Essay Sample on Holocaust: Images of Suffering and Cruelty

Introduction

The explicit mentioning of the word "Holocaust" immediately evokes to mind a sequence of disturbing images; concentration facilities surrounded by miles of barbed wire, parked with scrawny Jews in striped uniform and armed Nazi soldiers bearing the image of cruelty in their faces. Naturally, the mind depicts images of suffering and cruelty – Jews running for safety and survival and infuriated Nazi soldiers' gunfire filling the air. It is hard to imagine a humorous scene in the middle of the face of death and agony.

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Holocaust Films

The notion of associating the Holocaust scenes with joyful or colorful imagery may sometime seem inhumane and ignorant of the torture depicted in most of the Holocaust films. However, a different genre in literature tends to focus on the interior space of the Holocaust, showing how particular elements of sardonic humor was an essential means for survival. Some of the Holocaust films, including "From Train of Life" and "Life is Beautiful," depict the tragedy through the use of humor, showing that creating humor out of tragic life in concentration camps and ghettoes was a critical means of survival. Therefore, it is essential to approach the Holocaust through the comedic genre because it gives the audience an alternative way to internalize abnormalities, prevent an overwhelming sadness from consuming the audience and facilitate a better understanding of the Holocaust culminating ironies, nuances and complexities.

It sounds ironic to depict humor amid immense pain and agony, especially in the case of the Holocaust. However, the genre of comedy goes beyond the common understanding of etiquette and overrides the conventional notion of the proper response to the tragedy. Approaching the Holocaust through comedy facilitate relief from tragedy while still focusing on the intensity of the situation1. Comedy, in this instance, helps the audience to achieve sublimity, being elevated to depict the slightest form of humor that exists in the most daring scenes of the film. Through sublime, laughter is shown from those who suffer most from the cruelty of the Nazis in the concentration camps. For instance, as depicted in different Holocaust films, the Jews in the concentration camps never seem to surrender their spirit. There is a significant sense of humor from methods they use to ease their burdens and various survival mechanism employed by different characters who try effortlessly to find the meaning of life even in instances where death seems inevitable or sometimes the best option. The opportunity to laugh helps the audience release tension and minimize anxiety created from the expression of the scenes depicting the suffering of the Jews in the ghettoes and camps unaware of the future looming before them1. Besides, the use of comedy in Holocaust acts like dressing up the wounds, allowing the content creator to address other significantly compelling issues experienced in the era that the audience might otherwise have been overshadowed to depict by the torment created by in preceding accounts.

Train of Life and Life is Beautiful are two essential comedic depictions of the Holocaust. While someone may argue that these comedic films reduce the actual taste of the Holocaust, they provide an alternative way for the audience to laugh at a comedic depiction of scenes displaying the reality of atrocities perpetrated during this era. For instance, in the Train of Life, the Jewish impersonation of the Nazi soldiers in their plan to escape the approaching danger creates a sense of humor at the center of tension that Jewish communities are threatened with1. When the Germans are rumored to be advancing in the villages, the village elders gather villagers in trains and disappear. It is not only ironic but also humorous as Jewish agree to believe the village fool. The comedic genre, in this instance, portrays an ability to harmonize irony and humor to effect.

Moreover, the film Life is Beautiful presents humorous in a dramatic irony form where an Italian Jewish father employ a desperate strategy to keep his son alive at a concentration camp. This is proof that humor can exist in the Holocaust with a following determination of survival. Playing hide games makes the son believe that they are actually in a typical environment. As he concentrates on following the rules of the game, he is exempted from facing the reality of the situation presented to them. Through such instance, the audience is not only able to remember atrocities perpetrated at the concentration camps but also release tension as scenes unfold2. The author puts a humorous lens on a bleak event allowing the audience to not only reshape the images at their minds but also view all the angles of the Holocaust created in the films. The author manages to use humor for depicting good, unlike others that employ it for defense mechanisms.

Conclusion

Human beings tend to remember minor details within a bigger picture, and the authors of these films offer precisely that, providing a balance between good and evil even when bitterness dominates the scene. For instance, protecting a child's innocence proves that life is beautiful, also when confronted with uncertainties. The simple depiction of such humorous situations shows that comedy may achieve significance that other genres may not.

Bibliography

Armstrong, P. 'I cried 'til I laughed': film and the humor of the Holocaust.

Zizek, Slavoj. "Camp comedy (Holocaust comedies)." Sight and sound 10, no. 4 (2000): 26-29.