“Where is Lotte?” – A graphic novel on local history of Nazi persecution

In the recently concluded Facts not Fiction project, students from four European countries conducted research to unearth local stories on the Holocaust and Nazi persecution.

In Germany, students at the Grimmelshausen Gymnasium in Gelnhausen took a letter from the Arolsen Archives, the world’s largest archive on victims and survivors of Nazi persecution, as a starting point for their learning journey to uncover the story of Lotte Sondheimer. For several months, they researched in archives and libraries, gathering sources and evidence, comparing documents, and asking questions: What do we know for sure, and what gaps do we need to fill in order to tell Lotte Sondheimer’s story? Together with the artist Hannah Brinkmann and the Arolsen Archives’ educational team, they developed a storyboard for a graphic novel about Lotte’s life.

The story of Lotte took the students on a journey far beyond their small town in the vicinity of Frankfurt. Having grown up in a Jewish family in Gelnhausen, Lotte later lived in Munich, Offenbach, Dresden and Zurich, where she studied acting. She eventually moved to Paris where she enrolled at the Sorbonne as a student of linguistics. While in Paris, she met her future fiancé, Hamid El Dawahkly from Egypt.

The 1930s was becoming increasingly dangerous for Jews across Europe. While Lotte’s family in Germany managed to escape to the United States, Hamid and Lotte made plans to go to Cairo together. Their plan failed, however, and Lotte remained in France where she eventually was declared an “enemy alien” and deported to the Gurs internment camp. After two years at Gurs, the Nazis deported Lotte and 1,006 other people to Auschwitz. Of these 1,006 people, probably only one survived. Lotte remains missing to this day.

Curious to know the whole story of Lotte? The German language graphic novel “Wo ist Lotte?”, based on the students’ research, is available for order from Arolsen Archive in print format (12€).

—————————————————————————————————————————–

For more information on the student led project in Gelnhausen, see articles (in German) by Arolsen Archives, including interviews with both the teacher and students involved, as well as a commentary by Prof. Aleida Assmann.

Acknowledgements: We direct our sincere appreciation and thanks to the students of Grimmselshausen Gymasium, their teacher Christine Bischoff, as well as Arolsen Archives for supporting the development and publication of the graphic novel.

Facts not Fiction is a CERV-funded project by EuroClio, Arolsen Archives, Terraforming and the Intercultural Institute Timisoara.

Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA). Neither the European Union nor EACEA can be held responsible for them.