Holocaust Parody in Israeli Popular Culture

Abstract

For many years, Israeli culture recoiled from dealing with the Holocaust from a humorous perspective. The perception was that a humorous approach to the Holocaust might threaten the sanctity of its memory, or evoke feelings of disrespect towards the subject, and hurt the survivors’ feelings. Official agents of Holocaust memory continue to use this approach, but from the 1990s a new unofficial path of memory began taking shape in tandem with it. It is an alternative and subversive path that seeks to remember – but differently. Texts that combine the Holocaust with parody of various characters related to Nazism and Israeli Holocaust commemoration are a major aspect of this new memory. This article analyzes examples of Holocaust parody in Hebrew. It shows that Holocaust parody in Israel is directed at the average Jewish-Israelis due to their intense Holocaust awareness; public figures, politicians and collective memory agents who manipulate Holocaust commemoration and Hitler’s image. The texts are analyzed through theories of collective trauma, humor and parody. Contrary to perceptions that Holocaust humor and parody disrespects the Holocaust and its survivors, this article maintains that Holocaust parody in Israel proves the great extent to which the Holocaust is a living part of the identity of the young generation and is also used as a tool to protest against the distortions in Holocaust commemoration.