Centre for Pictorial Holocaust Narratives (CPHN)

The Centre for Pictorial Holocaust Narratives is a newly created interdisciplinary and transnational centre of expertise bringing together scholars, educators, and institutions committed to the research and teaching of pictorial Holocaust narratives specialising in graphic novels, picture books, illustrated books, and their hybrid forms. It is a collaboration between the University of Siegen and the Technical University of Braunschweig, and a group of national and international partners. The centre comprises a multi-site, multi-lingual core corpus with additional dedicated research collections.

The Centre for Pictorial Holocaust Narratives is anchored in the fields of literature, linguistics (English & German), (multi-)cultural and global citizenship education. Through its work with multimodal texts, the centre aims to open up new opportunities from primary to tertiary education and provide research pathways that break new ground in how we understand, teach, and engage with pictorial Holocaust narratives across cultures and disciplines.

Societies and classrooms worldwide are changing, and innovative ways must be found to accommodate the existing cultural diversity of identities and experiences in order to strengthen the culture of remembrance and postmemory. The current global rise of antisemitism and the onset of the post-Holocaust witness era demand new responses. This innovative Centre for Pictorial Holocaust Narratives will contribute to addressing these challenges and find new ways of promoting democratic and human values, tolerance, and peace to counter antisemitism and all forms of hate, while fostering Jewish life.

The four founding members bring pioneering work spanning the fields of pictorial Holocaust narratives and pictorial narratives. Their shared vision and complementary expertise form the foundation for the Centre for Pictorial Holocaust Narratives, a unique and dedicated interdisciplinary centre of expertise.

Please visit the main website for more information and updates:  https://www.uni-siegen.de/phil/centre-for-pictorial-holocaust-narratives

• Prof. Dr. Carmen Becker (TU Braunschweig, Department of Anglistik and Amerikanistik) [LINK]
• Dr. Tatia Gruenbaum (TU Braunschweig, Department of Anglistik and Amerikanistik) [LINK]
• Dr. Jana Mikota (University of Siegen, Department of Germanistik) [LINK]
• Prof. Dr. Daniel Stein (University of Siegen, Department of Anglistik und Amerikanistik) [LINK]

Our members of the international academic and creative Advisory Board provide advice and support and, should they wish, actively participate in any our projects.

• Dr. Daniel Feldman (Bar Ilan University, Department of Literature & Linguistics, Israel) [LINK]
• Prof. Dr. Petra Josting (emerita) (University of Bielefeld, Faculty of Linguistics and Literary Studies, Germany) [LINK]
• Inbal Leitner (author, illustrator and lecturer at Cambridge School of Art, UK) [LINK]
• Prof. Dr. Jan-Erik Leonhardt (TU Braunschweig, Department of Anglistik and Amerikanistik, Germany) [LINK]
• Stephanie Lunkewitz (author and illustrator, USA) [LINK]
• Prof. Dr. Amos Paran (University College London Institute of Education, Department of Culture, Communication & Media, UK) [LINK]
• Patrica Sarles, MA, MLS, MSEd (librarian and information specialist and independent researcher, USA) [LINK]
• Dr. Véronique Sina (Goethe University Frankfurt, Institute for Theatre, Film and Media Studies, Germany) [LINK]
• Shirley Waisman (author, illustrator, lecturer and regional advisor for the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI) Israel, Israel) [LINK]

Our national and international associated partners contribute their expertise, advice, and support to our work. Where possible, we collaborate on projects and initiatives that align with our shared interests and expertise.

• Dr. Jens Aspelmeier, Director of the Aktives Museum Südwestfalen and director of the centre for teacher education (ZfsL) (Siegen, Germany) [Link]
• Dr. Barbara Berruti, Director of Istoreto, Institute for the History of the Resistance and the History of the Contemporary Italian Society (Turin, Italy) [Link]
• Dr. Claudia M. Pecher representing the Michaelsbund/Deutsche Akademie für Kinder- und Jugendliteratur (Germany) [Link]
• Silvana Rampone, Director of SmartEdu4All, European in-service teacher training organisation (Turin, Italy) [Link]
• Dr. Kees Ribbens, Senior Researcher at NIOD Institute of War, Holocaust and Genocide Studies (Amsterdam, Netherlands) [Link]
• Dr. Charlotte Schallié, Co-Director of the Survivor-Centred Visual Narratives Project (UVIC, Canada) [Link]
• Dr. Sebastian Schmideler, Head of the Children's Book Department at the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin (Berlin, Germany) [Link]

Web design and layout

• Jan-Philipp Rauhut

Throughout the 2026/27 academic year, the Centre for Pictorial Holocaust Narratives (CPHN) will establish a shared, multilingual core collection of pictorial Holocaust narratives. The collection will include picturebooks, illustrated books, and graphic novels, and will be accessible at both TU Braunschweig and the University of Siegen. In addition, the Centre will develop several special interest collections, each reflecting a particular research interest and focus. At TU Braunschweig, the CPHN collection is accessible at [TBC].

The link below provides access to Pictured Memory, the private research catalogue of Dr Tatia Gruenbaum. Established in 2023, it is a curated multilingual catalogue of pictorial Holocaust narratives depicting Jewish lives and experiences before, during, and after the Holocaust. Although the catalogue focuses on picturebooks, the boundaries between picturebook, illustrated book, and graphic novel are sometimes fluid, and the collection reflects this. From 2026 onwards, Pictured Memory forms part of the Centre for Pictorial Holocaust Narratives (CPHN), complementing the Centre's shared core collection and special interest collections.

Link: https://www.librarycat.org/lib/PicturedMemory

This research focus explores the representation of older Jewish people in pictorial Holocaust narratives, particularly in picturebooks and graphic novels. Building on the pioneering work of the Wiener Holocaust Library [Link] in highlighting their experiences during and after the Holocaust, it examines how visual narratives portray persecution and survival in old age, and the ways in which older survivors look back on their experiences.

This research focus investigates the earliest forms of visual Holocaust testimony created by witnesses themselves, including artists' diaries, children's drawings made in ghettos and camps, illustrated poems, clandestine photographs, and other visual forms of witnessing. This research explores how these visual testimonies continue to inform our understanding of Holocaust experiences and their representation in contemporary pictorial Holocaust narratives.

This research focus explores places of safety, refuge, protection, and hope as depicted in pictorial Holocaust narratives. It examines how buildings such as family homes, farms, synagogues, and other places of shelter are represented in picturebooks, graphic novels, and related visual narratives, considering how they function not merely as settings but as spaces that shaped experiences of survival.