The testimony of Ginette Kolinka, 98 years old and survivor of the Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination camp, where she was with Simone Veil and Marceline Loridan-Ivens, appears this Tuesday in a comic.
Goodbye Birkenau It is published by Ediciones Albin Michel, with JDMorvan and Victor Matet for the script, and three Spaniards for the drawing, Ricard Efa, Cesc F. Dalmases and Roger Surroca Sole. The album recounts what was planned to be Ginette Kolinka’s last trip to the camp, in October 2020.
After fleeing Paris in 1942, she was arrested in Avignon in March 1944, at the age of 19, transferred to Marseille, then to the Drancy camp, and finally deported to Birkenau in April. She will pass through Bergen-Belsen and then Theresienstadt, before being able to return to Paris in June 1945. She then lost 40 kg and weighs only 26.
Illuminate the historical context
“Not thinking anymore, maybe that was what saved my life,” he says in the album, about his captivity in the Nazi camps.
After the story, two historians specialized in the Shoah, Tal Brutmann and Caroline François, shed light on the historical context of Ginette Kolinka’s journey, with documents, photographs and drawings from the time.
The album was born from his meeting with Víctor Matet, a journalist who was investigating his own family and who extensively recounted the testimony of this survivor.
“A sad history”
In comments collected by the Albin Michel edition, Ginette Kolinka claims to have had reservations about the project, because she associated comics with humor.
“At first I didn’t really agree (…) It’s a sad story, but I changed my mind,” he explains.
The account of the visit to the field shows the strength of character of this witness who, since she decided to transmit her story to the younger generations, about twenty years ago, has not refused any request to speak with middle school or high school students.
“When I’m with them, I’m their age. I don’t feel old,” she says.
Source: BFM TV
