Shortlisted - 2023 Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards for Best Reality-Based Work An intimate
co-creation of three graphic novelists and four Holocaust survivors But I Live consists of
three illustrated stories based on the experiences of each survivor during and after the
Holocaust. David Schaffer and his family survived in Romania due to their refusal to obey Nazi
collaborators. In the Netherlands brothers Nico and Rolf Kamp were separated from their
parents and hidden by the Dutch resistance in thirteen different places. Through the story of
Emmie Arbel a child survivor of the Ravensbrück and Bergen-Belsen concentration camps we see
the lifelong trauma inflicted by the Holocaust. To complement these hauntingly beautiful and
unforgettable visual stories But I Live includes historical essays an illustrated postscript
from the artists and personal words from each of the survivors. As we urgently approach the
post-witness era without living survivors of the Holocaust these illustrated stories act as a
physical embodiment of memory and help to create a new archive for future readers. By turning
these testimonies into graphic novels But I Live aims to teach new generations about racism
antisemitism human rights and social justice.
