Cartoonists aid in Holocaust education

Gerry Gersten’s portrait of Holocaust whistle-blower Josiah DuBois is actually just the latest in a series of collaborations between prominent cartoonists and The David S. Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies.

On the eve of the 2008 Beijing Olympics, Dr. Rafael Medoff, the institute’s director, and veteran comic book artist Sal Amendola created a one-page political cartoon, “They Refused to Go,” about U.S. athletes who boycotted the 1936 Olympics in Nazi Germany. It was published in The New Republic. Last year, Medoff collaborated with Pulitzer Prize laureate Art Spiegelman (of Maus fame) on a full-page political cartoon for the Washington Post, commemorating the 70th anniversary of the ill-fated voyage of the German Jewish refugee ship ‘St. Louis.’
Last month, the Los Angeles Times published a political cartoon about Darfur and the Holocaust, which Medoff created with Marvel Comics artist Joe Rubinstein. The cartoon appeared during the week of the San Diego Comic Con, the largest comics and pop culture convention in the world, which more than 125,000 people attended.
Dr. Medoff was a speaker at the San Diego convention, alongside famed comic book artist Neal Adams and longtime Marvel Comics publisher Stan Lee. They discussed a series of Holocaust-related “motion comics” they are creating with ABC’s “News in the Classroom” and Disney Educational Productions.
“Motion comics combine traditional cartoon animation with actual newsreel footage and photographs, to present history in a way that teens find compelling,” Adams explained.
“I strongly applaud the Wyman Institute’s pioneering efforts to reach out to the younger generation,” said Lee, the co-creator of Spider-Man and the X-Men. “The use of creative educational techniques can help ensure that the mistakes of the 1930s and 1940s will not be repeated.”
Their motion comics series is called “They Spoke Out,” and focuses on America’s response to the Holocaust, with a particular emphasis on those who tried to promote the rescue of Jews. At the San Diego event, they screened an episode called “Messenger from Hell,” about the Polish underground courier Jan Karski, who risked his life to bring news about the Holocaust to an unbelieving world. The episode was also shown this summer at Jan Karski memorial events held simultaneously in Warsaw and in New York City, under the auspices of the Polish Consulate there and the Kosciuszko Foundation.
With the assistance of legendary comic book artist and editor Joe Kubert, the Wyman Institute has also created a traveling exhibit of political cartoons from the 1930s and 1940s about the plight of the Jews of Europe. Medoff brings the exhibit, called “Cartoonists Against the Holocaust,” to middle schools and high schools. “We explore America’s response to the Holocaust through the eyes of the political cartoonists of that era,” Medoff says. “It’s a unique way for teenagers to learn about the events of those years.”

Comments are closed.