What a remarkable thing that this man does not want to live in the sad, painful past but wants to laugh and enjoy life now which is the only reality I will ever know-right here right now.

These are the stories we need to hear especially since as loose actual eye witnesses to these horros.

Simply breathtaking.

Werner Reich’s story reveals one of the essential secrets to what makes us human–our capacity to delve deep into our spiritual resources to survive extreme conditions that would destroy any other living creature. Reich’s resource was humor–telling jokes and translating them into the language of every inmate in the group so all could bolster themselves against dehumanization and disempowerment, despite everything. For Werner and a lucky few, it worked, and he hasn’t stopped sharing this secret ever since. This little film is a treasure trove of wisdom and inspiration.

Beautiful.

I echo Regina W. when I say Werner has recently helped 475 young people to understand the dangers when good people do nothing. Thanks Werner

Heard it was BEAUTIFUL! Please show it so the world can see. Thank you

not sure why this one has the most votes… it is a cool idea and different but horrible audio and video quality and unimaginative … must be the friends voting.

i wish the “filmmaker” would have show some respect to the subject matter and put forth the effort to capture such an amazing story… if i was a teacher i would ask you to reshoot this. sorry.

Story is good but the film and sound execution was terrible. I think you have a good idea here but should consider redoing it with a little more knowledge on the film/sound part. Nice first try at it!

We should never forget what happened. We should also celebrate the lives of those who survived.

Very inspiring. Werner reminds all of us of man’s inhumanity to man and how we should never forget.

This film offers ground to celebrate one survivor’s story.

The saying. . . ‘where there is laughter, there is God’. . .
whereelse is it more greatly needed than when we are in
a hell. . . Thank you for this beautiful little film.

this is beautiful and brilliant and states the purpose of life so eloquently. If more people could elevate their own consciousness by just enjoying the gift of their beautiful lives instead of whining, complaining and moaning, this world would be elevated as a result.

I have heard Werner speak many times in public but never about this. The story was truly incredible, and nothing could be better than seeing a holocuast survivor with his family.

i thought it was so touching that this person took such a tragedy and turned it to a positive thing, he is a wanderfull human being, i vote for him.

This a remarkable film and should be seen. I was quite startled to see it be part of a “choice” of films. This is not giving the film the dignity it deserves in relating the unthinkable, the unimaginable unique hell that 6 million Jews died in and the remnant of 2 thousand years of European Jewry survived under the worst conditions while the world turned their faces away. There was radio, there were telephones, there was communications to know what was happening but the nations of the world let the Jews die in the gas chambers. This was a very disturbing concept on the part of public television officials who could have put this up for a choice “game.” How grossly inappropriate. The stories of the survivors deserve to be treated with greater respect.

So important in a world where some are denying that the Nazis were not systematically killing Jews.

Werner Reich survived Auschwitz against all odds. Yet mere survival wasn’t enough for him. He understood that walking out past those obscene gates would not be a victory if he left his humanity behind. He never forgot the cruelty of what he experienced, but somehow, in spite of the horrors, Werner Reich found the courage to find…. laughter.
“It’s really a surprising thing, but we laughed an awful lot, we had joke sessions every night. The secret is to find a bright side in every misery. Otherwise, you are dealing with hopelessness.” …..If Werner could find laughter in Auschwitz, then I can certainly find the laughter in whatever hell I am going through.

Or–to put it in a nutshell: this film is perfect to precede Hotel Rwanda and Inherit the Wind because isn’t only about Jews–it’s for people of all backgrounds worldwide who have experienced injustice and need to find SPIRITUAL resources to survive when other methods are just not possible.

Bravo to you and your sheer inner will to cherish live over evil.

thank you for sharing this with our children they need to understand and learn what happened Thank you for choosing to live and giving to others. kol hakavod

Excellent… So glad the SS were telling some bad jokes that day. Thank you for this film. Love!

An incredable piece of work–A story that must be told!– and re told!–A brillient and sensitive man who brings hope-laughter–unbevievable sadness and joy at the same time to everyone–I loved it!

This is brilliant! Best story I ever heard.

Bravo!! Many blessings to the family. A bad joke gave you a life to live and love. Wonderful music.

Who would ever think to call this guy “Lucky”, but I would. Thanks for making this piece, really blown away!

Of tremendous relevance to our world today–thank you for sharing the resilience of the human spirit.

Thank you for sharing this beautiful revrent event.Courage & love of life is a wonderfull gift to humanity.Perhaps the people that think this never happened will understand that we must remind everyone that it did.

this short is about the art of sharing an experience of living not technical expertise. the expertise is being of conviction to live and remind the world of such evil

Excellent story, makes you think xxx

we have no control over somethings done to us, some completely random and arbitrary, some too evil to comprehend, some blessings…but how we react and our attitude, we do choose and with this we change the world a tiny bit at a time. Werner witnessed and suffered terrible unfairness and cruelty, yet gives in return courage, hope, and permission to enjoy life.

PLEASE SCREEN THIS FILM ON SAT APRIL 18, BEFORE YOM HA SHOAH (Apr. 21).

If anyone from PBS is reading these comments anymore, I would recommend this short be screened before another upcoming Saturday night film. The perfect date would be Saturday, April 18–since Yom Ha Shoah is April 21. This would do justice to the fact this film was the most watched and commented-upon of any in this competition. In effect–if not in terms of how the apparently flawed computer voting works–this film won the most “votes.” –Dr. Jud Newborn, Founding Historian and Co-Creator, NY’s Museum of Jewish Heritage (1986-2000); Holocaust Scholar and Film Consultant, consulting curator, Cinema Arts Centre (LI)

Too bad Martin (above) does not regard story-telling the chief business of film making. No doubt this explains why he favors the weaker film. What a great pity that the life-affirming message of Telling Jokes in Auschwitz, a mesmerizing tale, was denied an audience because of some kind of repetitive online voting mechanism. Mr Reich’s important message was sidelined for a pathetic diatribe of rant and meaningless quasi-rage that went nowhere. Sad to think that a magnificent testimony on the dignity of the human spirit, was marginalized in favor of a sophomoric, empty-headed rambling piece whose whole objective seemed to spotlight an angry young black man whose profane language left this viewer wandering what is going on at PBS. Judging from the comments on this site I have no doubt we will be hearing more from Mr. Reich and filmmaker Sandi Bachom in the future, and that is cause for celebration. So I guess we should say thanks CH13 despite your ridiculour voting system, no doubt skewed for click-through ratings, for bringing Telling Jokes in Auschwitz to our attention.

I’m going to have to agree with Martin. This was a very good story, but the film itself is terrible. bdavid - you are completely wrong about thinking that film making is story telling. just look at this week’s lineup of shorts. which one has the best story in your opinion? oh wait - none of them do! And T.L.McConnell, the same goes for you. I agree with everyone here that this film has a great and powerful story to tell, but to judge the film you have to look beyond that, because then everyone, who has a great story to tell, can simply set up a camera and record himself/herself telling the story and that should make a great film. right? wrong. not at all. this week’s lineup is the proof. the spectrum of film making is very wide and reaches from abstract and experimental animation to dramatic narrative. some tell great stories. some tell none. T.L. McConnell - calling the voting system “ridiculour” (your spelling!) is a matter of opinion and a sign of denying defeat instead of constructive criticism. If anything seems shady and unfair that its this entire comments page, especially the multiple entries of such people like Jud Newborn, Ph.D., who seems to be very passionate and defensive about the film and lists his impressive credentials with each entry. something isn’t right here!

I can’t imagine the horrors of the camps and being able to laugh. But it goes to show that mankind has the spirit and ability to overcome the most adverse obstacles, and situations. Laughter is very powerful, and the best medicine. Werner is very inspirational..

Great!