Adieu Birkenau: Ginette Kolinkas Story of Survival [Hardcover]

The graphic memoir of Ginette Kolinka, Holocaust survivor, educator, and “ambassador for the memory” of Auschwitz-Birkenau

It is April 1944. Nineteen-year-old Ginette Kolinka arrives at the Auschwitz-Birkenau camp. Her father and little brother are immediately gassed. Ginette is selected as a worker. She survives.

It is October 2020. Ninety-five-year-old Ginette takes advantage of a lull in the COVID-19 epidemic to accompany a group visiting Birkenau one last time. As a farewell, she brings with her a journalist, France Info’s Victor Matet, and a comic strip writer, J-D Morvan.

From this trip a comic book is born. Ginette tells of her life before the war, how she discovered she was Jewish, how her family fled Paris before she and her father were denounced. She tells the story of the camp; completely, honestly, without seeking pity. We see her today, how she still shares her story with the world, how she still stands and bears witness.

Ginette tells everything with her trademark liveliness and biting humor. We often laugh, and sometimes we shudder. Because the story she tells is ours, too.Ginette Kolinkais a 98-year-old survivor of the Auschwitz-Birkenau camp. Since the 2000s, she has been an “ambassador for memory” who speaks to young people about her experiences in the Shoah. In 2019, she and Marie Ruggieri publishedReturn to Birkenau(Grasset), as well asA Happy Lifein 2023.Jean-David Morvanis a comic book writer fascinated by issues relating to war. His work includes an adaptation of Dorgelès’sLes Croix de Boiswith Facundo Percio (Albin Michel), theIrenaseries with Tréfouël and Evrard (Glénat) andMadeleine, résistantewith Madeleine Riffaud and Dominic Bertail (Aire Libre). For the latter, he was awarded the René Goscinny Prize for best scriptwriter.Victor Matetis a journalist and preslSŠ