We Are On Our Own, by Mariam Katin

There are fears regarding the disappearance of historical memory of the Holocaust both because of the belief that it would pass into oblivion with the death of its survivors, but also because of the revisionism of Holocaust denial, more recently expressed by the President of Iran, who in 2005 called it a “myth”. There is also an alarming moral desensitization partly due to the visual memorialization of the events through the endless repetition of archive images, as well as their decontextualization, which could also pose problems for Holocaust remembrance. Yet the Holocaust being both personal (family) history and global (global/national) history therefore requires the recording of testimonies of Holocaust survivors.[1] They are a necessity for the writing of collective and individual histories, as well as the memorialization of the Holocaust. In an interview, Katin remarked on her own experience with the memory of the Holocaust: "Well, you know, the Holocaust was such a rarely talked-about subject. My family, the schools, no one talked about it, even in Israel. And at the same time it was very personal for me. The loss, the pain. Every production connected to the war, even if I would not read it or watch it, was expected to be very tragic and dark".[2]

We Are On Our Own is a graphic novel and a memoir by Miriam Katin describing the survival of a Jewish mother and her child during WWII. Like Spiegelman’s Maus, her memoir is part of a larger project of memorialization of the Holocaust. Published in 2006, We Are On Our Own was the first graphic novel written by the 63 year old author. The mention of the authors age is not anecdotal as it implies that she was three years old during the Second World War. It was as a young child that she experienced clandestinity during a voyage full of violence, death, betrayals.[3]

In her graphic novel, the author Katin retells the story of her escape from Budapest on foot after the invasion of the city by the Nazi army. After faking their own deaths, Katin and her mother – whose pseudonym in the book is Esther Levy – are forced to take drastic measures to survive. Levy assumes the identity of a poor servant with an illegitimate child, burns all of her belongings and flees to the countryside on foot while her husband is away at the front fighting for the Hungarian Army. The pair’s survival requires trusting the generosity of strangers and often fleeing without knowing where to go. Out of fear of being questioned about her papers, Levy even allows herself to be seduced by a German officer. The advice given by a stranger sets the tone for the journey: “Be smart. Be crafty. Find a way to vanish”.

The story also expresses the author’s lifelong struggle with faith following the events in her childhood. While wartime is illustrated in black and white, Katin’s anxieties regarding religion as an adult are illustrated in color. Unfortunately, this theme could have been better developed in the imaging. A postscript helps the reader better understand Katin’s intentions while discussing her struggle with faith. Dealing with the long-term effects of the Holocaust on the author (and her family, again explained in postscript) encourages the reader to reflect on the Holocaust in a historical sense, but also in its long lasting effects – still felt by the survivors and the second generation, like Katin and Spiegelman.

A strong point of the graphic novel is that Katin presents a feminist perspective in telling her family’s tale of survival. Historians have often evaluated the participation of women during the World Wars, in terms of work and involvement in the armed forces. Unfortunately, the everyday lives of people in the war-torn urban centers and the countryside seem to have mostly been left aside. In We Are On Our Own, Katin explores the everyday life of peasantry, along with acts of determination, craftiness and social solidarity. The life Esther Levy during the war demonstrates the extent to which networks of solidarity formed in the countryside, sometimes without every member’s approval. Her life also exhibits the overall strength and courage of a woman during WWII, giving the book a strong feminist undertone. In a way, the book feels very empowering.

We Are On Our Own is a elegantly drawn graphic novel. The novelists’ drawings carry the weight of the subject and the suspense with great talent and poignancy. However, the narrative structure can be clumsy at times. The reader is transported from 1945 to the 1970s without any warning. In addition, Katin often jumps between the perspectives of the mother and the child. Nonetheless, to call the reader into the story is to force an active rather than a passive participation. For instance, the temporal jumps or fragmented narratives typical of postmodern writing do not allow the reader to simply absorb information. Readers must engage with texts in order to understand them. But even subjectively re-experiencing the suffering of the Holocaust at an emotional level can be only a fraction of the reality. [4] 

Telling personal histories through the juxtaposition of pictures and text conveys a message that would otherwise be difficult to put into words. On the subject of her own art, Katin has said: "In pictures and few words I am trying to find the line connecting events, people, causes and results". By encouraging the active participation of a reader in the act of memorialization, Katin contributes to the history of the Holocaust from a Jewish woman’s perspective.

Drawn & Quarterly, Publishers
Stories in Pictures and Words, Miriam Katin


 
[1] http://www.du9.org/Miriam-Katin,1151
[2] Lisa A. Costello, History and Memory in a Dialogic of "Performative Memorialization" in Art Spiegelman's "Maus: A Survivor's Tale", "The Journal of the Midwest Modern Language Association", Vol. 39, No. 2. p. 22.
[3] Lisa A. Costello, History and Memory in a Dialogic of "Performative Memorialization" in Art Spiegelman's "Maus: A Survivor's Tale", "The Journal of the Midwest Modern Language Association", Vol. 39, No. 2. p. 23.
[4] http://www.du9.org/Miriam-Katin,1151