Comic about Hitler turning Jews into soap



It's certainly insensitive but it just a comic and, as such, unlikely to harm anyone. There will always be insensitive people around and we have to expect that they will express themselves insensitively on occasions. Free speech protects insensitive people too. We should reserve our concern for people who do actual harm to others. There are plenty of those.

Certain subjects are so inappropriate as a subject for comedy, it’s a wonder any comedian or artist would see fit to take them on. One would hope the suffering of Jews about to be exterminated in Nazi concentration camps would be one of those. Apparently not so for one Argentine comic strip artist, who is now facing complaints from fellow citizens of the Latin American country.

The cartoon, by Gustavo Sala, depicts a DJ performing at a concentration camp and Hitler instructing inmates to “have fun because life is short.”

In the first panel, DJ David shouts: “Let’s f***ing dance! Party! Party!” To which the prisoners reply they have nothing to celebrate because they are going to be exterminated in mass.

None other than Señor Hitler enters in the third panel, telling the inmates in striped garb that a little fun can’t hurt, adding “have fun, because life is short.”

In the fourth and final panel, while the inmates dance wildly, Hitler thanks the DJ and quips, “If they are relaxed then the soap comes out much better.”

Just a day after publishing the anti-Semitic strip, the newspaper issued an apology on Friday.

Source

Posted by John J. Ray (M.A.; Ph.D.).