"Did You Hear the One About Hitler?"

Did You Hear the One About Hitler?

A new book about humor under the Nazis gives some interesting insights into life in the Third Reich and breaks yet another taboo in Germany's treatment of its history. Jokes told during the era, says the author, provided the populace with a pressure release.

"Hitler visits a lunatic asylum. The patients give the Hitler salute. As he
passes down the line he comes across a man who isn't saluting. "Why aren't you
saluting like the others?" Hitler barks. "Mein Führer, I'm the nurse, I'm not
crazy!" comes the answer."

The author, German film director and screenplay writer Rudolph Herzog, isn't trying to make readers laugh. He wants to examine the Nazi period from a different perspective, and sees contemporary jokes as a good way of showing people's true feelings at the time.
"Jokes reflect what really affects, amuses and angers people. They provide an inner view of the Third Reich that possesses an authenticity one usually misses when reviewing other literary texts," says Herzog, 33, whose book "Heil Hitler, The Pig is Dead" -- the punchline to another Hitler joke -- goes on sale in September. "Political jokes weren't a form of active resistance but valves for pent-up public anger. They were told in pubs, on the street -- to let off steam with a laugh. This suited the Nazi regime which was deeply humorless."

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