We Survived the Holocaust: The Bluma and Felix Goldberg Story

In a reflective author’s note, Baker details how “there are people even today who deny the Holocaust ever happened” and recounts how the late Felix Goldberg (1917–2000), a Holocaust survivor, “charged me with passing on his story,” resulting in this powerfully moving nonfiction graphic novel. With the assistance of the Goldberg children, the creators chronicle the atrocities Goldberg and his wife, Bluma Goldberg née Tishgarten (1926–2021), faced before their eventual meeting in May 1945 at a displaced persons camp in Germany following the liberation of their respective concentration camps. The couple’s parallel story lines are portrayed in tandem, alternating between Goldberg’s experiences surviving Auschwitz, Jawarzno, the death march, and Buchenwald, and Tishgarten’s time in Bergen-Belsen and Dachau, lending propulsive narrative movement to their harrowing journeys. Goldberg and Tishgarten eventually married and immigrated to the U.S., where they built a family and continued to share their stories of survival. Baker’s frank prose is expertly complemented by Ogline’s realistic and noir-like art, rendered in striking b&w ink. This affecting work, which interweaves WWII historical facts among the family’s personal history, is vital reading. Back matter includes photographs, a timeline, a glossary, and more. Ages 14–17. (Sept.)