Dead Funny: Telling Jokes in Hitler's Germany

As Donald Trump persecutes comedians who make fun of him, a look at WWII history shows that, under fascism, a joke can get you banned, exiled . . . or executed . . .

Hitler and Göring are standing on top of the Berlin radio tower. Hitler says he wants to do something to put a smile on the Berliners’ faces. Göring says, “Why don’t you jump?”

When a woman working in a German factory told this joke to a colleague in 1943, she was arrested by the Nazis and sentenced to death by guillotine—it didn...