This documentary looks at the clampdown on satire and other undesirable comedians as the Third Reich grew in power. The plight of specific groups (or “art”) tends to get lost in the scale of the much bigger human cost of WWII. However here the film looks at how satire and jokes at Hitler’s expense were encouraged to some degree as he came into power but gradually anything deemed “subversive” was squeezed out and telling such jokes gradually became more and more dangerous.
We hear about German comedians who are sentenced to hard labour in camps or even death as punishment for making jokes. This is recalled with well chosen recollections from a couple of people involved in the period and it serves to only make things worse by not being at all surprising. After this the film explores the general sense of humour on the street as the war started to turn back against German cities and civilians, where understandably there was a certain amount of gallows humour. Throughout the film the jokes are recreated by two German comedians.
Director/Narrator: Rudolph Herzog (Son of Werner Herzog – documentary film maker). Release Date: June 2007. Also known ss: Satirizontas to Hitler.
LOVED IT
This page really really sucks , I have clicked on 10 different documentaries and all I got was a blank page , WTF , what is this shit ?
The GMAN
Those who fail to see the value of learning what became of comedy under Hitler deserve a pie in the face. Well presented.
terrible “jokes” and voice-overs
hahaha, funny, but this is not a documentary. It is satire. It took me like 10 minutes to realize this, but when I did, it was just obvious. Not a real documentary, so the above comments really amuse me.
uhm…it is a documentary and it`s exactly about what the description says it is about … so your comment is even more ” amusing ” since you obviously have no clue what you saying … neither has John in the previous comment … it`s not Jokes by nazis …it`s jokes by Germans about nazis …. and the narrator is an actual German which would explain the German accent.
having that said , i`m agreeing with Ted in the first comment… awful narration and voice over and translations
Interesting subject matter but absolutely awful narration and voice over translations!
Oh my god. A german-sounding commenter on jokes by nazis.
I was like 😐 the whole time.
This sucked.