Never Again Will I Visit Auschwitz: A Graphic Family Memoir of Trauma & Inheritance

Growing up in Tampa, Fla., in the 1990s, artist Richter heard his Holocaust-survivor grandparents’ stories as “dispatches from an inverted world on fire.” Though he could “scarcely relate” to those accounts, the 2018 Tree of Life synagogue shooting ignited an obsession with his Jewish identity and family history, the result of which is this provocative graphic memoir debut. Both of his German grandfathers wrote memoirs, sections of which Richer excerpts and illustrates with scribble-shadowed sketches and historical photos. After incarceration in Dachau, Richter’s maternal grandpa makes his way to the U.S. and joins the military, experiencing an eerie role reversal when he arrives at a newly liberated Dachau and encounters surrendered Nazis. On a visit to Auschwitz, Richter is unnerved by such touristy trappings as collectible postcards for sale at the gift shop. But on trips to Germany, he is both impressed and uncomfortable with the country’s efforts at remembrance and reconciliation. Reflecting on the injustices and hyperpartisanship of the Trump era, Richter considers “how my relatives in Germany were able to ignore the writing on the wall... until they couldn’t.” The art is a mixture of scratchy, urgent drawings and collage. By turns funny and horrifying, it adds up to a telling study of how the past informs the present. (Aug.)