Holocaust Comic Books Given to Underprivileged German School Children

At first glance, there are at least three things that jump out at the average cynic:

* Holocaust atrocities are now being reduced to comic book material.

* Comic books are used instead of school books.

* Poor children are taught with comic books while others receive real books.

* Okay, I said three, but this is a freebie: the whole thing is done in Germany.

Soothing One Ruffled Feather at a Time

Yes, Holocaust atrocities can be portrayed in the comic book format.

Having been born, bred, and educated in the Teutonic Fatherland, it was indeed a bit odd to come face to face with the reality that even the vilest human atrocities can indeed be put on paper in the form of a comic book. It is entitled Die Suche (The Search) and has been sanctioned by the Anne Frank Haus, a reputable organization that strives to educate the public about the reality of the Holocaust and the effect it had on the individual.

As some online searching revealed, others' feathers are undoubtedly ruffled as well, and the forum on the Above Top Secret site is buzzing with some well expressed dismay that Germany, ground zero of Holocaust atrocities, would actually use comic books as a medium for explaining them. After all, comic books are for entertainment and not serious learning and there is the chance that bringing together real life mass murder with an entertainment medium aimed at children will lead to the desensitization of a whole generation!

On the other hand, as Associated Content's very own Christine Stoddard pointed out in her 12-11-07 piece "Mice Versus Cats: The Verisimilitude of Art Spiegelman's Maus: A Survivor's Tale," the presentation of the Holocaust in an unconventional medium is not only possible but in effect permits for truthfulness. Add to this the Anne Frank Haus' claim that facts are being offered in such a way as to portray people who fell into various roles - mentioned are the roles of victims, perps, helpers, and quiet bystanders - and it becomes obvious that the comic book venue offers up a new world of possibilities not as easily realized by the conventional school book medium.

Yes, comic books in the classroom can be just as useful - if not more so - than conventional books

Gone are the days when comic books were the guilty pleasures of young readers. Even those who in their pasts read comic books must agree that some nuggets of information picked up from these venues have still not been forgotten. At the danger of (carbon)dating myself, there are various Viking related facts that I distinctly remember gleaning from avid reading of the Asterix & Obelix comic books series...

What is more, Ross White has proven that the integration of comic books material geared for studying into a lesson plan is most valuable in engaging students whose minds are more visually geared. In addition to the foregoing, those who forever bemoan the fact that kids today just do not seem to be willing anymore to crack the spine of a good book and instead contend themselves with reading trashy comics, playing on their computers, and engaging in other predominantly visual mediums, must admit that it becomes obvious that a paradigm shift in the way topics are taught may be in order.

Yes, poor children may require different teaching materials.

It is oft forgotten that Germany has a huge immigrant population from several disadvantaged nations, including Turkey. Racism between Germans and Turks has been simmering and erupting since the early 1980s, and this has led to a ghetto existence where immigrants banded together in a form of self protection and voluntary isolation.

This, of course, has hampered the education of those who are poorer, and when put together in a middle school setting or above, language difficulties and problems with reading materials that are usually not part and parcel of the daily experience will come home to roost. Even as those choosing to segment themselves off - be they German or Turkish or anything else - do not recognize the acute disservice that is being done to the education of their children in particular and Germany's children as a whole, the fact that different levels of understanding must be whittled down to the lowest common denominator is obvious.

Show me a kid who has never seen or enjoyed a comic book, and I will show you the next inductee into the halls of fame for Mensa. In the meantime, children by and large will enjoy comic books and understand how to follow the story lines. This permits for the education of those who are not as familiar with (and trained in) the use of the picture-poor conventional school books.

But did it have to be Germany?

In all honesty, there is no better country to talk to its students about the danger of fascism in its various incarnations as the one that is the most famous for engaging in it. Much like a person who has never had a child is suspect when it comes to giving parenting advice, or a person who has never been married might try to give marital counseling, a country that has never experienced and perpetrated the atrocities of government sponsored racism and homicide cannot do justice to this phenomenon which is but a few memories away from happening again.

Therefore, even as knee jerk reactions are understandably quick and cynical condemnation is swift, the fact that it is sometimes the conventionally hard to swallow that provides a paradigm shift in the thinking of an education system should be remembered. Furthermore the knowledge - that has long since been common the world around - that demands a teaching approach suitable to children, and not the long held rules of the establishment, needs to be heeded. It will be interesting to see how long it will take before this book makes it to American classrooms.