Survivor-Centred Visual Narratives

Menu

Author: Jennifer Sauter

Supporting Educators in Holocaust Education – Webinar – Jan 29, 2025

CategorieswebinarPosted on

Gallery of ‘Examining the Holocaust’ exhibit at the Canadian Museum for Human Rights. Images courtesy of the Canadian Museum for Human Rights.

In an upcoming webinar on January 29, Co-Director Dr. Andrea Webb will be discussing ways that educators can bring Holocaust education into the classroom with respect and consideration. She is joined by Ashley Groff, Interpretive Program Developer from the Canadian Museum for Human Rights (CMHR), and institutional host of the webinar in collaboration with the Survivor‐Centred Visual Narratives Project. Webinar participants will be provided with resources that support Holocaust education, teaching about genocides, and teaching about human rights. They will also learn where to seek support and leave with tools to help them teach students Holocaust‐related content according to their provincial or territorial mandate.

“Supporting Educators in Holocaust Education”
Wednesday, January 29, 2025
12:00 – 1:00 pm PST / 2:00 – 3:00 pm CST

Registration: https://humanrights.ca/event/webinar-supporting-educators-holocaust-education

This online event is free to attend. Registration is required.

Gustav Heinemann Peace Prize awarded to Barbara Yelin for ‘Emmie Arbel. The Colour of Memory’ – Nov 29, 2024

Categoriesawards, eventsPosted on

We are honoured to announce that Barbara Yelin was awarded the annual Gustav Heinemann Peace Prize for children’s and young adult books by the State Office for Political Education in North Rhine-Westphalia for Emmie Arbel. The Colour of Memory. On November 29, 2024, Barbara was welcomed by Director of the Old Synagogue, Dr. Diana Matut, and the Mayor of Essen, Thomas Kufen, and presented with award by the Culture Minister, Ina Brandes, in Essen, Germany. Emmie Arbel also joined for the event, and participated in a reading with Barbara.

The Gustav Heinemann Peace Prize honors books that encourage children and young people to work for human rights, non-violent forms of conflict resolution, the integration of minorities and peaceful coexistence. It is the most important peace policy award for children’s and young adult literature in the German-speaking countries.

The prize was founded in 1982 and commemorates the former Federal President Dr. Gustav W. Heinemann, who gave special impetus to peace research and education.

For more information about the event and award, please refer to the Landeszentrale für politische Bildung Nordrhein-Westfalen: https://www.politische-bildung.nrw/publikationen/heinemann-preis.

Gustav Heinemann Peace Prize awards ceremony on November 29, 2024 at the Old Synagogue in Essen, Germany (photography by MKW NRW / Meike Schrömbgens and Roland Zerwinski).

Erika-Fuchs-Haus Museum hosts “But I Live. Remembering the Holocaust” exhibit, Aug 9 – Nov 12, 2024

Categoriesevents, exhibitsPosted on

After a successful two-year run and exhibiting at four institutions, including the Stadtmuseum Erlangen, Dortmund schauraum comic + salon, Wiesbaden Kunsthaus, and Ravensbrück Memorial, the exhibition of “But I Live. Remembering the Holocaust” was hosted at it’s final location, the Erica-Fuchs-Haus Museum for Comics and the Art of Language, in Schwarzenbach a.d. Saale, Germany, from August 10 to November 17, 2024.

The exhibition was curated by Jakob Hoffmann and Barbara Yelin, and features the process of co-creation and original artwork by artists Barbara Yelin, Miriam Libicki, and Gilad Seliktar from the graphic novel But I Live: Three Stories of Child Survivors of the Holocaust, based on interviews with Holocaust survivors Emmie Arbel, David Schaffer, and Nico and Rolf Kamp. The exhibit also includes sketches, reference materials, and quotes, with audio interviews and documentary films available in both German and in English.

On August 9, the exhibit officially opened with a presentation by graphic artist and exhibit co-curator Barbara Yelin presenting on the international visual narrative project and graphic novel. Travelling from Vancouver, Canada, on a research trip in Germany, graphic artist Miriam Libicki was also hosted by the museum for an in-person reading of But I Live on August 16.

Lastly, the Erica-Fuchs-Haus also welcomed Emmie Arbel, one of the Holocaust survivors sharing her story in the graphic novel, and her nephew, film director Pablo Ben Yakov, for a special screening of “Three Siblings” on November 16. Directed by Yakov, the film follows the stories of his uncle Menachem, aunt Emmie, and father Rudi as they each navigate their life after the Holocaust.

Thank you, Erica-Fuchs-Haus, for hosting this exhibition and the accompanying events!  

Image gallery image
Image gallery image
Image gallery image
Image gallery image
Image gallery image
Image gallery image

Photographs by Dr. Joanna Straczowski, from the screening of “Three Siblings” on November 16, 2024.

Turtle Island Research Cluster Co-lead Duncan McCue awarded $57,900 Canada Council for the Arts Grant

CategoriesawardsPosted on
  • Image gallery image

We are very pleased to announce Turtle Island Research Cluster Co-lead Duncan McCue has been awarded a Canada Council for the Arts (CCA) grant of $57,900 to expand the production of his graphic novel project to over one hundred pages.

McCue, an Anishinaabe journalist and professor at Carleton University, is writing the graphic novel in collaboration with acclaimed Anishinaabe artist Mangeshig Pawis-Steckley. Tentatively titled “Indians Do Cry: A Hockey Survivance Story,” the narrative tells the true story of a father and son, George Kenny and Mike Auksi, from the Lac Seul First Nation in northern Ontario. Revolving around testimony from Kenny and Auksi, “Indians Do Cry” explores the impacts of Indian Residential Schools, intergenerational trauma, and the healing power of the game of hockey.

McCue’s successful project is entitled “Graphic Art in Genocide and Human Rights (Turtle Island Cluster)” and the grant was confirmed in August 2024. It is being funded through the Creating, Knowing and Sharing: The Arts and Cultures of First Nations, Inuit and Métis Peoples program of the CCA.

The grant funds will be used to compensate Pawis-Steckley for an additional 70 pages of artwork and McCue for his extra time involved in research, interviewing and authorship of the extended text. Funds will also be used for research materials, travel and counselling, if necessary.

Initial interviews and the draft manuscript for “Indians Do Cry” are complete. Pawis-Steckley is currently in the production phase of the book’s artwork, which is expected to be finished in the summer of 2025.

Check out the Turtle Island Research Cluster Page for more updates.

Publication of Barbara Yelin’s ‘Emmie Arbel. The Colour of Memory’

Categoriesbook launch, events, newsPosted on

We are delighted to announce the publication of Barbara Yelin’s graphic novel ‘Emmie Arbel. Die Farbe der Erinnerung’ (Emmie Arbel. The Colour of Memory) documenting her extensive memory work with Emmie Arbel.

Born in Holland in 1937, Emmie Arbel was deported with her Jewish family in 1942 and survived the Nazi concentration camps Ravensbrück and Bergen-Belsen as a child. Her parents and grandparents were murdered by the Nazis in the Holocaust.

Emmie Arbel now lives near Haifa, Israel. She often travels to Germany to speak as a contemporary witness. Although her childhood was marked by death, speechlessness, abuse and loneliness, she looks back on a life full of rebellion, self-empowerment and humour. In her constant effort to bring her memories out of the silence, the consequences of the Holocaust become visible – in her life, with her family, in every single day.

Barbara Yelin’s graphic novel is based on her personal encounters and numerous intensive conversations with Emmie Arbel. It is a continuation of the first collaboration, and includes 40 pages already published in the anthology “Aber ich leben” (CH Beck) (“But I Live: Three Stories of Child Survivors of the Holocaust” (University of Toronto Press) from 2022.

Edited by Charlotte Schallié and Alexander Korb, the graphic novel will be published on November 6, 2023 and is available to purchase from Reprodukt Publishing.

Reviews and Mentions

Find the article here (German only).

“For her, drawing, Yelin once said, is a process of searching, recognizing and carefully approaching reality. In ‘Emmie Arbel – The Colour of Memory’ she masterfully shows where this process can lead.”

Lars von Törne, 2023

Wiesbaden Kunsthaus hosts “But I Live: Remembering the Holocaust” – September 14 – November 26, 2023

Categoriesevents, exhibits, newsPosted on

The exhibition “But I Live: Remembering the Holocaust” is being hosted at the Wiesbaden Kunsthaus from September 14th to November 26th, 2023. Special thanks to Regine Meldt for hosting the opening night with the Kamp brothers Rolf and Nico, Gilad Seliktar, and curator Jakob Hoffmann!

More information can be found by selecting the exhibition program poster and on the website.

A curator’s tour of the exhibition took place on Thursday, September 21st at 5:00 pm with Jakob Hoffmann. The Kunsthaus also created a short film about the exhibition, featured on their YouTube Channel: