In the first story, A Kind of Resistance, David Schaffer's story is told through the illustrations of Miriam Libicki. David was born in 1931 in Vama, Bucovina which was part of Romania at that time. Their trouble began in 1939 when David was no longer able to attend public school. His teacher, Mr. Twardovski came to his home to tell his parents this so that he would not have to shame David in front of his classmates.
In 1940, David and his family had to leave their family home, taking only what they could carry. The Romanian government ordered Jews out of the rural areas and into the cities. They were sent to Gura Humorului and placed in a ghetto, before being sent to a train station to be "evacuated". Accompanying them was David's maternal great-grandmother who was carried on a kind of stretcher because she was unable to walk.
They were taken to Ataki located on the Dniester River, and sent to a rundown house with no doors or windows and blood on the walls. After this the Jews were taken across the Dniester River and were ordered to walk in convoys by the Romanian soldiers. It was here that David's family had to leave behind his great-grandmother to die, alone.
At Kopaigord, the Jews were left by the army. David's father discovered that it was not safe for them to remain, so at nightfall David and his parents walked off into the woods. By November 1941 they had arrived in a small village, Ivashkovtsi which was occupied by Romanian soldiers. As they fled through the woods, they were joined by the Landau family consisting of Marcus and Nellie and their two daughters, Annie and Fritzi and their grandmother.
Together David's family and the Landau family were helped by a Ukrainian family who allowed them to stay in their summer kitchen. They would stay in this area, sometimes hiding in the woods, sometimes hiding underground as German soldiers searched the woods, until the area was liberated by the Soviets in 1944. Then they began their journey back to their home in Romania.
In the second story, Thirteen Secrets, Nico and Rolf Kamp's story is told through the artwork of Gilad Seliktar. Rolf begins the story by telling Gilad they lived in Amersfoort with their parents, Fritz and Inge. They were originally from Germany however they also spoke Dutch. Their father owned a factory in Holland and often went there for business. Rolf's brother Nico was three years youngers and when he was very young, he had a girlfriend named Betty. Rolf and Nico's grandparents lived only ten blocks from them.
Things began to change in 1940 with planes flying overhead. Eventually Rolf had to leave school and go to a new Jewish school and Nico to a Jewish kindergarten. Then they had to start wearing the Jewish star on their clothing.
They were taken to their first hiding place in June, 1942. Nico was five years old. Their mother removed the Jewish stars that were sewn onto all their clothing before they left. Rolf and Nico were taken to the Amersfoort train station by a "very nice gentleman". Their first hideout was with a young couple that they called aunt and uncle and they were given new names: Rolf became Rudolf and Nico became Klaas. Unfortunately, when Nico divulged their secret about being Jewish amongst strangers, the underground was contacted and the two boys were moved to a farm in Leusden. After this it was to a farm in Stoutenberg, then to hide in a chicken coop. In the spring of 1944, Nico and Rolf were taken in by the Traa family in Achterveld, where seventeen people ended up being hidden by the end of the war. Nico's memories were somewhat different from his brother's but in the end they were reunited with their mother who had survived Auschwitz and Libau.
In the third story, But I Live, illustrated by Barbara Yelin, tells the experiences of Emmie Arbel who now lives in Kiryat Tiv'on, Israel. Emmie was born in Holland and had two brothers, Menachem and Rudi. When she was four-years-old, two policemen came to their house and took the family to Westerbrook transit camp. Emmie remembers the constant fear of being deported to other camps. Her father was taken away first, then Emmie, her mother, Rudi and her older brother were taken to Ravensbruck. Emmie remembers how the women at Westerbrook were so oddly dressed with their blue and white striped clothing, the women crying at night and the constant hunger. At Ravensbruck, Emmie remembers them being ordered to take off all their clothes and having her hair cut.
Like the other prisoners, Emmie was made to stand for hours, even while her own mother fainted. To help her mother would mean death. Gradually the memories of life in Holland faded away. A few days after liberation, Emmie and Rudi watched their mother die. Emmie knew her mother had to eat but that she had given her food so that Emmie could live.
After the war, Emmie and Rudi traveled to Sweden where she spent some time in the hospital recovering from tuberculosis. In the foster home, she set fire to the curtains, wanting to burn down the house. In 1946, Emmie and Rudi returned to Holland and were they were adopted by a Jewish family along with their brother Menachem. Eventually they moved to Israel.
Discussion
But I Live is a memoir of four Jewish children who survived the Holocaust. There are three parts to this book: the first part is their story told in illustrated form, the second part is comprised of essays placing the child survivor's experiences within the context of the war, and the third is their story in their own words. There is also a section written by the graphic artists about this project.
In the first part, described above, each survivor tells a graphic artist about their experiences and these are portrayed in the accompanying artwork. David's story focuses on his family working together to survive in hiding in the woods. Nico and Rolf's story highlights how the underground managed to save children by hiding them in various safe houses throughout the war. Emmie's story is about a very young child experiencing the horrors of the concentration camp system and the many things that still trigger flashbacks and unpleasant memories.
In the second part each essay attempts to explain some aspect of the survivors' experiences within the larger context of the events of World War II. For example, in the essay The Holocaust in Transnistria by Alexander Korb, David's experiences are explained within the larger context of the history of this region. Korb explains how David's family was able to beat the odds and survive because the Holocaust in Romania as "neither controlled nor guarded by the Germans....The less systematic manner of persecution, horrific as it was, provided the Romanian Jews with higher chances of survival, because there were ways to fight back and to disobey the rules. The survival of David's family makes that perfectly clear."
These essays also attempt to explain how recent history may have impacted the experiences the child survivors had. For example, Transnistria belonged to the Soviet Union after World War I and anti-Semitism was not tolerated so there was no association between the Jews and Soviet occupation like there was in other parts of Eastern Europe. And one possible reason that David's family was helped by the local Ukrainian population, is that having survived the Holodomor, the man-made famine caused by Stalin, Ukrainians knew what it meant to starve so they helped the hiding Jews.
In Surviving In Hiding From the Nazis by Dienke Hondius, Rolf and Nico Kamp's story is clarified as they were very young when war engulfed them. Neither remember much about where they lived or their early life. Hondius speculates on who exactly helped hid the Kamp children and explores what it was like to be in hiding, coping with sudden extreme dangers and having to act very quickly. This piece also mentions how the trauma continued during the post-war period as survivors returned home to find all their possessions gone, either destroyed or stolen. Although they remained silent for many decades, the child survivors have, in the last few years, found their voice to tell their stories.
In Andrea Low's essay, Surviving Ravensbruck and Bergen-Belsen As A Child, the horrific experience of being a very young child in the concentration camp system is explored. Low describes the extent of the German camp system, which was continually being added to throughout the war and the catastrophic conditions that little Emmie would have had to endure, including being surrounded constantly by people dying and the prospect of death.
The third part of this collaborative effort has David Schaeffer, Nico and Rolf Kamp and Emmie Arbel also relate, in their own words, their experiences as child survivors of the Holocaust and fills in some of the details not explored in the illustrated versions of their stories.
But I Live is an intimate look at the experiences of four child survivors of the Holocaust, allowing readers to experience their stories visually through the graphic novel medium, to learn about a specific aspect of each story from a historical perspective, and then to read about these experiences from the survivors themselves. Perhaps the most moving of all the stories is that of Emmie, whose experiences at Ravensbruck continue to haunt her, even in her old age. The other three survivors, David, Nico and Rolf did not experience the concentration camps. Emmie's experiences were so traumatizing that simple acts like her daughter cutting her hair short or eating a yoghurt brought back triggering memories of the camp. She doesn't like crowds and needs to have her back to a wall in a restaurant.
But I Live is the fruit of a "collaborative research project that brought together Holocaust survivors, graphic artists, Holocaust and Human Rights educations professionals, historians, student teachers, high school teachers, librarians, and archivists over the course of three years. The three graphic novelists were invited to meet with four Holocaust child survivors...asking them to jointly explore storylines, settings, and themes." From their Afterword, the graphic artists write, "As each survivor holds unique knowledge not only of the mass atrocity itself but also of the process of sharing and shaping their life memories, it became imperative for the artists to anchor their visual narratives in the voices of the four child survivors. Thus, when we read But I Live, we hear the voices of the survivors as they are visually reimagined..." The artists indicate that working with the survivors using an "art-based approach" helped them recall new memories and facilitated the relationship between the artist and the child survivor.
But I Live is informative, deeply moving and an important addition to Holocaust literature and is highly recommended for high school students. It demonstrates the varied experience of the Holocaust and retains these experiences and lessons for future generations. The goal is preventative: that something like the Holocaust never happen again. As Emmie Arbel offers, "My words are especially meant for you, the younger generation: Accept people who are different. And spread good in the world, not bad." Amen.
Book Details:
But I Live: Three Stories of Child Survivors of the Holocaust by Charlotte Schallie
Toronto: New Jewish Press 2022
189 pp.
Toronto: New Jewish Press 2022
189 pp.
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