If we didn't know about Anne Frank, her arrest by the Gestapo, and her death at Auschwitz, the joke wouldn't exist. That's what the joke's based on, what it's ultimately about, and what the original teller must have thought was either funny or meaningless. Some of those who laughed along don't see it that way. But remember, the idea didn't pop into their heads. In fact (one hopes) it had never occurred to them. The Anne Frank joke was created by someone eager to share his or her light-hearted attitude toward the Holocaust with the BBC's large audience.

Those who laughed aren't (I hope) "sick." But the joke is in such bad taste the BBC should have apologized for broadcasting it and thus helping to desensitize people to mass killings even further.
What bothers me about the joke isn't its lack of humor - that's a matter of taste. What bothers me is its unapologetic broadcast. (Check out the current "antisemitic Boy Scout" thread).

As for Viktor Frankl's joke about the showers - no comparison. In that one, we laugh *with* the victims because they escape with their lives (for now). In the Anne Frank joke, we're supposed to laugh because the family's stupidity kills them. They rather get what they deserve for being such jerks, don't they?

Victims of the Holocaust had every right to crack whatever grim jokes they needed to help themselves stay sane. We, however, have no moral right to crack and encourage gratuitous jokes at their expense. That's why I find the joke offensive.

Surely Lox and others recognize the difference between laughing *with* and laughing *at*.