A new exhibition at the Israeli Cartoon Museum in Holon is attempting to grapple with the memory of the Holocaust through the art of comics.
The display, titled "A Million and A Half – Childhood in the Holocaust Through the Prism of Comics," opens Oct. 24 and display cartoons and caricatures drawn by Holocaust survivors, a cartoon drawn by a 14-year-old boy in the Theresienstadt Ghetto, renderings of Anne Frank's diary and works from Israeli cartoonists dealing with the Holocaust. The exhibit is curated by Michal Paz Klep.
"Illustration has become an area that allows things of this sort," says cartoonist and illustrator Michel Kichka, who is presenting his own works at the exhibit and will deliver a lecture on the topic of "Children in the Holocaust in French Illustration" on opening night.
"It's true it wasn't customary in the past and that the perception of comics was of something whimsical, but modern comics provides an avenue of expression with difficult, complex issues," Kichka says.
Q. Do you think the Israeli audience is ready for cartoons about the Holocaust? That the subject is not still too taboo?
"I think there's already a willingness today for such a thing among Israelis. In 1986, the American cartoonist Art Spiegelman created 'Maus.' It's a graphic novel about the Holocaust that he created based on stories told to him by his father. It was a masterpiece and a foundational step for the entire field of comics. A book of illustrations was a best-seller and won the Pulitzer Prize. It was basically proof that the time and era allowed comics to also touch the issue of the Holocaust. After all, the Holocaust is addressed in film, literature and in theatre, so now in comics as well."
Q. You've also addressed the Holocaust in your works ...
"Indeed. I created the autobiographical illustration 'The Second Generation,' and it was translated into Hebrew. Michal [Paz Klep], the curator, found some children's cartoons I drew in the past for the newspaper 'Eyes,' which indirectly referenced the Holocaust, and she suggested that I present them at the exhibition. I agreed because I think it's important."
Q. You weren't nervous about doing cartoons about the Holocaust?
"I deliberated a lot, but when I did it I felt ready and that I owe it first and foremost to myself. I felt it was important for me to tell about my childhood in the shadow of parents who survived the Holocaust."
Q. Are there still sacred cows that comics won't touch?
"I don't think so. Anything can be touched. Generally speaking, the comics culture is growing in Israel. This field wasn't developed here, and gradually it is expanding. It wasn't long ago that Ari Folman and David Polonski, the creators of 'Waltz with Bashir,' came out with an animated adaptation of Anne Frank's diary. So that says something about what's going on here."
