Auschwitz - Hardcover

Croci, Pascal

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0810948311 ISBN 13: 9780810948310

Publisher: Harry N. Abrams, 2004

Synopsis

The horrors and brutality of the Holocaust are captured in this gripping graphic novel, which follows the story of a couple, Kazik and Cessia, who lose a daughter at Auschwitz and barely survive the concentration camp themselves, in a historical saga based on the reminiscences of actual concentration-camp survivors.

About this title

About the Author

Pascal Croci is an illustrator living in Aveyron, France.

Reviews

Adult/High School–Croci's chilling effort focuses on the story of a Polish couple, Kazik and Cessnia, who lost their daughter at the infamous concentration camp. Auschwitz opens with the couple in old age, returning to the camp for the first time since gaining their freedom decades before. Using a series of alternating flashbacks, the author shows the family's internment, enslavement, and torture, and the eventual death of their child. Although not stated outright, several hints suggest that this is the couple's first conversation about the camp, giving the different perspectives a somber poignancy. The book closes with an interesting series of short interviews with Croci in which he details topics like artistic choice and the intensive research he conducted. Although Art Spiegelman explored similar terrain with his masterful Maus (Pantheon, 1986), Auschwitz is its own creation. Croci's text and character development are considerably sparser, but the frighteningly realistic black-and-white illustrations make this book memorable. From the hauntingly desperate eyes of the inmates to the demonic features of the Nazi captors, the images evoke the terror and oppression those who experienced the death camps endured. The tortured expressions and emaciated bodies echo the 1930s prints of Käthe Kollwitz. Ultimately, Croci's work stays with readers, its profound imagery serving as a haunting reminder of the persistence of violence and evil.–Matthew L. Moffett, Northern Virginia Community College, Annandale
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The phenomenal success of Art Spiegelman's Maus opened the door for other comics artists to tackle the Holocaust. Falling somewhere artistically between Spiegelman's elliptical, nuanced work and Joe Kubert's more mainstream-comics approach in Yossel [BKL O 15 03], Croci's intense graphic novel depicts an elderly couple as they recall their nightmarish experience at Auschwitz. The story's stunning present-day climax, which encompasses contemporary manifestations of hatred, strikingly conveys the message that the evil manifested at Auschwitz persists to this day. Croci based this work on interviews with concentration camp survivors, and he effectively depicts their grim existence in washed-out gray tones. Although the painstakingly rendered settings--the action takes place on the grounds of the camp, in the barracks, and, most gruesomely, inside the gas chambers--demonstrate extensive research, the artwork is most convincing in its rendering of the ravaged, bitter faces of the inmates. If Auschwitz doesn't attain the lofty standard set by Maus, and Croci's more realistic approach shows just how canny Spiegelman's allegorical personifications were, it is nonetheless chillingly effective. Gordon Flagg
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Edition details

• Publisher: Harry N. Abrams
• Publication date: 2004
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0810948311
• ISBN 13: 9780810948310
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 88