Holocaust Cartoons as Ideographs

The Holocaust cartoon competition of 2006 in Iran as an instance ofsocial controversy has the potential to raise social and political arguments overvarious international and global issues. Through using McGee’s theory of ideograph andEdwards and Winkler’s theory of representative form, I identify the ideographs used inthese cartoons and argue that the Holocaust cartoons function ideographically to portrayJews, Judaism, Palestine, Israel, Zionism, and the Holocaust. I explain how thesecontroversial images function as representative characters and representative anecdotesand create different ideological interpretations of the Holocaust and associated issues,such as Israel–Palestine conflicts and Western freedom of speech. I argue that thecartoons suggest a connection between Nazism and Zionism, or the Nazi and Israeliregimes, by juxtaposing various elements and situations. I explain that the cartoonsanecdotally refer to the Holocaust and represent it as myth or hoax used byJews/Zionists to justify creation of the nation of Israel