Although deprived of its best talents in the field of German humor because of the exodus of the most gifted Germans, Nazi Germany determined to show the world how well it gets along with Nazi talents alone.
A demonstration was organized, part of which was to be a national radio broadcast, over Germany’s largest broadcasting station, on “Achievements in German Humor,” with examples. The broadcast was widely announced in advance and Charlie Roellinghoff, the German humorist, an “Aryan,” was entrusted with the task.
But in the last minute the program had to be called off. The Nazis discovered, to their consternation, that most of the examples of the best German humor, selected by Roellinghoff for his broadcast, were creations of German Jews, as the great majority of Germany’s humorists have been Jews.
Another disappointment came when the Berlin Lustpielhaus Theatre was about to produce the popular German comedy, “My Leopold,” by Adolf L’Arronge, and the Nazi authorities learned that the author’s original name was Aronson and that he was not an “Aryan.”
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
