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The Holocaust – the new comic material

By team ⋅ March 27, 2008 ⋅  Email this post ⋅  Print this post ⋅ Post a comment

The Guardian, 1st February 2007

German students have been given a colourful insight into the darkest chapter in 20th Century history, in the form of a comic book detailing the events of the Holocaust.

A far cry from your average history book, ‘Die Suche’ uses bold graphics to chart the fictional story of Esther, a woman who reveals the truth about her Jewish family who were deported to Auschwitz. ‘Die Suche’s’ creators were cautious to keep the fictional saga factually accurate. Historians were closely involved in the project and many of the drawings were based on original photographs.

The Anne Frank Zentrum, which works primarily to boost awareness about the Holocaust, as distributed the graphic to schools in Berlin and North RheinWestphalia. Julia Franz claims, ‘through the comic format, the subject becomes more realistic and closer to home for young peoples. There is definitely a huge knowledge gap among teachers. Most know about the Third Reich but there are lots of myths, prejudices and misunderstandings’. It will be used by 20 classes of 13-15 year olds. If it is successful, the material will be used in schools across Germany. In a parallel project, schools in Poland and Hungary are also using the book in history lessons.

It is the second of two graphic novels illustrated by Eric Heuvel on the Holocaust. The first, ‘A Family Secret’, was published in 2003. The books are both available in English, and are the brainchild of the Anne Frank House, Amsterdam.