Ladies Making Comics

Never Again

Today is Holocaust Remembrance Day, and comics have a long and storied history involving World War II, the Holocaust, and Jewish identity. While Art Spiegelman’s Maus and Michael Chabon’s prose novel The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay are perhaps the most celebrated explorations of this theme, women’s Holocaust narratives have found their way into comics as well. Here is a selection:

We Are On Our Own by Miriam Katin. Katin’s memoir recounts her and her mother’s escape from the Nazi invasion of Budapest, faking their deaths and leaving behind everything and everyone they ever knew. She recounts and reflects on the lifelong struggles with faith caused by her experiences with some of the worst of humanity’s actions. She created this memoir, her first comics work, at the age of 63. Her follow-up, Letting It Go, is due out in March.

I Was a Child of Holocaust Survivors by Bernice Eisenstein. Eisenstein is the child of two Polish Jews who settled in Canada after surviving Auschwitz. In her memoir she explores the burden and the strange cachet of being a child of survivors and delves into her own morbid curiosity about her family’s past.

The Resistance trilogy written by Carla Jablonski, is a YA series about three French siblings who join the Resistance when they take their Jewish friend into hiding after his parents disappear.

Lily Renée: Escape Artist by Trina Robbins and Anne Timmons. This biography for young readers tells the story of the celebrated Golden Age comics artist from a wealthy Viennese family who were torn apart after the Anschluss before reuniting in New York City with nothing but the clothes on their backs, and how she transmuted her drawing skills into a successful career in comics.

Unfortunately, I am not aware of any comics, by women or men, that deal with the persecution of queer people, Roma/Sinti people, or the disabled. However, I highly recommend the documentary Paragraph 175 about the Nazi persecution of homosexuals.

In addition, I would suggest checking out the Graphic Details: Confessional Comics by Jewish Women traveling exhibit and see if it’s coming near you!