Survivor: Preview Comic


Survivor is the story of a young boy who lost his home and family, but promised to survive so he could fulfill one last promise.

 Survivor is the story of Shiku, a boy of 15 who survives the antisemitism in his hometown, German labor camps and the concentration camps through luck, lies and a force of will.   

Survivor is the story of a father protecting his son and never wavering in his faith whether in Auschwitz, Buchenwald or a gun being held to his head.

Survivor is the story of my grandfather boarding a train in the hope of seeing his father one last time, even though the train was sending him to a gas chamber.

Survivor is the story of how my family exists, what a young man can endure and what my grandfather believed in. 

The following is the first artwork to adapt my grandfather's memoirs into a full graphic novel. My grandfather, Sam "Shiku" Smilovic was a survivor during World War Two and recorded his vivid and heartbreaking story about what he lost and how he survived. Beyond being the reason I am alive, I think it is a story worth telling others, and shares universal themes of what we learn and what we fight for. 


Character studies of key characters in the story. Soccer plays a big role in my grandfathers upbringing.  Shake was wearing T'Fillin, the Jewish straps of prayer on the train to Auschwitz, and if the symbol through the end of the story that will determine if he can retain his faith in spite of his experiences.

In my family, thanks to my grandfather's experiences we partake in this ritual of holding fire in our hands. It will be explored in the story but does provide a great symbol of who my grandfather was and what defined him.
My father in Munchatz, his hometown. His Jewish upbringing is an informing factor in the story, and the journey he goes through is informed by the values and symbols that he learns in his youth.

Sample Page: These are different stages of Shiku's story that he goes through during the war. The advantages of the comic book format is that panels can depict information in a non-linear way, but still create a narrative by design.
Sample Page: Shiku is taught by his brother how to fire a gun. A small character moment, but the visual of a Chasidic boy preparing for something sinister is a striking image that is unique to my grandfathers story.

The following was a mini comic I created in 2014, as a way to explore telling the story in it's entirety. While my style is constantly evolving, this does show some of the unique visuals a story like this can explore.








Bellow is my working proposal and synopsis for how I would go about creating my grandfathers story:


Survivor

Premise

This story tells the tale of one boy as he survives through World War 2.

This story is based on my grandfather’s autobiography. He is a Holocaust survivor and his tale shows that the lessons he learned as a boy gave him the values to survive all of the hardships to come.

This is, above all, a non-fiction coming of age tale. It is about how to survive physically, mentally and spiritually when everything you have is taken away from you.

Overview

This story is told through my grandfather’s perspective. His name is Shiku, he is 13 years old when he learns that the war is coming, and he is 14 when him and his family is deported to Auschwitz. Within two years of his life, his family is humiliated and broken apart. Within two minutes in Auschwitz, he sees most of his family destroyed.

The story is a coming of age tale. It shows that all of the values and skills that Shiku learned from his town, his family and especially his father help him survive the multiple ordeals that he is confronted with. When Shiku learns to lie as a boy, he learns to lie to save his life. When he is taught to have faith, Shiku learns to take incredible leaps of faith during the war.

The main struggle Shiku goes through is that he and his father are separated during the war. While in a grueling work camp, Shiku learns that his father is still alive and has a one in a thousand chance to see his father again. After going through many struggles that threaten his safety, he arrives at the same camp as his father. This puts Shiku in a life and death situation, since the group he joined to get to the correct camp is sentenced to the gas chambers. It is then up to his most basic instincts to survive the coming hours and find a miraculous way to escape.

Through the main threat during the war, Shiku must work to remember and hold onto the ideals that his family believed in. As he lets go of his old identity during his trials, he must weigh the values that will define his life, even when he feels that his Jewish heritage may have led to the tragedies that befell him.

This series will be looking at the historic event of World War 2 and the Holocaust. It uses the reality of those events to remind the reader of the real struggles and death traps that real people had to endure.

In our current fictional landscape, including far to many comics, we see a desire to fictionalize, trivialize and even fetishize the events from this period, and we use fictional Nazi’s and theoretical fascism to try to create fictionalized narratives. When we tell these fake stories, without giving voice to the real events that have far more dramatic tension, we are failing what our history needs to teach us.

We need to tell the actual stories of the people who are the actual heroes who overcame these terrible human trials. Being able to tell these stories through comics is the most powerful way to keep these stories alive and bring the themes ideals and visuals that they represent to the attention of those looking for tales of heroism, family and the ability to survive adversity.

My grandfather’s story is the story that can honor the terrible reality that happened, and the few positive and uplifting moments we can learn from them.

Series Synopsis

This will be a miniseries collecting different moments of my Grandfathers life that help define the choices he made during the war. The separate chapters and periods are as follows:

Chapter 1: In Munchachevo

This chapter shows the change in Munchachevo from a vibrant Jewish community into a Ghetto filled with anti-Semitism that informs who Shiku will become. This will chronicle the first time Shiku saw a Jewish man beaten at the age of 10 and how that informs his feelings of safety.  Along these lines, his entire world changes. His family loses their property, his father is arrested, and Shiku begins to resent his Judaism. The opening image of his father, as a man who owns a bar, is doing a fire trick with his hands for a Jewish ritual.
This chapter shows the beginnings of Shiku being trained to survive. His brother Leo teaches him and his brother to fire a gun. Shiku begins to play soccer against his families wishes, teaching him to compete and win in any situation. It also shows his personal friendship with the community’s Rabbi, planting the seed within him to survive and continue the traditions he was taught. This chapter will lead until the day that they are exported to Auschwitz.

Chapter 2: "Bury Them In A Good Place”

One month before the entire town is deported to a Death Camp, Shiku is taken aside by the old Rebecin (The wife of the Rabbi). He is told to bury her sacred religious items so that her surviving descendants might use them someday. The importance of this moment is critical, as it gives Shiku a mission throughout the war, and gives him a connection to his religion through all of the struggles he faces. The meeting happens after the entire town gathers. Shiku’s father prays in front of the whole community, and the Rabbi’s sermon is argumentative. All of the adults know what is about to happen so the meeting ends with no hope.
The Rebecin talks with Shiku and engages him in on a base level. They talk about the time that Shiku played soccer- against his mother’s wishes- and how Shiku became great at the game. The Rebecin trusts Shiku with the things most important to her in the war because she believes that he has a better chance to survive the war. The young man now has a responsibility.

SHIKU: Zedichov dynasty silverware, and two silver candle holders. She must have been 90 years old. "Take these silver items," she said, "and bury them in a good place. And with G-d's help you will live through this hell. Please give these items to my grandchildren to be able to carry on the family tradition."

Chapter 3: Aushwitz

This chapter shows when Shiku’s family arrives at Aushwitz, the speed in which things happen and how close he was to being destroyed. On the train, Shiku is wearing T’fillin (the leather straps that Jews wear during morning prayers) when they arrive at the camp. Instantly the trains open and people must make life or death decisions. The young boys who enter show them the crematoriums saying that most people will be burned alive. The old women are told to take the babies since mothers will be killed. Shiku’s mother is killed because she takes her grandchildren, so that her daughters can survive. Shiku is told to lie about his age, and say that he is a farm boy. Shiku and his father are separated from Beri (Dov) who wants to go with the mechanics, since that was his profession.
Shiku and his father work together. As they begin to work, they need to move dead bodies. One day when given the job to peel potatoes, Shiku is almost brought to a gas chamber. One wrong move and they would die. When the insanity of the first day ends, Mordeche asks Shiku if he said goodbye to his mother since he didn’t have a chance. When all hope seems lost they see some of their sisters, and Mordeche smiles.

Mordeche: “Cry, my son cry, perhaps your prayers will reach in the right places and stop this train”.

Chapter 4:“No Matter What Happens."

This chapter chronicles Mordeche, from his time in Munchachevo through the point in Buchenwald where Mordeche leaves Shiku. This chapter shows Mordeche’s successes in Munchachevo until the Hungarian’s anti-Semitism destroyed everything. Mordeche was taken as a political prisoner for helping fleeing Jews from Germany, which nearly destroyed him. The hope is to show how defeated he was before he was taken to Aushwitz, and that keeping Shiku alive at the beginning should have been impossible. Showing Shiku on the train before Aushwitz, and him helping Shiku pray will show his need for Shiku to survive at a point before Shiku was able to do so on his own. As they begin to work in Buchenwald, Mordeche can no longer keep up and has to return to the concentration camp. Once Mordeche leaves, Shiku wishes for the first time that he was dead.

Chapter 5: “If We Blow Up We Might As Well Go On A Full Stomach”

This Chapter shows a prisoner who tries to escape during an air raid in the work camp, and how that led to Shiku finding an urge to resist the Nazis in his own way. While working to remove a live bomb from a factory, an air raid begin to happen, giving the prisoners the chance to run away in the confusion. The prisoners choose not to run, feeling it is more important to survive than resist. One prisoner however would rather run and die for it. When he is caught he is brought in front of the whole group and beaten brutally but not killed. The group then goes on a hunger strike, a way to resist but still survive. During this story, Shiku learns from his friend Arthur Spitz, that his father is still alive in Buchenwald.

Chapter 6: Return To Buchenwald

Shiku, learning that his father is alive, decides to return to Buchenwald to see him again. After lying to get onto the train, and evading an SS Officer, he is told that everyone going to Buchenwald, those too weak to work, will be killed soon once they arrive. Their car is called Commando Aushwitz.

Chapter 7: Are you Jewish?"

In this chapter, Shikue is reunited with his father, only to learn what great danger he is in. his father in his weakest moment tells Shiku that God will provide a way, and Shiku yells, “Father, there is no God”. It breaks Mordeche’s heart, but he still prays that Shiku will find a way to survive his immediate destruction.

Shiku, through the help of an old man from the town of Munkach, is told to lie about being Jewish, and to hide out the war with the prison doctor. When Shiku meets the doctor, the doctor asks if he is Jewish. When Shiku says no, he is strangely relieved, and realizes how many of his problems came about because he was a Jew. The doctor knows that Shiku is lying, but since they are both check, the doctor protects him.

During this time Shiku is able to provide food for his father and his friends. Shiku gets to see his father one more time through a fence, and the next day, Mordeche and his whole unit are gone, most likely shot right outside the camp.

This chapter ends with the final air raids from the Americans, and Buchenwald is liberated.

Chapter 8: Liberation

This chapter shows Shiku leaving the camp and learning that many of his siblings are still alive. They are all grateful to him since he could tell them the story of his father since they were together.

Shiku then returns to Munkatz, and he finds the items that he buried for the Rebecin. He has to deal with the Hungarians who still live in the city, and try to treat him like they used to treat Jews. Shiku fights back.

He realizes that his best choice to try and move to the United States. Though he cannot get there, he is sponsored to go to Canada.

Chapter 9: Epilogue

This chapter shows Shiku, now Sammy is 18 and working in Montreal, Quebec. He finally feels safe, but he has no interests in preserving the traditions of his family. His boss, a religious Jewish man, offers to give him a set of Tefillin, which he has not worn since he was on the train to Auschwitz. As he contemplates putting them on he thinks on his experience, and where he wants to take his life.

The experience shows that with all of his struggles, and all that he lost, the only way to preserve what was important to those he loves is to try and live his life the way he was told. He puts the straps on, and he sort of likes it. At the end, he decides to go further and make a more personal connection. Still wearing the T’ffilen, he takes a bottle of whiskey in his room, lights it on fire, and picks up the flame. The story ends with Shiku holding the fire in his hands, allowing a spiritual survival to occur as well.