In this graphic novel, we follow Francisco Boix, a Spanish Communist who ends up in Mauthausen, a Nazi death camp. Due to his language and photography skills, he is taken on as an assistant to an artist wannabe Nazi who photographs the many tragic deaths of the inmates. Boix sees this as an opportunity to collect evidence of the Nazi's atrocities and goes to work trying to hide negatives and move them out of the camp. He is successful, and his photos go on to help with convictions, but he dies tragically young. This is yet another important contribution to the canon of literature that tells us varied perspectives from the second World War. Given that most concentration camp narratives are from Jewish perspectives, I appreciated the fact that this was from a political prisoner and yet another reminder of the many who were tortured and killed for their beliefs and convictions.

Mauthausen was a Nazi concentration camp. The Photography of Mauthausen tells the story of Spanish prisoner and former newspaper photographer Francisco. Director of the Erkennungsdienst, Ricken, was an amateur photographer himself. He orders Francisco to assist him in photographing the inmate death scenes.

And those scenes are horrific. Injecting gasoline into inmate’s hearts? Pushing prisoners into electrified fences “Just for laughs”? Ricken wanted to turn these terrible deaths into art. Francisco, with the help of the Spanish communists within the camp, wants to send them to the Russians to use for anti-Germany propaganda.

The Photography of Mauthausen is a perfect merging of story and art to tell a true memoir of a particularly malevolent time in human history. The coloring, especially the brown lithographic scenes, added to the emotion in the scenes. This is an important story that needs to be told. Plus it takes a new, more personal, perspective on concentration camp inmates and their guards. 5 stars!

Thanks to Dead Reckoning and NetGalley for a copy in exchange for my honest review.

Graphic novels can be used to incredible effect, especially with laying out stories that may have otherwise go unheard. Moreover, its the type of medium where you can take in a panel for an infinite amount of time, as a way to stop it.

I had never heard of the Spanish photographer Francisco Boix or the Mauthausen concentration camp before, until now. This is a semi-factual account about the life and death in the camp as well as the incredible feat, he partook in, of stealing negatives of photos taken by the Nazis that were later used as evidence to expose the atrocities there.

The artists never shy away from displaying the horror and hardships lived there. The art is very intricate with deep, stark lines and dark, pale colours. The narrator's POV helps with immersion into that world and yet, as it is said later, I won't know what it was really like as I didn't live through the atrocities. There are many questions raised here, about doing the right thing and persistence to fight for a greater good with high risk when your life can be numbered at any time, and what happens when something you have fought for so hard is negligible in someone else's eyes. Worst of all, your mere survival suggests to them that you were a collaborator.

I would have appreciated a note regarding what parts of the novel were embellished. As the author mentions in the foreword and I could see for myself, even those freed may not have lived to tell us their story.

I was not familiar with Francisco Boix’s story before picking up The Photographer of Mauthausen, but the graphic novel struck such chords that I doubt I will ever forget it.

The book offers insight into the lives of Mauthausen's political prisoners and the protocols designed to exterminate them through hard labor. The artistry of the panels chronicles these realities, and while I found some of the illustrations challenging to absorb, I could not help but appreciate the care and dedicated resolve Rubio, Colombo, and Landa exhibit in their handling of the material.

I am drawn to themes when reading, and more than once lost myself in the ideas this story provoked. I was intrigued by the manufacture of visual propaganda as explored in the early portion of the novel, but I was also moved by the narrative's approach to the transformative effects of desperation, survivor guilt, and the question of how to chronicle experience to individuals who did not share in it.

It would be a crime not to mention supporting characters like Mateu and Marie-Claude Vaillant-Couturier, but their roles are very straightforward. Francisco represents something entirely different. He is a man forced to make hard choices, a man who lives in the shadow of death both before and after the war, and a man forced to navigate a world unready to hear his story. I could not recall seeing this sort of experience fictionalized before, and I liked how the layering of his realities forced me to consider both the handling of war crimes in the post-war years and the varied experiences of Holocaust victims.

Highly recommended.

The Photographer of Mathausen features realistic art and historical storytelling, working in a combination to share a powerful and memorable story. I most appreciated the way this creative team incorporated factual content, and even photographs, in the narrative. Highly recommended!