It Kept Us Alive: Humor in the Holocaust

Humor and laughter can help strengthen and heal mental and physical health, but can it assist in dealing with a trauma as severe as the Holocaust? The book demonstrates how humor helped in coping with the terrible reality. Interviews with survivors describe horrific events, intertwined with macabre humor. Humor during the Holocaust did not lessen the objective experiences but alleviated the emotional response to the horrors. The author classifies the types of humor, and studies their functions in the ghettos, concentration camps and death camps. Included in the book are humorous ditties, songs and cabaret sketches, as well as the unique stories of two ghetto clowns.