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.
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| 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. |
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| 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. |
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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.
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| 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.
