This book is a fine introduction for young readers to the horrors of the Holocaust in Nazi occupied Poland, as told through the lens of one family’s remarkable endurance and survival. Very much worth reading and a wonderful tool for middle school teaching.
Peter Hayes
Professor Emeritus of History and Holocaust Studies at Northwestern University and the author of “Why? Explaining the Holocaust.”
“Never forget” isn’t enough. When the last Holocaust survivor dies—by the time you’re reading this, it may have already happened—when the Holocaust has passed from living memory, the world will be a different place. The duty to bear witness, to remember, will be on us. But it’s not enough to just remember. We must understand. A history book can tell us the dry facts, what happened where and when. But to truly understand, to wrap our heads around the why and how, to be shaken by emotion, we need personal stories like Felix and Bluma’s.
The Holocaust isn’t a Jewish story, it’s a human story. And that story isn’t a historical lesson, it’s a moral one. Which, unfortunately, is as relevant today as it’s ever been. Combining illustrated history with personal narrative, We Survived the Holocaust is simple, honest and powerful. It makes clever use of the comics medium to convey things in a way naked prose can’t, making the incomprehensible accessible to anyone, of any background, at almost any age. It helps us remember, but more importantly, understand.
Roy Schwartz
CNN Pop Culture Historian, Author of Is Superman Circumcised? The Complete Jewish History of the World’s Greatest Hero, Co-Curator of the JewCE: Jewish Comics Experience exhibit at the Center for Jewish History, New York
There are many ways that contemporary students learn, different paths by which they can engage with the complexities of history, much especially a history as difficult and painful as the history of the Holocaust.
We Survived the Holocaust: The Bluma and Felix Goldberg Story is a deeply engaging moving story of two Polish Jews who endured and survived slave labor camps, concentration camps, death camps and death marches to then meet in freedom in another type of camp – a displaced persons camp – and rebuild their lives in the United States, bearing witness, telling their story and embodying the human capacity for resilience and regeneration. It speaks to some of the most important of our values and offers a message that is at once timeless, but so timely in the world of war, antisemitism and racism that has characterized 2022. Simply but not simplistically told and beautifully illustrated, the complex story of the Goldbergs is now accessible to readers of all ages, and even to those who don’t like to read!
Michael Berenbaum
Distinguished Professor of Jewish Studies
Director of the Sigi Ziering Institute: Exploring The Ethical and Religious Implications of the Holocaust
American Jewish University – Los Angeles
The graphic style of We Survived the Holocaust reminds me of both Maus and those rare drawings secretly made by the concentration camp prisoners to preserve the memory of what happened to them. This is a book for 21st century young readers for whom words are not enough to bring the horrors of the Holocaust to life.
Michael Bazyler
Holocaust legal scholar, Chapman University
Author of the award-winning Holocaust, Genocide and the Law: A Quest for Justice in a Post-Holocaust World
Poignant, timely, engaging, scary, thoughtful, necessary. Necessary. Today, history is being challenged, manipulated, changed or denied to fit the political winds. Frank Baker has made sure that the history of the Holocaust will not be challenged, manipulated or denied. This graphic novel has everything a teacher wants as a resource to teach this necessary period of history. But, what is so exciting about this graphic novel is the connection the story will make with the students. The incredible story combined with the mind blowing graphics will grab the attention of even the most social media distracted student. I taught history for 31 years and I wish I had this graphic novel as a resource when I taught the history of the Holocaust. Teachers and their students need this book. This history has to be taught.
Perry McLeod
Google Certified Teacher
Apple Distinguished Educator
National Board Certification
Fulbright Scholar/Germany
We Survived the Holocaust is an extremely powerful graphic novel that can help readers from middle schoolers to adults visualize and understand the atrocities of the Holocaust. Written by Frank Baker and illustrated by award-winning graphic artist Tim Ogline, this is an important personal portrayal of the horrific challenges Bluma and Felix Goldberg managed to survive in cattle cars, concentration camps, and death marches.
Frank Baker, through interviews with the Goldberg children, presents an engaging and informative overview of World War I and World War II, conditions in Europe under the Nazi regime, and what life was like for the Goldbergs from early childhood until they passed away decades later in South Carolina. Ogline’s compelling illustrations tell the personal survival stories of Bluma and Felix Goldberg in more realistic and forceful ways than can be portrayed through text-only titles.
In the book, Bluma is quoted as saying, “In a way we fear that maybe that’s why we survived – so we can tell the story.” I cannot think of a more powerful way for the Goldberg’s story to be told than through the graphic novel, We Survived the Holocaust – The Bluma and Felix Goldberg Story. I highly recommend this title to readers from young adults – adults. As a former school librarian and current educator of school librarians, I hope that this title will be on the shelves of all middle and high school libraries. The stories of how the Goldbergs, and other Jews, survived the Holocaust should never be forgotten by current and future generations.
Karen W. Gavigan, Ph.D. Professor and Interim Director
School of Information Science – College of Information and Communications, University of South Carolina
The story of Bluma and Felix Goldberg successfully walks that fine line, capturing the human experience while also doing justice to the scale and monstrosity of the Holocaust, yet without resorting to horrific imagery. Here, the reader sees the forest and the trees. The detail provided about the broader context and the First World War is a welcome addition, as is the legacy the Goldbergs continued to build with their family and community in the U.S. If any graphic novel has ever captured the profound love that so many survivors felt for their adopted homeland, this is it. Tim Ogline’s detailed maps and landscapes help to create a true work of art.
Doyle Stevick, Executive Director
Anne Frank Center, University of South Carolina
Who will tell the story of the Holocaust survivors once the last of them has been buried? In this powerful graphic novel, Frank Baker offers an inspiring story, one that includes unforgettable drama and an ending that embodies the powerful reason why we embrace the mantra to “never forget.” This story is full of riveting details. A Polish Jew named Felix Goldberg comes face to face with Dr. Joseph Mengele before being shipped to a work camp. He was responsible for bringing out the bodies of men who had died of starvation and malnourishment under the slave labor conditions. Not far away, another young Polish Jew is deported to Bergen Belsen concentration camp under terrifying conditions. Forced to work in a concentration camp, Bluma Tishgarten steals food to keep her sister alive. After being liberated, Felix and Bluma met and fell in love, emigrating to Columbia, South Carolina in 1949. Through hard work, they build a life for themselves and tell their stories of survival, speaking at schools and synagogues. This graphic novel will engage readers of all ages as they encounter the terrors of the past with fresh eyes. With the scourge of intolerance, hate and anti-Semitism still present in daily life, we must continue to share survivor stories with the next generation.
Renee Hobbs
Media Education Lab, University of Rhode Island, USA
The Goldberg story is the American story. Despite all of our obvious problems, it is still a blessed story of inclusion, hope and accomplishment – two people who somehow survived the horrors of the Holocaust to find another life in another land. I highly recommend this heartwarming book.
Marvin Kalb
Former CBS/NBC correspondent, Author of widely acclaimed ASSIGNMENT RUSSIA
We Survived the Holocaust makes the story of Bluma and Felix Goldberg come alive for a new generation of readers, many of whom will welcome this version of a Holocaust story. Indeed, the powerful drawings of Tim Ogline and the moving text by Frank Baker make this old story new again—a much needed and appreciated feat in these scary times. Whether you are a classroom teacher wanting to teach the Holocaust or a fan of graphic novels, you will want to have this book in your collection. You won’t be able to put it down. Nor should you.
William Kist, Professor Emeritus, Kent State University
Author, Curating a Literacy Life
We Survived The Holocaust is generationally necessary. This critical story of Bluma and Felix Goldberg told in graphic novel form ensures today’s generation doesn’t forget yesterday’s history. Remembrance and reverence lies within these pages.
Anthony Zuiker
Television Writer, Producer, Author and Publisher
We are fast losing the generation that lived thorough the Holocaust, making it more crucial than ever to document their horrific experiences for future generations. The survivors have been in our midst, but often we didn’t know the trials and bravery that brought them to our communities. In creating We Survived the Holocaust as a graphic novel, Frank Baker engages in a story unsparing in its stark detail, without ever overwhelming the unshakkable humanity and hope of Bluma and Felix Goldberg.
