The stories focus on young victims and their families, their pre-war lives, and their lives under the German occupation and during the Holocaust. The stories are based on true historical events and the people who experienced them. In the course of creating this program, experts from Serbia, Germany, the Netherlands and other countries were consulted, while a team consisting of expert historians, teachers, specialists on Jewish culture and tradition, Holocaust survivors, as well as a group of illustrators from Serbia and the Netherlands who were working together on its implementation.
Aleksandar Todosijević, history teacher and author
Students are not adequately equipped to “read” or analyze written historical sources (documents), photographs, video, and audio recordings. Many teachers reluctantly incorporate visual historical sources into their teaching and seldom critically analyze them with students as they do with written texts. Educational materials that rely on the language of graphic novels are not applied sufficiently in the teaching of history in the Republic of Serbia. The collection “Ester” represents an attempt to provide teachers with quality teaching materials based on the language of graphic novels and to apply them in history classes.
It is important to emphasize that visual materials in graphic novels are not historical sources, but it is equally crucial to note that they are created based on the study of relevant historical sources. Their task is to shed light on certain events that are not preserved in photographs or video recordings but are reconstructed with the help of documents or other historical sources. In the process of creating this material, historians, archivists, and educators from Serbia, Germany, Austria, and the Netherlands participated to assist illustrators in reconstructing historical events, places, and characters, thereby ensuring the highest possible historical accuracy in this work.
