Annelies Marie Frank (more commonly known as Anne Frank) is one of the most well-known iconic figures of the millions of Holocaust victims. While canonic collective agents continue to deal with her as a myth, a new subversive path of remembrance has developed in the last two decades, which breaks the sanctity of the image using humor, satire and parody. It is part of a wider process in which Holocaust humor has become more and more apparent in Western culture.
Scholars who analyze examples of Anne Frank humor in English from American, Australian and global internet popular culture reveal that they mainly try to deconstruct the "sacredness" of Anne Frank as a myth. Even though Anne Frank is a worldwide phenomenon, as Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett and Jeffrey Shandler state, within its global reach, the Anne Frank phenomenon responds to the particulars of place. This paper will focus on the specific characterizations of Anne Frank humor in Israel. It will claim that while the previously analyzed Anne Frank humor in English aims to deconstruct the myth of Anne Frank and its moral symbolic aspects, the Israeli humor regarding Anne Frank does not only deconstruct the sacred myth, but reflects deeper aspects of memorialization which are an integral part of the debate over Holocaust commemoration in Israel. The paper will open with an introduction which discusses the Anne Frank diary and myth. Then it will analyze the developments in worldwide Anne Frank humor. The main part of the paper will analyze Tweets, TV satire, internet jokes and poetry, which reflect the way Israeli Anne Frank humor reflects an attempt to criticize various aspects in Israeli Holocaust commemoration.