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historybowler's review against another edition
4.0
It would be closer to 5 if it didn't feel unfinished.
shelleyanderson4127's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
informative
inspiring
tense
medium-paced
5.0
We Are On Our Own: A Memoir by Miriam Katin is a beautifully illustrated graphic novel about the year Miriam and her mother spent hiding in the Hungarian countryside.
Miriam was five years old in 1944, living in Budapest with her loving Jewish family, when the Nazis took over. Her father joined the partisans. Facing eviction from their apartment, Miriam's mother fakes their deaths, then pretends she is a servant girl and flees with Miriam to the countryside.
They survive a freezing winter, lack of food, grueling work, and the Russian invasion, thanks to her mother's determination. After the war, reunited with her father, the family leaves Hungary and its anti-Semitism, eventually settling in the US.
The horror is mitigated because we see all this through the eyes of the child Miriam, who looks forward to the nightly visits of a Nazi officer to her mother because the man brings her chocolates.
Today is International Holocaust Memorial Day (January 27, 2024). It is a time to remember what happens when hate and militarism rule. A day to look deeply at the roots of anti-Semitism and all systems of oppression, a day to remember that none of us are safe until all of us are. From Palestine to Sudan, the Ukraine to Myanmar, may sanity, human decency, and peace prevail. May we dedicate ourselves to healing and repair, to rebuilding a world where no child ever goes hungry and no woman ever lives in fear.
Miriam was five years old in 1944, living in Budapest with her loving Jewish family, when the Nazis took over. Her father joined the partisans. Facing eviction from their apartment, Miriam's mother fakes their deaths, then pretends she is a servant girl and flees with Miriam to the countryside.
They survive a freezing winter, lack of food, grueling work, and the Russian invasion, thanks to her mother's determination. After the war, reunited with her father, the family leaves Hungary and its anti-Semitism, eventually settling in the US.
The horror is mitigated because we see all this through the eyes of the child Miriam, who looks forward to the nightly visits of a Nazi officer to her mother because the man brings her chocolates.
Today is International Holocaust Memorial Day (January 27, 2024). It is a time to remember what happens when hate and militarism rule. A day to look deeply at the roots of anti-Semitism and all systems of oppression, a day to remember that none of us are safe until all of us are. From Palestine to Sudan, the Ukraine to Myanmar, may sanity, human decency, and peace prevail. May we dedicate ourselves to healing and repair, to rebuilding a world where no child ever goes hungry and no woman ever lives in fear.
the_bibliophiles's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
4.0
pattydsf's review against another edition
4.0
A haunting book about WW II that I have recently read was We Are on Our Own by Miriam Katin. This book preoccupies my mind for several reasons. One, it is a story about WWII that is not familiar to me. I had never thought much about those who tried to escape. What Miriam and her mother went through was very difficult.
Two, the drawings of this "graohic novel" are very evocative. Most of the GNs I have read have been black and white, and very clear. These drawings are in colored pencil and are less clear. As one reviewer stated - they look like a child's memory. Really true.
However, I am mostly disturbed by where Katin's experiences put her with her religion. She has been left haunted herself - without a clear belief system. This is hard for me to imagine.
Two, the drawings of this "graohic novel" are very evocative. Most of the GNs I have read have been black and white, and very clear. These drawings are in colored pencil and are less clear. As one reviewer stated - they look like a child's memory. Really true.
However, I am mostly disturbed by where Katin's experiences put her with her religion. She has been left haunted herself - without a clear belief system. This is hard for me to imagine.
bergamotandbooks's review against another edition
2.0
Read this for school in my 'Holocomics' class. Wasn't a huge fan of it, just didn't connect with the characters or the story (especially after reading Maus before this!)
saidtheraina's review against another edition
4.0
I've been exposed to a lot of Holocaust stories. But very few of the stories I've read have focused on those people living places as far east and south as Hungary.
Katin and her mother were ::only:: on the run from the Nazis for one year. They never went to a concentration camp. And yet, their story still portrays so many (classic? common?) horrors of the era for Jewish families.
Two things particularly struck me about this story.
1. (trigger warning) The sexual danger of being a woman alone during the era. Katin's father is away from the family during this time (I was never totally clear, but I think he was in the military.). This required Katin's mother to figure out what to do on her own. And put her in very precarious situations. And yes, the horrific happens. Several times.
2. Relatedly, navigating a world where there are no absolute right answers was particularly difficult where many of the choices were likely to result in death.
Watching Katin's mother try to determine what to do when she's told to move was heart-breaking. I would flounder in that situation. I'm not sure I would have the guts to do the thing that varied from official instructions.
The sequence where Katin's father is trying to find his family was overwhelming when I think about what it would be like to live through that. How DO you find someone when you don't know where they've gone? So many links in that chain could have gone wrong.
The illustrations were fine - pencil drawings that were occasionally so muddled that they were hard to make out. But that's fitting in a book written from the perspective (more or less) of a very young child.
I really appreciated the way Katin contrasted her childhood (for that year) with the childhood of her kid, in occasional color sequences. And the way she showed (without telling) the longterm trauma effects of going through all that at a young age. The dog sequences were occasionally difficult to read. But never went TOO Far for me. Although sharper illustrations could have pushed it beyond that.
The photo at the end just killed me.
Yeah, considering I was biased against this because it's yet-another-holocaust-story, I gotta say - this knocked it out of the park.
And I read it at just the right moment.
Katin and her mother were ::only:: on the run from the Nazis for one year. They never went to a concentration camp. And yet, their story still portrays so many (classic? common?) horrors of the era for Jewish families.
Two things particularly struck me about this story.
1. (trigger warning) The sexual danger of being a woman alone during the era. Katin's father is away from the family during this time (I was never totally clear, but I think he was in the military.). This required Katin's mother to figure out what to do on her own. And put her in very precarious situations. And yes, the horrific happens. Several times.
2. Relatedly, navigating a world where there are no absolute right answers was particularly difficult where many of the choices were likely to result in death.
Watching Katin's mother try to determine what to do when she's told to move was heart-breaking. I would flounder in that situation. I'm not sure I would have the guts to do the thing that varied from official instructions.
The sequence where Katin's father is trying to find his family was overwhelming when I think about what it would be like to live through that. How DO you find someone when you don't know where they've gone? So many links in that chain could have gone wrong.
The illustrations were fine - pencil drawings that were occasionally so muddled that they were hard to make out. But that's fitting in a book written from the perspective (more or less) of a very young child.
I really appreciated the way Katin contrasted her childhood (for that year) with the childhood of her kid, in occasional color sequences. And the way she showed (without telling) the longterm trauma effects of going through all that at a young age. The dog sequences were occasionally difficult to read. But never went TOO Far for me. Although sharper illustrations could have pushed it beyond that.
The photo at the end just killed me.
Yeah, considering I was biased against this because it's yet-another-holocaust-story, I gotta say - this knocked it out of the park.
And I read it at just the right moment.
bekahtay19's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
tense
4.5