Pertti Jarla: “The inability to see something humorous is in my opinion a healthy and understandable reaction. My intention was to find black humour in a situation where Nazi Germany tries tragicomically to be ethical in a modern way. The purpose was not to belittle the horrendeousness of the issue, but on the contrary to play with conflict of the horrible issue and everyday mundane things [such as soap].”
NOTE: The TT enquired about it from a Finnish Jew, “It does give ammo to the Jew haters, it can be understood to also mean: Jew-free soap, which would make more sense actually …. even though its cruel. It doesn’t make sense, it’s in bad taste and the word play is to complicated to understand. So as a Finnish/Jewish reader it’s in bad taste, but I wouldn’t pull it.”
UPDATE: Think animal rights or a green product. Here’s some background. This cartoon is in light of a series of reports in Finland about animal rights in Germany and how they are all upset about the bad mistreatment of animals. This is a play on how the German society today is more concerned about the ethical treatment of chickens, than German society was about the Jews in the 30′ and 40’s. He’s defending the Jews, not mocking them, calling the Germans out on the carpet and calling them hypocrites.
So, in reality, Pertti Jarla gets an A for effort but C- for execution.
Kumitonttu adds: “I think the artist plays with Finnish language and we should understand the text as “Jew-free soap”. I also think that the artist has a point. For me it looks like he tries to compare the time in Nazi-Germany to modern days.
If I’m right, he tries to compare how a modern West tries to emphasize that a CO2-free products are more favorable than oil-produced goods. If I’m right, again, he says that the Greenie ideology is as disasterous as the Nazi-German socialism was. And in that respect I think he hits the point.
What makes the case tricky is that by withdrawing the strip we have no chance to discuss about its theme. Instead of carrying its responsibility as a reliable forum for current topics, the newspaper tries to wipe out the dust under the carpet. Like the three monkeys – do not hear, no dot speak, do not see. “