the Pig is Dead!) tells the story of the grim humor told by Germans during the Third Reich, including the gallows humor of the Jews facing the concentration camps:
But by the end of the war, a joke could get you killed. A Berlin munitions worker, identified only as Marianne Elise K., was convicted of undermining the war effort “through spiteful remarks” and executed in 1944 for telling this one:
Hitler and Göring are standing on top of Berlin’s radio tower. Hitler says he wants to do something to cheer up the people of Berlin. “Why don’t you just jump?” suggests Göring…
“Two Jews are about to be shot. Suddenly the order comes to hang them instead. One says to the other “You see, they’re running out of bullets…”
Such jokes told by Jews were a form of mutual encouragement, an expression of the will to survive. “Even the blackest Jewish humor expresses a defiant will, as if the joke teller wanted to say: I’m laughing, so I’m still alive,” says Herzog.
(via 3 Quarks Daily)