But I Live: Three Stories from Child Survivors of the Holocaust - Paperback

by Charlotte Schallié (Editor), Barbara Yelin (Illustrator), Gilad Seliktar (Illustrator)

Shortlisted - 2023 Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards for Best Reality-Based Work

An intimate co-creation of three graphic novelists and four Holocaust survivors, But I Live consists of three illustrated stories based on the experiences of each survivor during and after the Holocaust.

David Schaffer and his family survived in Romania due to their refusal to obey Nazi collaborators. In the Netherlands, brothers Nico and Rolf Kamp were separated from their parents and hidden by the Dutch resistance in thirteen different places. Through the story of Emmie Arbel, a child survivor of the Ravensbrück and Bergen-Belsen concentration camps, we see the lifelong trauma inflicted by the Holocaust.

To complement these hauntingly beautiful and unforgettable visual stories, But I Live includes historical essays, an illustrated postscript from the artists, and personal words from each of the survivors.

As we urgently approach the post-witness era without living survivors of the Holocaust, these illustrated stories act as a physical embodiment of memory and help to create a new archive for future readers. By turning these testimonies into graphic novels, But I Live aims to teach new generations about racism, antisemitism, human rights, and social justice.

Author Biography

Charlotte Schallié is a professor of Germanic Studies in the School of Languages, Linguistics and Cultures at the University of Victoria. Her areas of interests include memory studies, visual culture studies, genocide education, care ethics, and more. She also edited the award-winning graphic novel But I Live. Barbara Yelin studied illustration at the Hamburg University of Applied Sciences. In 2014, Yelin published the award-winning graphic novel Irmina.
Gilad Seliktar is an acclaimed graphic novelist and children's book illustrator.
Graphic novelist Miriam Libicki is a sessional instructor at the Emily Carr University of Art and Design. A recipient of the career achievement Inkpot at San Diego Comic-Con, Libicki has published widely and received many awards for her comic arts work.