About the exhibition
Lohheide, 5 May 2025 : Emmie Arbel survived the Ravensbrück and Bergen-Belsen concentration camps as a little girl. David Schaffer escaped the genocide in Transnistria because he did not follow the rules. Brothers Nico and Rolf Kamp, separated from their parents, were hidden from their murderers by the Dutch resistance in 13 different places. Only a few survivors of the Holocaust are still alive today. Recording their memories plays a central role.
The multi-layered project "But I'm alive" tackles this task in an unusual way: It creates graphic stories for which there are hardly any documentary templates. In close dialogue with the four survivors, the internationally renowned illustrators Miriam Libicki (Vancouver, Canada), Gilad Seliktar (Pardes Hanna-Karkur, Israel) and Barbara Yelin (Munich, Germany) created a graphic reconstruction of their memories. Based on these encounters, comics were created that explore questions of trauma, memory and survival.
The resulting anthology "But I am alive", edited by Dr Charlotte Schallié (University of Victoria, Canada), breaks with familiar images of the Holocaust. The stories visualise an incomprehensible event in a direct and moving way. At the same time, they create a new archive of memory for future generations. The comic medium proves to be a powerful means of reconstructing the visually undocumented, as a plausible, subjective and truthful narrative beyond photorealistic depiction.
Using original drawings, sketches, archive material and interviews with those involved, the exhibition also sheds light on the process of creating the book. With the publication of Barbara Yelin's comic "The Colour of Memory" (2023), the story of Emmie Arbel will be told further, and the exhibition has been expanded to include new originals.
The exhibition "Remembering the Holocaust" was conceived in 2022 as part of the Comicsalon Erlangen and has since been shown in Dortmund, Wiesbaden, the Ravensbrück Memorial and in Schwarzenbach. Now it is coming to the Bergen-Belsen Memorial and thus to a place of historical events.
The opening will take place on 11 May at 15:30 in the foyer of the memorial's seminar and administration building.
Programme of the opening
- Greeting: Dr Akim Jah, Head of the Research and Documentation Department of the Bergen-Belsen Memorial
- Presentation and discussion "Images of Remembrance" with: Emmie Arbel, Barbara Yelin (illustrator), Pablo Ben Yakov (director "Three Siblings", nephew of Emmie Arbel) and Michal Arbel (daughter of Emmie Arbel). Moderated by Jakob Hoffmann
- Tour of the exhibition "But I'm alive. Remembering the Holocaust" with: Barbara Yelin, comic artist and curator of the exhibition, Jakob Hoffmann, curator of the exhibition
Please register via our booking link by 8 May 2025. Admission is free.
The exhibition was curated by Barbara Yelin and Jakob Hoffmann. Exhibition design: Marion Reis/vizibil
The Bergen-Belsen Memorial would like to thank the project partners Survivor-Centred Visual Narratives, the Erlangen International Comic Salon, the Ravensbrück Memorial, the Erika Fuchs House - Museum for Comics and Language Arts, the Arolsen Archives, the Centre for Holocaust Studies Munich, New Jewish Press (University of Toronto Press), the publishing house C.H. Beck, Reprodukt Verlag, Charlotte Schallié and for the translation Iain Higgins.