The Family Photo – Overview

Summary

Graphic novel The Family Photo is a dramatized story based on the available documentation about the life of the Demajo family, and other historical characters. In this novel we meet the parents Samuilo and Zeni Demajo, their children Solomon, Isak and Rejna, as well as the grandmother Jelena Demajo. Besides them, several other people are taking part in the story, such as: the aunt Vojka, her daughter Vesna and Vojka’s mother Bukica Demajo; a Serbian man Bogoljub Lunginovic who is a resistance fighter and a communist , and his Jewish wife Lenka Lunginovic, whose baby daughter was saved by another Serbian family that was later recognized as a Righteous Among the Nations; the Jewish students Robert, Josko and Moni, all members of the first Serbian jazz ensemble “Micky Jazz”;a famous Jewish activist Hilda Dajc who volunteered to work in the Sajmiste camp’s hospital; the Jewish refugees from Austria which escaped the Nazis and found themselves in Belgrade during that period, and others. The fact that all these significant and interesting historical characters appear in various scenes opens possibilities for additional research tasks for students.

Following the Demajo family through 11 illustrated scenes from the day aunt Vojka took the family photo at the Belgrade Fair, to the day the family found themselves at the same site again as inmates of the Nazi camp, we will learn more about their life, Jewish culture and traditions, and the pre-war Belgrade in general. Using the illustrations, historical photographs, maps, documentation and historical newspapers, teachers and students will be able to further investigate the pre-war Belgrade and the events that led to the murder of almost entire Jewish population of Belgrade during the Holocaust.