The Guardian reports on a Dutch comic entitled the Search, by Eric Heuvel, that is being used to teach German children about the Nazi Holocaust:
A far cry from your average history textbook, Die Suche (The Search), uses bold graphics to chronicle the fictional story of Esther, a woman who unearths the truth about her Jewish family who were deported to Auschwitz.
“Through the comic format, the subject becomes more realistic and closer to home for young people,” Julia Franz, from the Anne Frank Zentrum, told the Guardian. “There is definitely a huge knowledge gap among teenagers. Most know about the Third Reich but there are lots of myths, prejudices and misunderstandings.”
The Anne Frank Zentrum, which works to boost awareness and knowledge about the Holocaust, has distributed the graphic novel to schools in Berlin and North Rhein-Westphalia. It will be used by 20 classes of 13-15-year-olds. If it is a success, the material will be used by other schools across the country. In a parallel project, schools in Poland and Hungary are also using the book in lessons.
The Daily Mail has a preview of some translated panels from the book here.
February 7th, 2008 at 12:27 pm
it’s dutch, though
February 7th, 2008 at 1:22 pm
Correction made, thank you.
February 7th, 2008 at 1:57 pm
They sell this book at the Ann Frank house in Amsterdam. I bought it as a souvenir for my little brother. The art is pretty cool, very Tin Tin-ish. There were other ones, too, but I can’t remember the titles.