One might have thought that after the incredible portrayal of the horrors of the Holocaust in Steven Spielberg’s 1993 Schindler’s List, a movie seen by millions throughout the world, that the subject was exhausted for filmmakers. How else could they tell the story of the Holocaust that had not been done before in films such as The Diary of Anne Frank, The Garden of the Finzi-Continis, Shoah, and Au Revoir Les Enfants, to name a few.

Roberto Benigni believed he had a different way to tell the story. Never done before, and knowing he could be open to great criticism, he co-wrote a screenplay that employs humor and pathos to tell the story of an ordinary Italian Jew and his family sent to a

As the years distance us further away from the Nazi horror, and as the number of survivors and witnesses dwindles, we are faced with the challenge of how to impart the lessons of the Holocaust to new generations.

Nazi death camp. Humor and the Holocaust – an oxymoron in terms. Yet, in Life is Beautiful, (La Vita È Bella), which won the Grand Prix at the Cannes Film Festival, Roberto Benigni makes it work.

Benigni’s fable tells the story of Guido, a Chaplinesque figure determined to have his dreams realized. His humor makes him an endearing soul and through his comic antics he wins the woman he loves, opens the bookstore he desires, and lives a happy, ordinary life with Dora and their son, Joshua. For Guido, portrayed by Benigni, who also directed the film, life is beautiful. That is until he and Joshua are taken in a Nazi round up of Jews to a concentration camp.

How Guido saves his young son from certain death and protects him until liberation is what makes this film unique, and what may be discomforting to some, especially Holocaust survivors. For he falls back on what he does best – he activates his comedic imagination. He convinces Joshua they are playing a game and to win Joshua must follow the rules Guido sets down.

How can one reconcile humor with the greatest horror mankind has witnessed? As a Holocaust survivor I was sure it couldn’t be done, but after seeing Life is Beautiful I became convinced that Roberti Benigni had created something very special – and very important. The film succeeds because the comedy is used to create a stark contrast between normal life and life during the Shoah. It heightens the level of anxiety the viewer has about the terror that is inevitably going to occur. In other words, it works because it adds one more layer that connects the viewer, humanizing the tragedy in ways that a more direct depiction may not.

As the years distance us further away from the Nazi horror, and as the number of survivors and witnesses dwindles, we are faced with the challenge of how to impart the

...there is far too much trivialization of Holocaust imagery.

lessons of the Holocaust to new generations. For young people, studying World War II may seem as relevant as studying the Seven Years War. Now that they go online more than they go to the library, they are bombarded by as much disinformation as information. Holocaust deniers would have them believe that there were no concentration camps, no death camps; that Hitler’s Nazis didn’t have a Final Solution which killed six millions Jews, including one million children; that it is all just a Jewish conspiracy.

At the same time there is far too much trivialization of Holocaust imagery. A rude shopkeeper is called a "soup Nazi," someone who cuts off another driver is called a "traffic Nazi." Legitimate political differences are described in terms of Nazism; a party in a business dispute is called Hitler; fashion designers create Nazi collections; a rap group releases an album entitled Da Halocaust. It is clearly necessary to be very careful how one approaches this sacred subject.

Life is Beautiful does just that by employing comedy in a very careful and instructive way. Its success in Italy and Cannes, and undoubtedly in the United States, may well pave the way for the next generation’s effort to keep the memory alive. The film’s surreal approach enhances rather than diminishes the reality of Guido’s situation. By focusing on the personal story of one family we see how their humanity is relevant to ours, how their efforts to cope are significant to us, and how at one and the same time they were like us and yet completely different from us.

These are the things that Roberto Benigni captures so brilliantly in Life is Beautiful. We laugh and we cry. We are moved. We want others to share our experience. Through his comedic ingenuity Benigni has made an important contribution to teaching the lessons of the Shoah.