Not seeing Auschwitz: memory, generation and representations of the Holocaust in twenty-first century French comics

摘要

We are reaching a point in history when the generation who\udexperienced the Holocaust as survivors, witnesses or exiles will\udsoon disappear. What happens to our relationship to such a\udmomentous event in global history when our living connection\udwith such a past is broken? To answer this question, this article\udwill explore recent French representations of the Holocaust\udthrough the comic book. It will approach such representations\udfrom the perspective of the grandchildren of those who were\udaffected by the Holocaust, perhaps the last generation to have\udpersonal ties to this wartime past. It will focus specifically on\udJérémie Dres’s Nous n’irons pas voir Auschwitz (2011), translated as\udWe Won’t Go and See Auschwitz. As a “third generation” narrative,\udDres’s work is attentive to stories of Jewish exile and loss to be\udfound on the margins of Holocaust histories. This perspective\udtranslates into an openness towards transnational histories of the\udHolocaust; a recognition of place as a substitute for living memory\udand an awareness of comics’ potential to innovate in the\udtransmission of Holocaust memories. Ultimately, this article will\udargue that the contemporary comic book acts as a privileged\udvehicle of remembrance, indicative of the reordering of Holocaust\udrepresentations in an age of cultural memory.