“BUT I LIVE.
REMEMBERING THE HOLOCAUST”
On 13 April the exhibition “But I live. Remembering the Holocaust” will be opened at the Ravensbrück Memorial Museum.
Ravensbrück Memorial
Only a few survivors of the Holocaust are still alive today. Recording their memories therefore plays a central role. The multi-layered project “But I live”, a collaboration between survivors, comic artists, experts in Holocaust and human rights education, historians, libraries, and archives, tackles this task in an unusual way: It creates graphic stories for which there are virtually no existing documentary sources.
Emmie Arbel survived the Ravensbrück and Bergen-Belsen concentration camps as a young girl. David Schaffer escaped the genocide in Transnistria because he refused to comply with orders. The brothers Nico and Rolf Kamp, separated from their parents, were hidden from their persecutors by the Dutch resistance in 13 different places.
In close dialog with these four survivors, the internationally renowned illustrators Miriam Libicki, Gilad Seliktar and Barbara Yelin created graphic reconstructions of their memories. These encounters resulted in graphic novels that explore questions of trauma, memory and survival.
The exhibition makes central aspects of the project accessible to a wide audience. Original drawings and other materials are presented. Above all, however, the process of creating these visual stories will unfold. In this way, a central aspect and specific and at the same time elementary approach of the project becomes visible and tangible: the development of a relationship between survivors and their storytellers.
The exhibition has been redesigned and expanded for the memorial. The exhibition can be seen on the premises of the former Waterworks until July 31, 2024.
The event is part of the program for the 79th anniversary of the liberation of the Ravensbrück women's concentration camp. The full program of the anniversary can be found here.