Comics, the Holocaust and Hiroshima ― Persecution, Genocide and the Atomic Bomb

Comics and the Holocaust breaks new ground by arguing that comics have a dual role as sources of cataclysm between 1939 and 1945. First for historians to gauge awareness of the Holocaust and second through close analysis, of Paroles d'Etoiles in Vichy France and Barefoot Gen in Hiroshima, as testimonies of childhood emotions, experiences and memories. Calling for an extension of the range of source material relating to persecution, genocide and the atomic bomb from 1939 to 1945, comics are posited as an agent to build on the scholarship of new cultural history, historiography, memory and trauma studies. These fields connect through the shared ground of cultural record, which can be either deliberate/explicit or incidental reference. The comics form is a flexible one with potential to explore the space between reality and representation, with visuals working as iconic translations while narrative structure relies on readers' mental contribution.

Jane Chapman is Professor of Communications at the University of Lincoln, Research Associate Wolfson College, Cambridge, UK and the author of ten books. She is Principal Investigator for the Arts and Humanities Council's 'Comics and the World Wars - a Cultural Record' project, for which Dan Ellin and Adam Sherif are researchers, and is an AHRC grant holder for two other projects on World War One.

Dan Ellin is Research Assistant for the AHRC funded 'Comics and World Wars' project at the University of Lincoln, UK. A student at the University of Warwick, his research examines the lives and emotions of RAF ground personnel during the Second World War.

Adam Sherif is Researcher on the Arts and Humanities Council's 'Comics and the World Wars' project at the University of Lincoln, UK and is co-authoring a book of the same name. He is also a contemporary comics critic.