A graphic biography of Anne Frank as a way to talk about the Holocaust

Our conversation today will be a literary one. This is a fine continuation of a series of talks about new books, particularly about work in the genre of graphic texts. Our guest is Tetiana Borodina, a post-graduate student of the Doctoral Program at Kyiv-Mohyla Academy and an associate of the Center for Studies of the History and Culture of East European Jewry (Judaica Center). Tetiana came to our studio with an incredibly interesting piece of news: Dukh I Litera Publishers has just issued a graphic biography of Anne Frank.

Iryna Slavinska: I think that our listeners have definitely heard of this name, but for those who may have forgotten, let’s remind them of who Anne Frank was, why she is being discussed, and why her biography has come out.

Tetiana Borodina: Anne Frank was a teenage girl who was born into a Jewish family and who perished during the Holocaust, like her entire family, except for her father, Otto. How do we know about her? She left behind an incredibly fascinating diary in which she reveals herself as a very mature person. At the same time, it depicts the Holocaust. Thus, it is a very well-known memoir about events that took place during this period.

Iryna Slavinska: How old was Anne Frank when she wrote this diary?

Tetiana Borodina: She wrote it between 1942 and 1944 when she was in hiding. She was born in 1929. In other words, she was just a teenager, but in her diary, she records the thoughts of a person who is already wise and mature. We know that she was highly developed and curious; she attended a special Montessori school. In the diary, we see that Anne is troubled not just by teenager issues—falling in love and other experiences—but everything that surrounds her: events of the Holocaust. This is a very tender memoir… It’s not quite a memoir. Anna wrote this diary at the very time that these horrible events were unfolding, and this brings us even closer to them.

Iryna Slavinska: Yes, this is practically live reporting, if one can call it that. It is also worth reminding people of the city in which the events described in the diary of Anne Frank and the book that we are discussing are taking place.

Tetiana Borodina: Anne Frank wrote her diary in Amsterdam, but the graphic biography that we are talking about today recounts the history of the Frank family, which begins in Germany. It starts with the marriage of Anne’s parents in Frankfurt-am-Main. They lived there until 1933, and later the family moved to Holland. Events unfold in several cities there.

Iryna Slavinska: Amsterdam, for example. What other cities?

Tetiana Borodina: Mainly Amsterdam. When Hitler came to power, her father, Otto, began to realize what the situation was coming to, and he begins experiencing problems. He decided to move his family to a safer place. At the time, Holland seemed to be just such a place because it was still not occupied by Nazi Germany. Unfortunately for them, they did not manage to elude the tragic fate that befell so many Jews during this period.

Iryna Slavinska: How reliable is the diary of Anne Frank regarded today as a source on the Holocaust? This is a work that is published in a maximally unredacted form. Did it nevertheless undergo any editing, additions, or rewriting in the context of subsequent events? After all, the diary of Anne Frank was published later, not during the Second World War.

Tetiana Borodina: This graphic biography is constructed not only on the basis of the diary of Anne Frank. It is the result of research done by Sid Jacobson, who wrote the text, and Ernie Colón, who worked on the graphic part of the book. The Anne Frank House in Amsterdam invited them to come for a week, and the entire time they worked there on documents connected with the life of Anne and her diary.

Iryna Slavinska: What is the Anne Frank House?

Tetiana Borodina: It’s a museum. It’s located in the building where Anne’s family hid; this plunges us even more into that atmosphere. Incidentally, on its website right now you can find an online tour of Anne Frank’s hiding place and walk through the rooms; it’s very cool and interactive.

Iryna Slavinska: For those who don’t know the story of Anne Frank very well, it is necessary to explain what we mean by hiding place. This was definitely not her childhood room.

Tetiana Borodina: It’s not even a building in which she lived. Her family moved to an institution where her father was working. When the Nazis occupied Holland, they introduced a ban requiring the registration of any company run by a Jew. Otto transferred the company to his colleagues. It was they who helped him hide his family in this building. This was quite an old building with annexes and several entrances. Behind a bookcase and a map hanging above it was the hiding place where Anna and the members of her family hid for two years.

Iryna Slavinska: What was the size of this hiding place? Was it a room or something similar to a cellar?

Tetiana Borodina: I would not say that it was a small place at all. They could walk around there but very quietly. At night they could go into other parts of the building but very cautiously. The graphic biography recounts how Anna visited her friend, but they had to squat, they had to maneuver somehow… Anna really missed the sun and nature, because, obviously, they couldn’t go outside.

Iryna Slavinska: Today the Anne Frank House commemorates the place where they lived. Are there any exhibits there? It is important to understand what kind of establishment this is; it was the inspiration for this graphic novel.

Tetiana Borodina: First of all, the diary of Anne Frank and all the documents relating to this period are on display there. Besides Anne’s story, it tells about the Holocaust in general. This is a contextualized place, where you can learn a lot about those times.

Iryna Slavinska: This story is a very interesting example of how scholarly or historical institutions can attract researchers and artists to collaboration. Let’s talk a bit about Sid Jacobson and Ernie Colón, the authors of the graphic biography of Anne Frank.

Tetiana Borodina: Sid Jacobson is the author of the book’s text, and Ernie Colón did the illustrations. This is not their first joint project. Previously, they worked on graphic books about the 9/11 terrorist attack in the US and about Che Guevara. These people already had some experience and a vision, and after reading their book about 9/11, the associates of the Anne Frank House contacted them and invited them to work on this project. Sid Jacobson recalled in an interview that he was very affected by this story. He thought about the fact that he was born in the same year as Anne Frank. This spurred him to analyze his entire life, and he realized that he could have easily not been born where he had been or in that period, and his life might already have been interrupted.

Jacobson and Colón contextualized the biography of Anne Frank. It is not just a diary but also notes, a variety of materials, maps, and reminiscences of individuals who were close to the Frank family during this period. This is a wonderful supplement to the story.

Iryna Slavinska: It might seem that the biography genre is quite a simple affair. You can recount the history of a person from birth to death. But when it’s a question of a notable historical figure, readers need to be provided with more context. Let’s talk about this. How do the authors of the Anne Frank biography create it?

Tetiana Borodina: Yes, this is a very important aspect that the authors realized successfully. A simple understanding of a story without its inclusion in a general context is of little use. In the graphic biography of Anne Frank, we see how the authors coped with this task. They interwove the personal history, the voice of Anne Frank’s biography, into the general context of Nazism and the Holocaust, which fosters a better understanding of how these events unfolded. For example, the graphic biography begins with the marriage of Anne Frank’s parents. In the following pages, we see how the National Socialist Party, headed by Hitler, gains power. From short historical references, we learn information about the creation of the concentration camps. Certain facts are correctly underlined, especially for the younger generation of researchers and those who are interested in history: The first camp was created in 1933 in Dachau. Step by step, from the 1920s to the occupation of Holland, we see how an array of laws gradually restricts the rights of Jews. This is very important not only in the context of the Holocaust but also in the general process of genocide, which can be understood considerably more broadly; for an analysis of society during the period of the genocide. Besides simple factual notes, the authors also used maps, personal photographs of Anne Frank and her family, and posters from that period. In interviews, they revealed that they approached the task in such detail that they even studied the attire of Nazi Party members, as well as furniture of that period. They did very painstaking work in order to interweave Anne Frank’s story into a broader context.

Iryna Slavinska: To what degree is this story comprehensible to Ukrainian readers? As someone who translates literature, I know that often not just words have to be translated. Some things need to be explained separately. Sometimes you succeed in making do with an altered phrase in a sentence; elsewhere you have to write an entire footnote. How did this take place during the translation into Ukrainian of the graphic biography of Anne Frank? Did the text have to be adapted?

Tetiana Borodina: I wouldn’t say that this is a complicated text. It is written in a simple, calm tone. The well-known historian Kateryna Dysa worked on the translation. In addition, we translated the text, which had already been adapted for the general public. This comic book is recommended for readers 12 years and older. It was anticipated that the narrative was already simplified, so it could be used. I myself did not work on the translation, which is why I can’t provide any details about it. But for me, as a historian, there was sufficient context and balance, so as not to allow excessive simplification and at the same time to avoid saturating the book with complex details.

Iryna Slavinska: For example, on pages 8 and 9 you can see an interesting illustration of how the authors worked with the context. On one side of the page is the conclusion of a personal adventure of Anne Frank’s father, which is connected with the First World War. On the opposite page is a brief illustration, consisting of four pictures, of the history and consequences of this war. Therefore, I assume that even someone who has never even once heard about the First World War—although that’s difficult to imagine but let’s suppose—will obtain some introductory information.

It is stereotypically thought that graphic histories, novels, or other cartooning formats are quite a lightweight genre. On the one hand, we know that there are publications in this genre that deal with very traumatic subjects; recently we talked about Art Spiegelman’s Maus, a book with a cult following and the only graphic novel to win the Pulitzer Prize. Now we are talking about the graphic biography of Anne Frank. On behalf of skeptical listeners, I have to ask: Aren’t cartoon too frivolous for speaking about the Holocaust?

Tetiana Borodina: This is quite an interesting question, we raised it at the book launch: To what degree can the genre of cartooning serve the telling of complex stories? Leonid [Leonid Finberg, a sociologist, editor-in-chief of the Dukh i Litera publishing house, and the director of the Judaica Center at the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy—Ed.] doesn’t like it when we call this a comic book and says: “This is a graphic history; don’t simplify it down to a comic book.” I think that society needs to be provided with information in interesting forms; that’s why the genre of illustrated books suits this very well. People have to know, hear, and be interested in such important stories. And this format simply encourages reading; anyone will be interested, if not in reading, then at least in looking at the pictures, and then s/he may start paying attention to the text. Without a doubt, this genre has the right to exist. I know, for example, that in Chernivtsi a similar book is being done about the Holocaust in that city in the form of a graphic narrative.

Iryna Slavinska: Books in this format will be interesting and convenient for adults and experienced readers to read. Is this book suitable for teenagers?

Tetiana Borodina: I think that we shouldn’t limit ourselves to only one age category; becoming familiar with Anne Frank’s biography in this kind of contextualized format can be of interest to everyone. It will be especially interesting for children who are familiar with various comic books. There are no restrictions here, besides “for 12  years and older.”

Iryna Slavinska: Can one reach the conclusion that the conversation about Anne Frank lost something from being transformed into the format of a graphic history? In the process of a genre shift and changes in types of utterances, there are always some losses and some gains. The obvious gain of this graphic biography is much simpler perception; the pictures add movement and dynamics. But can one note any loss of material here?

Tetiana Borodina: That’s quite difficult to say. I think that this book is intended to carry out the first task: to spark peoples’ interest, a task with which it copes wonderfully. After reading this graphic novel, a person who has not read the diary of Anne Frank yet will be able to familiarize himself or herself with it. At the same time, if we start reading Anne Frank’s diary without knowing the history of the Holocaust and the rise of the Nazi Party, it will be difficult to understand all the facts that Anna recounts, her experiences, etc.

This book fulfills an important function, so it is a very good thing that it has appeared in our country. At the launch, I said that right now it would be a good step for Ukraine to publish something about our Holocaust victims who survived and left memoirs. Such stories should definitely appear in our country in the format of a graphic narrative or some other kind. We have to know not only about Anne Frank but about other people who suffered during the Second World War.

This program is created with the support of the Canadian philanthropic fund Ukrainian Jewish Encounter.

Originally appeared in Ukrainian (Hromadske Radio podcast) here.

Translated from the Ukrainian by Marta D. Olynyk.
Edited by Peter Bejger.

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