Seeing the Humor in ‘List’

Reading “Did Cultures Clash Over ‘Schindler’s’?” (Jan. 22) brought a smile to my face. Am I irreverent?

I am 42 years old, white, female. My daughter, 17, and I attended a showing of “Schindler’s List” on New Year’s Eve in Costa Mesa. We found ourselves finding humor (perhaps cynical) as well as horror, and compassion not only for the Jews but also for the Nazis. The whole situation was a tragedy. I am aware of the Holocaust and its atrocities to the Jews, but I felt this film transcended to the horror of the situation of all involved.

The shooting of the Jewish woman, the engineer, rang with a cynical humor, but I noticed only a few very tightly held smirks. The small boy who hid in the latrine, only to be told it already belonged to someone else, was humorous. This feeling was not shared by a large percentage of the audience.

Perhaps this was a cultural clash; perhaps I have seen too much intolerance. But isn’t it funny that the Holocaust survivors didn’t want those children there to disturb their memorial--and on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, too?

Sorry, but I find it humorous in a cynical sort of way.

LAURIE HASENJAEGER

Garden Grove