OPINION: My dear grandfather Zigi knew laughter is often a Jew’s best defence
Following the loss of Holocaust survivor Zigi Shipper, his grandson Darren Richman writes that defiance and humour in the face of death seems a particularly Jewish coping mechanism
In the aftermath of my grandfather’s death, we were inundated with messages of condolence. The royal family, Arsenal football club and other less problematic institutions reached out to let our family know what Zigi meant to them.
Students, teachers and academics spoke of hearing the man share his testimony and the profound effect it had on the course of their lives. One tribute in particular stood out when it arrived in the form of a direct message on Twitter from a journalist:
“I would never share this story in a more public setting, but for you, as his grandson…
“I was covering a Yom Hashoah event once and I was at his table, talking to him and a few other survivors. A waitress came around with some cake and gave one of the other survivors a slice that was on the small size. Zigi turned to her and said, “Give him another or he’ll think he’s back in the camps!” My face.
“I mean, no-one else in the WORLD could make that joke.”
Zigi would not have thought twice about making that joke and nor should he have done. At his talks, he would stress that he did not want people to leave feeling bereft but would much rather make them laugh and get the sense that the man stood before them loved life. Judging by the messages we received and the manifold talks I attended, he successfully made people laugh while also making clear the true horrors of the Holocaust. In a sense, he did the same with the joke.
Mel Brooks has spent a lifetime satirising Nazis but was appalled by the Oscar-winning Life is Beautiful because he felt no comedy film should take place, even in part, within a concentration camp.
As Zigi’s grandson and a man who’s spent the better part of the last couple of decades thinking about humour and how it works, the cake comment caused me to reflect on the ways in which humour and the holocaust are more entwined than one might assume.
Mel Brooks has spent a lifetime satirising Nazis but was appalled by the Oscar-winning Life is Beautiful because he felt no comedy film should take place, even in part, within a concentration camp. We each have our own set of rules but it would be impossible to claim Zigi hadn’t earned the right to make his joke.
The American Jewish comic Richard Belzer told a version of the following joke in one of his final recorded interviews earlier this year:
Cohen lives in Berlin in 1933. He’s walking along the street one day when Hitler drives up in a Volkswagen and leaps out with a Luger pistol in his hand. He snarls: “Get down in the gutter and eat the filth like the dog you are, Jew!”
Cohen has no choice but to obey and eat the filth. Hitler is so amused by what he sees that he drops the gun and Cohen senses his opportunity, picks it up and says, “Your turn, mein Führer.”
Later that night Cohen returns home and his wife asks how his day went.
“Not bad. You’ll never guess who I had lunch with!”
Belzer died a month after my grandfather and his last words, after years of ill health, were reportedly, “F*** you, motherf***er.” This heady cocktail of defiance and humour in the face of death seems to me particularly Jewish. It is unsurprising he told the Hitler gag so close to the end since it reflects his mood as clearly as George Orwell’s words on the page in his race against time to finish 1984 before his demise. The joke opens ominously and builds in intensity before providing the kind of release and relief so rarely found in real life with its unlikely scene of convivial domesticity. Jokes, by and large, tend to have more joyful endings than lives.
Saul Bellow wrote that, “In Jewish stories laughter and trembling are so curiously intermingled that it is not easy to determine the relation of the two” and that is undeniably true of the jokes told by the aforementioned legends.
Until all the fascists are scrabbling around in the dirt for real, the best option is to laugh.
Thank you for helping to make Jewish News the leading source of news and opinion for the UK Jewish community. Today we're asking for your invaluable help to continue putting our community first in everything we do.
For as little as £5 a month you can help sustain the vital work we do in celebrating and standing up for Jewish life in Britain.
Jewish News holds our community together and keeps us connected. Like a synagogue, it’s where people turn to feel part of something bigger. It also proudly shows the rest of Britain the vibrancy and rich culture of modern Jewish life.
You can make a quick and easy one-off or monthly contribution of £5, £10, £20 or any other sum you’re comfortable with.
100% of your donation will help us continue celebrating our community, in all its dynamic diversity...
Engaging
Being a community platform means so much more than producing a newspaper and website. One of our proudest roles is media partnering with our invaluable charities to amplify the outstanding work they do to help us all.
Celebrating
There’s no shortage of oys in the world but Jewish News takes every opportunity to celebrate the joys too, through projects like Night of Heroes, 40 Under 40 and other compelling countdowns that make the community kvell with pride.
Pioneering
In the first collaboration between media outlets from different faiths, Jewish News worked with British Muslim TV and Church Times to produce a list of young activists leading the way on interfaith understanding.
Campaigning
Royal Mail issued a stamp honouring Holocaust hero Sir Nicholas Winton after a Jewish News campaign attracted more than 100,000 backers. Jewish Newsalso produces special editions of the paper highlighting pressing issues including mental health and Holocaust remembrance.
Easy access
In an age when news is readily accessible, Jewish News provides high-quality content free online and offline, removing any financial barriers to connecting people.
Voice of our community to wider society
The Jewish News team regularly appears on TV, radio and on the pages of the national press to comment on stories about the Jewish community. Easy access to the paper on the streets of London also means Jewish News provides an invaluable window into the community for the country at large.
We hope you agree all this is worth preserving.
