Institute for Jewish History in Austria researches Jewish Visual History
From 8 to 10 July 2026, the 34th International Summer Academy will take place in Vienna on the theme of ‘Samson, Superwoman and Krusty the Clown. Jewish Visual History from the Middle Ages to the Present Day’. The Summer Academy is organised by the Institute for Jewish History in Austria in cooperation with the Literaturhaus Wien.
Jewish history has been explored in comics and graphic novels for decades. Historical events and the adventures of real and fictional Jewish heroes have been recounted not only in comics and animated films, but also in medieval illuminated manuscripts and early modern pamphlets. The Summer Academy will focus on self-perceptions and external perceptions, genres and media, as well as Jewish–non-Jewish relations.
Dr Kim Wünschmann will present the graphic history ‘Oberbrechen. A German Village Confronts Its Nazi Past’, which she co-authored with Dr Stefanie Fischer. The book examines the ambivalent history of Jewish–non-Jewish relations in this Hessian village before, during and after the Shoah. At the heart of this research in the graphic medium lies the question: how did differing local experiences of violence affect the post-1945 reunions between those who had been displaced and those who had remained, as well as their relatives?