What perhaps sets Adieu Birkenau apart from some other graphic memoirs/biographies is the time-shifting commentary on events from its subject Ginette Kolinka. We observe Kolinka both as a young woman enduring the horrors of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp and as a nonagenarian making one last trip there to talk about what she experienced within its environs. That visit in 2020, made alongside journalist Victor Matet and comics writer JDMorvan, resulted in this undeniably powerful book. One that uses the comics form with great nuance and sensitivity to take us so fully into Kolinka’s story.
For decades Kolinka had kept her time in the camp to herself but in more recent times has become an “ambassador for the memory” of those whose died in the Holocaust. Matet and Morvan re-present her experiences in a graphic memoir that jumps back and forth from the Second World War to 2020, detailing her life as a child in Paris as conditions became increasingly oppressive for Jews, her family’s attempts to escape their situation, and her capture and internment alongside her father, brother, and nephew.
By using the device of touring Birkenau in the near present day Matet and Morvan give Kolinka’s testimony a unique perspective, as the ghosts of the past impinge on the present in a more direct way; the atrocities committed there becoming ever more tangible in Kolinka’s memory as she speaks to a group of school children. It is, as you would imagine, a harrowing account, with two key sequences – the young Ginette inadvertently directing her father and brother to their deaths aboard a “medical” truck, and her blunt communication of their demise to her mother years later – both profoundly affecting in their portrayal.
Kolinka’s wit and dry sense of humour in the present day makes her an engaging narrator, giving added layers of poignancy to her 1940s incarnation whose innocence is a stark contrast; a naivety that is eventually overcome by weary detachment as a way to survive events. The art by Cesc and Efa uses expressive visual characterisation played against a more strictly realistic background to form a direct connection between readers and characters. Perspective is a crucial tool here, emphasising the vast expanse of Birkenau and the murderous brutality it encompassed on such an industrial scale, while Roger’s colouring adds a sombre emotional impact where necessary, contrasting the time periods perfectly.
Ginette Kolinka will be 101 years old next month. This comics adaptation of her life is vitally important addition to the form’s coverage of this horrific point in history.
Ginette Kolinka, JDMorvan, Victor Matet (W), Cesc & Efa (A), Roger (C), Edward Gauvin (T) • SelfMadeHero, £19.99
Review by Andy Oliver
