Esther D. Kustanowitz

Anne Frank’s birthday is June 12. In honor of her life and work, I wanted to share two recent pieces I wrote about Anne, and take a look at some of the current media conversation about her.

Comedy and the Holocaust

The Holocaust is not funny. We all know that. And yet, there is comedy being performed about things associated with the Holocaust that some people do find funny. This line is a difficult one to walk and is explored very well and, I think, respectfully, in the documentary “The Last Laugh.” That film, containing jokes and serious interviews with comedians, makes points about Jews’ survival and ridiculing Nazis as taking away their power. (Trailer at end of this post.)

And then there’s Anne Frank.

Roasting Anne Frank

This month, Netflix released a new series by Jeffrey Ross called “Historical Roasts,” including a “roast” of Anne Frank. The internet rebelled, with many calling on people everywhere to insist that Netflix cancel and remove the whole series. Most of these people had not seen the show and proudly proclaimed they wouldn’t even watch a few seconds of it in protest; they were rebelling in knee-jerk reaction to the sheer idea of a comedy roast of the beloved diarist. They didn’t understand Ross’s motivations, or they didn’t care. They thought the show was laughing at Anne Frank. (And the word “roast” in a Holocaust context is really in poor taste, but that’s what the genre is called.) But Ross said in a Jewish Journal interview that he was acting out of educational goals, but through a genre – comedy roasts in which the guest of honor is insulted by “friends” and then has an opportunity to fight back with their own insults – that he has become known for:

“As a comedian, you do things that no one’s ever done, and roasting Anne Frank sounds outlandish, it sounds risky, but to me, the riskier move would be to ignore the most provocative and the most emotional stories,” Ross said. “People always talk about the Holocaust and they say ‘never forget,’ but young people, I’m sorry, they are forgetting. They need to hear these stories, and I use Anne Frank not just as a hero from World War II but as a cautionary tale of today and anti-Semitism.” 

Anne and Rachel at the Fringe

In this year’s Hollywood Fringe Festival, writer and comedian Rachel McKay Steele has a one-woman show about Anne Frank, or more accurately, about how her life is inspired by Anne Frank’s work. The show, “Shiva for Anne Frank,” got a little sexually explicit at parts, and is often more about the author than the diarist. It will undoubtedly elicit some knee-jerk reactions to the concept. But Steele points out that Anne herself, even within her dire circumstances, had a wry sense of humor. It’s possible she would have enjoyed a good roast, or Jewish comedians identifying with parts of her story or with the observations she made in her diary. As with the roasts, the ability to sit and absorb the culture of this show is about understanding the genre and suspending your inner critic to see the truths within, even if you find some of the trappings offensive.

Let’s Talk

So what role should contemporary tools – like social media and various types of comedy or commentary – play in retelling the sacred stories of our tragic past? Is it always going to be “too soon” to joke about tragedy? Are remembrances only permitted to be somber, or can we infuse serious memorials with humor?

Read “Chutzpah, Babka and ‘Shiva for Anne Frank,'” my interview with writer and comedian Rachel McKay Steele, in the Jewish Journal.

Read my piece, “Anne Frank Friended Me: Social Media and Remembering the Holocaust,” in eJewishPhilanthropy.

Trailer for “The Last Laugh” (2016)