My best read of the year! A pre-release review of Reinhard Kleist's 'The Boxer'

So this is not the first time I have written about holocaust related literature on this blog. Just a couple of weeks ago I reviewed the graphic novel ‘We Won’t See Aushwitz’ (read review here) and then, last week, managed to wangle my way into the launch of an up and coming book from the same publishing house titled ‘The Boxer’ by German writer and artist Reinhard Kleist. This is the true story of holocaust survivor Harry Haft, a young Polish Jew who, during the war, was forced to box for the amusement of the SS in the numerous concentration camps. After the war he then travelled to America where he became a professional boxer. 

At first I thought I would shelve this and review some other books first, for fear of being typecast as having some kind of holocaust fixation (and a Self Made Hero fixation too for that matter). But then I read it and I wept. 

Also, it is not very often that I get my hands on a pre release book so, bearing this in mind, I will do my best to give as little away as possible but equally still hopefully get you bubbling with excited anticipation of an imminent fantastic read.

Harry Haft, born Hertzkow Haft, was a Polish Jew from Betchatow, Poland and was sixteen at the start of the second world war. He was one of 8 siblings and his initial fate is sadly predictable as he is swiftly deported by the Nazis to Strezlin, a concentration camp. 

This was never going to be an easy read. What makes Art Spiegelmen’s ‘Maus' vaguely palatable (for want of a better word), is that it detracts from the acts of horror that Spiegelman’s father’s experiences by depicting the characters as mice. So how would Kleist tell the story of someone who at one point works in a death camp crematorium? I knew from attending the launch some of the horrors inside the book and was bracing myself. I was relieved that Kleist dealt with these unspeakably horrific moments sensitively and abstractly. With just some well thought out brush strokes, a multitude of subtle suggestions are made. With little description or dialogue, this works beautifully in demonstrating the horror but without giving you nightmares. There are other moments in the book, far less graphic in their gory detail but equally as harrowing, that are dealt with head on, in brutally forthright detail, which I wasn’t prepared for. However this is no criticism, there is a story here that needed to be told and it’s not about protecting the reader all the time. 

Haft is moved from camp to camp, including Aushwitz where he is 'taken under the wing' of an SS Officer, who notices Haft’s boxing skills. Soon Haft is tasked with boxing other prisoners on a weekly basis for the amusement of the SS soldiers, often killing several opponents in an afternoon. He soon is given the nickname ‘The Jewish Beast’. However, with the allied forces looming, Haft, along with the rest of the inmates are moved on from camp to camp.

As the curtain signalling the end of the war falls on Europe, Haft decides to go to America in pursuit of his childhood sweetheart, Leah, who he has heard managed to flee there before the war. Once in America, he can find no trace of Leah and decides to try his hand at professional boxing. With the promise of fame and more importantly his name being in the papers all he can think about is the potential publicity that might allow Leah to track him down and so Haft takes on every opponent who will fight him. This leads up to the biggest fight of his career against one of the most successful professional boxers of the 20th century: Rocky Marciano.

There are some beautiful moments that demonstrate Haft’s humanity, including his dedication to finding his first love. However, we also see what Haft turns into, a cruel product of the horror inflicted on him, a troubled and angry man who terrifies his own children. It is Haft’s son, Alan, who despite his rocky relationship with his father, wrote the book of Haft’s life and who Kleist was in direct contact with when writing this book. 

 

Anyone who has read ’The Pianist’, Spiegelman’s ‘Maus' or the survival accounts of Primo Levi and Tadeuz Borowski (both went on to commit suicide) will know how generally any holocaust survivor story demonstrates human nature’s ability to fight in bitterest of suffering. Despite being subjected to unimaginably intolerable misery these individuals survived and ’The Boxer’ is no exception. There are numerous themes that unite all these real life versions of events however, the most prominent for me is the aftermath, the repercussions of living with such darkly terrible memories. Are these survivors people, or are they haunted shells confining the shadows of their past within. All of these stories demonstrate how it isn’t just about achieving your freedom but dealing with the horrors that more often will stay with you for ever.

Kleist is very clearly an artist of note, he is able to adapt his style in accordance with his subject matter. The artwork of one of his other titles ‘Cash: I see a darkness’, forgive me for stating the obvious, effectively utilises inky darkness in virtually every panel. Yet for this book Kleist's style is Eisner-esque, in brush and ink, and has a certain slick grittiness with less use of shadows and blackouts, and achieves abstract detail as required. Kleist also effectively and intelligently utilises flashback imagery throughout the story giving it a beautiful cinematic edginess. 

One thing I will reveal about last page of this book is the list of awards it’s already won in Germany including: German children’s literature award for Best non fiction book, 2013, Best German book award at the Munich comic festival, 2013 and Grand Prix de Lyon at Lyon BD festival. 

Subtle, insightful and astutely executed, if there is one graphic novel you read this year, make it this.

I would put money on a film option already being in the pipes. Reinhard Kleist’s ’The Boxer' is due for UK release in a couple of months.

A few photos from the launch...

Artist and writer Reinhard Kleist (on the right) in conversation with writer Paul Gravett (on the left)

My signed copy of the book (including amazing hand drawn ink sketch done on the spot - why don't all artists do this?)

Time for a graphic novel review, Jeremie Dres 'We Won't See Auschwitz'

A blog a day for a month challenge: Day 25

So I cannot let 'blog month' pass without at least one comic book review and I have to say that this is a very fine specimen indeed. From UK independent publishing house Self Made Hero comes 'We Won't See Auschwitz'. I have always had a penchant for Holocaust literature since studying it in a module as part of my degree. However, it was Art Spiegleman’s ‘Maus’ that had always had the greatest impact on me. So I was extremely excited by the opportunity to read something that revisits the effects of the holocaust in modern day Poland and the unrelinquishing grip it still has over Polish society today.

We Won’t See Auschwitz. Written and illustrated by Jeremie Dres. Translated by Edward Gauvin. Published by Selfmadehero 2012.

‘Auschwitz: five years of annihilation for more than a thousand years of life and history of the Jewish people of Poland. A trauma still so real it threatens to make us forget everything else. It’s the everything else that I went looking for' (from back cover)

This is the true account of 2 Parisian brothers of Jewish heritage, set in present day, who decide to retrace their Grandmother’s Yiddish roots by visiting her pre holocaust home in Warsaw. Their aim is not only to try and rediscover her family, but also the history of Jews in Poland after the holocaust, but without the obligatory trip to Polish Jewish history's tragic focal point: Auschwitz.

The story begins with the writer, after the death of his grandmother Therese, debating whether to make this journey. His family urge him to go on a trip that appears to be on all their unfulfilled agendas, although he is given a stark warning to beware of the Poles and their deep rooted anti semitism. His older brother Martin also decides to join him. 

We quickly discover some eye opening facts about Poland since the war. As result of Nazi destruction, just 15% of Warsaw retained it’s original buildings by the end of the war and was rebuilt in 1949, based on the 18th century paintings by Canaletto. However the ghetto, considered a poorer area, was not rebuilt and nothing was put in place to commemorate what happened. 

‘Before the holocaust, Poland ranked second among countries in terms of a Jewish population (three and a half million). It was the cradle of Yiddish culture, which spread throughout Europe’. After the war there were 300,000 and currently as few as 5,000 Jews living in Poland. 

The two brothers talk to as many Polish Jews from a variety of organisations and different levels of faith. These include Zoom, for Jews under the age of 35 and the TSKZ, one of the oldest and, at one point, the only Jewish organisation in Poland. There is no doubt that, even 60 years after the end of the second world war, Judaeo-Polish relations are still strained and of course, it’s complicated. They touch on historian Dariusz Libionka, who compared the collaboration in Poland to the Vichy regime. 

They also talk about the effects of the 6 day War in March 1968, between then Communist Egypt and Israel. Poland was allied with Egypt and as a result of Polish anti semitism, a further 25,000 Jews fled Poland. 

There are a selection of beautiful light bulb and brick wall hitting moments as Martin and Jeremie slowly but surely find traces of their Jewish family in the now derelict cemeteries, registry offices and interviews conducted with leading figures of numerous grass roots organisations that have sprung up to assist those still searching for their families in the aftermath of the holocaust.

We hear some heartbreaking conversations where Jews living in Poland today describe the volume of people returning to there on a daily basis in pursuit of their lost relatives. 

The story overall is a stimulating and surprisingly uplifting read with many themes running throughout: a brotherhood rediscovered and restored in the ubiquitous 'road trip’, a family history veiled by the tragic events of the holocaust rediscovered and a factual report of the effects of the anti semitic ethnic cleansing, that seemed to come from all angles even after the fall of the Nazis.

The artwork is plain, black and white, fine-line drawing, in pen and ink. It’s rough, childishly simple yet accomplished in it’s style and structure. Sometimes I had difficulty distinguishing the characters, however this was more down to the sheer volume of people you meet throughout the story, rather than the artists inability to create strong characters figuratively. The lettering is also the same, written in charmingly sloping freehand. At the end there is a delightfully gratifying portfolio of black and white family portraits of the Dres family, showing the real faces of the people the 2 brothers rediscovered on their journey.

Ultimately this is yet another stunning piece of journalistic comic art. The style harks beautifully to Marjane Sartrapi or the leader in this field (in my view), artist and graphic novelist Joe Sacco. Like Sacco's analysis of Palestine and Gaza, this book raises some uncomfortable questions about modern day anti semitism and xenophobia. After reading the book I realised how naive I was about the lasting impact from the sheer destruction of families during the holocaust. I had always thought that even those who perished were at least accounted for, their place of rest identified and their family tree re constructed, if only on paper. However, there is still a harrowing magnitude of unanswered questions that will always remain in the ashes of the holocaust. Yet the splinters of Jewish faith and race that remain in Poland will continue to slowly but surely piece themselves back together.

If you like this….

Further reading  

Pyongyang: A journey in North Korea - Guy Delisle

Joe Sacco: Footnotes in Gaza, Palestine, Safe Area Gorazde, Journalism, most recently The Great War.

Marjane Satrapi ‘Persepolis’, 'Chicken with Plums'