Nothing is so sacred, so taboo, or so disgusting that it cannot be the subject of humour. Quite the contrary — it is precisely those topics culturally defined as sacred, taboo or disgusting which more often than not provide the principal grist for humorous mills. In a history of world atrocities which unfortunately includes far too many instances, it would be hard to think of any one example more gruesome than the methodical murder of millions of Jews in Nazi Germany. The sordid, unspeakably cruel and vicious details of the extermination of Jews in such concentration camps as Dachau, Buchenwald and Auschwitz has been amply documented many times over, e.g., by Terrence Des Pres inThe Survivor: An Anatomy of Life in the Death Camps (New York, 1977). In reading the moving accounts written by survivors, it is hard to imagine that any humour could possibly arise from the mass gassing of thousands of individuals.

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Editors and Affiliations

1. West Glamorgan Institute of Higher Education, UK

   Chris Powell

2. University of Aston, Birmingham, UK

   George E. C. Paton

© 1988 Chris Powell and George E. C. Paton

Policies and ethics