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The Photographer of Mauthausen
This is a dramatic retelling of true events in the life of Francisco—or François—Boix, a Spanish press photographer and communist who fled to France at the beginning of World War II. But there, he found himself handed over by the French to the Nazis, who sent him to the notorious Mauthausen concentration camp, where he spent the war among thousands of other Spaniards and other prisoners. More than half of them would lose their lives there. Through an odd turn of events, Boix finds himself the confidant of an SS officer who is documenting prisoner deaths at the camp. Boix realizes that he has a chance to prove Nazi war crimes by stealing the negatives of these perverse photos—but only at the risk of his own life, that of a young Spanish boy he has sworn to protect, and, indeed, that of every prisoner in the camp.
118 pages, Kindle Edition
First published September 29, 2017
10 people are currently reading
730 people want to read
About the author
Salva Rubio
38 books110 followersSalva Rubio is a novelist and screenwriter and something else.
He works as a cinema screenwriter, having been nominated to the Spanish Goya Awards for Best Animation Feature.
As a graphic novel writer, he publishes mainly in the French-Belgian market and his work has been nominated to an Eisner Award.
He has also written classic musical essays and is the continuator of the bestseller screenwriting theory book series “Save the Cat!”
He is an associate member of the WGA (Writer’s Guild of America, West) and he is a member of the Academia de las Artes y las Ciencias Cinematográficas de España.
He works as a cinema screenwriter, having been nominated to the Spanish Goya Awards for Best Animation Feature.
As a graphic novel writer, he publishes mainly in the French-Belgian market and his work has been nominated to an Eisner Award.
He has also written classic musical essays and is the continuator of the bestseller screenwriting theory book series “Save the Cat!”
He is an associate member of the WGA (Writer’s Guild of America, West) and he is a member of the Academia de las Artes y las Ciencias Cinematográficas de España.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 177 reviews
December 5, 2018
Another great World War II-related material that narrates about the crimes of the Nazi German. The story is about the Spanish photographer,
Francisco Boix,
who is a prisoner of war by the Germans in Mauthausen. He was first assigned in the quarry as a way to exterminate him just like the others. Luckily, he was later moved to the identification department of the camp.
Being a photographer for the German Army means developing photos of the soldiers and their families, which will be sent back home to their loved ones. Another task for them is to photograph and identify the prisoners when they arrived. Some photos also capture fake condition of the prisoners such as that they are healthy, well fed, and happy. These photos were used as a propaganda to deceive people that the camps were safe and that the prisoners lived well. The pictures were also used in the brochures to be sent to factories and quarries because the prisoners were offered as slave laborers.
When a prisoner died, a photo was taken and preserved in the Nazi Archives. As for illegal executions, another photo was taken in the art form to elevate death and that was what Francisco found out while being in the aforementioned department in the camp.
All the atrocities that the Nazi German's did such as throwing prisoners off the cliff; escape attempts when in reality they were pushed or forced themselves into the electrified fences; prisoners beaten to death, shot in the back of the head, hanging themselves; and experimentation by the doctors pushed Francisco that he wants the whole world to know what's is really happening.
After reading this graphic novel, I searched for Francisco Boix's photographs and looking at them are remarkably shocking and terrifying, most particularly the photo of the man that was hanged using a belt. Reading the cruel acts performed during the WWII was already horrifying, what more if people could see the photos that captured them.
The Photographer of Mauthausen is a must-read for those who are into reading anything about the WWII. The story of Francisco Boix and his perseverance and bravery is truly admirable and that should be set as an example to all.
Being a photographer for the German Army means developing photos of the soldiers and their families, which will be sent back home to their loved ones. Another task for them is to photograph and identify the prisoners when they arrived. Some photos also capture fake condition of the prisoners such as that they are healthy, well fed, and happy. These photos were used as a propaganda to deceive people that the camps were safe and that the prisoners lived well. The pictures were also used in the brochures to be sent to factories and quarries because the prisoners were offered as slave laborers.
When a prisoner died, a photo was taken and preserved in the Nazi Archives. As for illegal executions, another photo was taken in the art form to elevate death and that was what Francisco found out while being in the aforementioned department in the camp.
All the atrocities that the Nazi German's did such as throwing prisoners off the cliff; escape attempts when in reality they were pushed or forced themselves into the electrified fences; prisoners beaten to death, shot in the back of the head, hanging themselves; and experimentation by the doctors pushed Francisco that he wants the whole world to know what's is really happening.
After reading this graphic novel, I searched for Francisco Boix's photographs and looking at them are remarkably shocking and terrifying, most particularly the photo of the man that was hanged using a belt. Reading the cruel acts performed during the WWII was already horrifying, what more if people could see the photos that captured them.
The Photographer of Mauthausen is a must-read for those who are into reading anything about the WWII. The story of Francisco Boix and his perseverance and bravery is truly admirable and that should be set as an example to all.
July 5, 2022
Francisco Boix was a Spanish Communist who fled to France and then with the invasion of Germany was sent to Mauthausen (by France) as a political prisoner. Once a journalist/photographer, Boix managed you become the assistant to the Nazi photographer Paul Ricken, asssigned to 1) take pictures of happy Nazis to send to their families; 2) to illustrate how pleasant and healthy this stage 3 (extermination only) Austrian Nazi concentration camp, ansd 3) in the way of the KKK’s documentation of the hanging of black men by white nationalists throughout the twentieth century, the camp was directed to keep records of those killed. Some were set up as lies, fake suicides and so on, but some were proud records of what the Nazi campaign was intended to do: Murder millions of people.
Ricken, as one might imagine all of the Nazis involved in this horritif extewrmination process, was a former professor obsessed with his own imagine role in preserving Nazi glory, and eternal fam as an artist of Death.
Boix managed to smuggle out thousands of negatives, though only a fraction of them survived, enough to convict (at the Nuremberg trials where Boix testified) one officer and make it clear atrocities were committed there by cruel and badly misled soldiers. Boix, betrayed by his own Spain, then France, was later betrayed at his release from Mauthousen by Stalin and the Communist Party, who insanely insisted the Spanish communists should have died for their cause in the camps.
This is a great and inspirational story to pair with Art Spiegelman’s Maus. I recalled nothing of this story--the confinement and murder of Spanish communists--so am glad to have the horrible memory preserved. Use those cameras for justice, as Pedro Columo and his team use their fine illustration work!
Ricken, as one might imagine all of the Nazis involved in this horritif extewrmination process, was a former professor obsessed with his own imagine role in preserving Nazi glory, and eternal fam as an artist of Death.
Boix managed to smuggle out thousands of negatives, though only a fraction of them survived, enough to convict (at the Nuremberg trials where Boix testified) one officer and make it clear atrocities were committed there by cruel and badly misled soldiers. Boix, betrayed by his own Spain, then France, was later betrayed at his release from Mauthousen by Stalin and the Communist Party, who insanely insisted the Spanish communists should have died for their cause in the camps.
This is a great and inspirational story to pair with Art Spiegelman’s Maus. I recalled nothing of this story--the confinement and murder of Spanish communists--so am glad to have the horrible memory preserved. Use those cameras for justice, as Pedro Columo and his team use their fine illustration work!
November 8, 2020
The true story of Francisco Boix, a Spanish exile and WWII prisoner of war, sent to the concentration camp of Mauthausen. There he was assigned as the assistant to the Nazi photographer assigned to take pictures documenting how prisoners died. At great personal risk, Francisco came up with a plan to hide the negatives of these atrocities until after the war when the Nazis could be brought to justice. It's a harsh reminder of what man is capable of. Columbo's art captures this very well.
Received a review copy from Dead Reckoning and Edelweiss. All thoughts are my own and in no way influenced by the aforementioned.
Received a review copy from Dead Reckoning and Edelweiss. All thoughts are my own and in no way influenced by the aforementioned.
November 14, 2020
Thank you to the publisher for a copy of
This book via netgalley!
Simple yet so powerful. True heroes don’t wear capes. They risk their own lives to have others see the truth. Let their stories be told. The very least we can do for the sacrifices they made. A must read!
This book via netgalley!
Simple yet so powerful. True heroes don’t wear capes. They risk their own lives to have others see the truth. Let their stories be told. The very least we can do for the sacrifices they made. A must read!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 29, 2019
La storia vera di Francesco Boix, partigiano comunista spagnolo internato nel campo di concentramento di Mauthausen: qui, su ordine delle SS, documenta, con migliaia di foto, i crimini più folli e spietati dei nazisti e poi, grazie a una rete di “resistenza” all’interno del campo, riesce a farle uscire fuori dal campo stesso, dove diventeranno una preziosa testimonianza degli orrori che vi sono accaduti.
Boix si è salvato e ha portato il suo contributo al Processo di Norimberga. Le sue foto hanno fatto il giro del mondo, documentando e scioccando chi le ha viste.
Più leggo storie, testimonianze, romanzi, graphic novels sulla Shoah, più scopro vicende personali (talvolta di grande coraggio, come questa) e punti di vista diversi, che mi restituiscono un quadro vario, incredibile, sempre più completo. Questa di Salva Rubio è una graphic novel dai toni e colori un po’ tetri, ma di incredibile valore storico.
Boix si è salvato e ha portato il suo contributo al Processo di Norimberga. Le sue foto hanno fatto il giro del mondo, documentando e scioccando chi le ha viste.
Più leggo storie, testimonianze, romanzi, graphic novels sulla Shoah, più scopro vicende personali (talvolta di grande coraggio, come questa) e punti di vista diversi, che mi restituiscono un quadro vario, incredibile, sempre più completo. Questa di Salva Rubio è una graphic novel dai toni e colori un po’ tetri, ma di incredibile valore storico.
April 21, 2018
Disclaimer: Arc via Netgalley
Francisco Boix was a Spanish Communist who fled to France and then with the invasion of Germany was sent to Mauthausen as a political prisoner. His photographs that he hid in Mauthausen, at great risk to himself, played a role in the war crime trials that followed the end of WW II. He is often overlooked in American history classes because he was a Communist (and died long before the Wall fell) and Spanish. But he is important because of the evidence that he preserved.
Rudio’s graphic novel is partial biography, detailing what might have happened or did happened in the camp as Boix finds himself in a position to gain evidence of the war crimes committed in the camp. The horrors of the camp are not softened in the graphic novel. The layout and conveying of the story not only illustrate the dangers in saving the historical record, but also in the various ways the evidence was used in the war crime trials as well as the purpose of the trials themselves.
Highly recommended.
Francisco Boix was a Spanish Communist who fled to France and then with the invasion of Germany was sent to Mauthausen as a political prisoner. His photographs that he hid in Mauthausen, at great risk to himself, played a role in the war crime trials that followed the end of WW II. He is often overlooked in American history classes because he was a Communist (and died long before the Wall fell) and Spanish. But he is important because of the evidence that he preserved.
Rudio’s graphic novel is partial biography, detailing what might have happened or did happened in the camp as Boix finds himself in a position to gain evidence of the war crimes committed in the camp. The horrors of the camp are not softened in the graphic novel. The layout and conveying of the story not only illustrate the dangers in saving the historical record, but also in the various ways the evidence was used in the war crime trials as well as the purpose of the trials themselves.
Highly recommended.
November 14, 2020
Thank you to the publisher for a copy of
This book via netgalley!
Simple yet so powerful. True heroes don’t wear capes. They risk their own lives to have others see the truth. Let their stories be told. The very least we can do for the sacrifices they made. A must read!
This book via netgalley!
Simple yet so powerful. True heroes don’t wear capes. They risk their own lives to have others see the truth. Let their stories be told. The very least we can do for the sacrifices they made. A must read!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 1, 2020
First comic of the year, and what a choice it was. Rough, hard, true. Great art and it’s awesome how he managed to adapt his cartoony style on such a strong theme without the end result appearing shallow.
The stories from the concentration camps survivors are never ending, and each of them unique in the way it narrates history. After all, there is no better way to learn history but through the eyes of those who lived it.
The stories from the concentration camps survivors are never ending, and each of them unique in the way it narrates history. After all, there is no better way to learn history but through the eyes of those who lived it.
July 4, 2024
8 de 10*
Opinião:
https://abibliotecadajoao.blogspot.co...
Opinião:
https://abibliotecadajoao.blogspot.co...
May 15, 2018
“I was on my own, as I surely always had been, from the beginning to the end.” This thought underlines Salva Rubio’s graphic novel “The Photographer of Mauthausen,” which is set in the concentration camp of the same name during Nazi Germany.
The photographer in question is Francisco Boix, a Spanish photographer who survived the war but died at the young age of 30. His brave act of smuggling photographs of deaths at the camp, which eventually became hard evidence of the atrocities committed there, made him a hero of sorts. The novel details his experiences at the camp, his survival, and life after.
At just 118 pages the novel is a quick read but by no means is it easy. It begins with Francisco waiting at a café by the border for his sister Nuria. We never come to know anything about Nuria except that he had promised that they will meet again. From there, we are taken ten years back into Mauthausen, a ‘Category 3 camp, set aside, according to Heydrich’s classification, for “irredeemable” prisoners.’ Francisco and his family have just arrived by train but soon enough, he loses his father, and is left all alone.
Slowly, we get to know of life in the camp through Francisco’s detailed descriptions. We get to know of the hardships, the torture, and worst of all, the deaths. Prisoners are pushed over cliffs, thrown onto barbed wires, and subjected to medical experiments with their deaths being recorded as suicides or accidents. Francisco works in the privileged Identification Department of the camp thanks to his experience as a press photographer earlier, and he is soon noticed by Paul Ricken, the head of the department. Ricken makes him his assistant for his bizarre photography expeditions that involved the German taking pictures of prisoners in the throes of death.
“I understood perfectly well what these strange, artistic photos meant: this madman thought he could turn death into art!”
Once Francisco realized this, he became determined to use his access to the lab and try to preserve as many negatives as he could. The rest of the novel is about the high risks and the many people it took to ensure the photos, and the people themselves, escaped destruction.
Although this retelling is a mixture of imagination and reality the collective experience of the prisoners is far from the truth. The horrible beatings, the injection of gasoline into people’s bodies, the starvation and so much more are what every prisoner must have gone through. I can only imagine, vaguely at that, but I nor anyone could ever fully understand because as Madame Vaillant-Couturier says, “there are no words, no images which can make people understand something they haven’t lived through.”
Francisco’s images did serve as hard evidence, though, and helped convict some of the Nazis involved in the activities of Mauthausen in the Nuremberg trials. His endeavour to save the negatives was daring, despairing, and extremely risky and was done with the ultimate aim of preserving history and memory. But despite all the trouble only about a 1,000 negatives were saved from a total of 20,000, author Salva Rubio informs us. The rest have disappeared into oblivion. Like so many untold stories from the war.
Rubio’s artwork supports the gripping narration with vivid blues and greys emphasizing the dreariness of the camp only punctuated with sepia or muted green tones to differentiate photographs. An interesting aspect that I noted was that most of the prisoners had almost the same facial features – bushy eyebrows, close-cropped hair, and full lips – but the Germans were distinctly different. Is it Rubio’s way of showing how prisoners were treated simply as a big, heaving mass of flesh?
I immensely enjoyed reading this novel. ‘Enjoyed’ is perhaps the wrong word to use for a subject as bleak as this, and perhaps I should say that Rubio/Francisco had my full attention. I look forward to reading more novels like these. There are always more stories to be told. I hope, like Francisco, there were people who did not give up.
Big thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for giving me an ARC for a review!
The photographer in question is Francisco Boix, a Spanish photographer who survived the war but died at the young age of 30. His brave act of smuggling photographs of deaths at the camp, which eventually became hard evidence of the atrocities committed there, made him a hero of sorts. The novel details his experiences at the camp, his survival, and life after.
At just 118 pages the novel is a quick read but by no means is it easy. It begins with Francisco waiting at a café by the border for his sister Nuria. We never come to know anything about Nuria except that he had promised that they will meet again. From there, we are taken ten years back into Mauthausen, a ‘Category 3 camp, set aside, according to Heydrich’s classification, for “irredeemable” prisoners.’ Francisco and his family have just arrived by train but soon enough, he loses his father, and is left all alone.
Slowly, we get to know of life in the camp through Francisco’s detailed descriptions. We get to know of the hardships, the torture, and worst of all, the deaths. Prisoners are pushed over cliffs, thrown onto barbed wires, and subjected to medical experiments with their deaths being recorded as suicides or accidents. Francisco works in the privileged Identification Department of the camp thanks to his experience as a press photographer earlier, and he is soon noticed by Paul Ricken, the head of the department. Ricken makes him his assistant for his bizarre photography expeditions that involved the German taking pictures of prisoners in the throes of death.
“I understood perfectly well what these strange, artistic photos meant: this madman thought he could turn death into art!”
Once Francisco realized this, he became determined to use his access to the lab and try to preserve as many negatives as he could. The rest of the novel is about the high risks and the many people it took to ensure the photos, and the people themselves, escaped destruction.
Although this retelling is a mixture of imagination and reality the collective experience of the prisoners is far from the truth. The horrible beatings, the injection of gasoline into people’s bodies, the starvation and so much more are what every prisoner must have gone through. I can only imagine, vaguely at that, but I nor anyone could ever fully understand because as Madame Vaillant-Couturier says, “there are no words, no images which can make people understand something they haven’t lived through.”
Francisco’s images did serve as hard evidence, though, and helped convict some of the Nazis involved in the activities of Mauthausen in the Nuremberg trials. His endeavour to save the negatives was daring, despairing, and extremely risky and was done with the ultimate aim of preserving history and memory. But despite all the trouble only about a 1,000 negatives were saved from a total of 20,000, author Salva Rubio informs us. The rest have disappeared into oblivion. Like so many untold stories from the war.
Rubio’s artwork supports the gripping narration with vivid blues and greys emphasizing the dreariness of the camp only punctuated with sepia or muted green tones to differentiate photographs. An interesting aspect that I noted was that most of the prisoners had almost the same facial features – bushy eyebrows, close-cropped hair, and full lips – but the Germans were distinctly different. Is it Rubio’s way of showing how prisoners were treated simply as a big, heaving mass of flesh?
I immensely enjoyed reading this novel. ‘Enjoyed’ is perhaps the wrong word to use for a subject as bleak as this, and perhaps I should say that Rubio/Francisco had my full attention. I look forward to reading more novels like these. There are always more stories to be told. I hope, like Francisco, there were people who did not give up.
Big thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for giving me an ARC for a review!
April 22, 2018
For the most part, I would say that most of the world is very familiar with the concentration camps that held the Jews. But, there were others that were held as well, and this story tells of one such camp which held Spanish communists, that Franco didn't care about, and let the Nazis have. They were tortured just as much as the Jews, killed, beaten, starved, and experimented on.
François Boix, was a photographer, who fled from Spain, during the Spanish Civil War, to France, just in time to be captured by the Nazis, and put in Mauthausen. There, he manages to survive, and gets a job shooting photos of the deaths of his fellow inmates, because the Nazis, for some reason, want to document it. Perhaps it is art, as they tell him, perhaps it is something else.
And the overwhelming feeling Boix has, through all this, is that these pictures must be preserved at all costs, that the pictures have to get out into the world. That when this is all over, that there will be punishment for those who have done this horrid deeds.
Most of the book is him trying to figure out a) how to survive and b) how to get these photos out into the world.
The sad thing is, he manages to do both. This is not giving away anything, of the story, since the story opens with him being free, but the part where he goes to the Nuremberg trails, and tries to get his story heard is so sad. They only want revenge, they do not want to hear his story.
A little slow in bits, where he is trying to figure things out, but well done, and based on the life of a real person, written from information of those who lived with him, at the camps, and stories passed down.
Thanks to Netgalley for making this book available for an honest review.
François Boix, was a photographer, who fled from Spain, during the Spanish Civil War, to France, just in time to be captured by the Nazis, and put in Mauthausen. There, he manages to survive, and gets a job shooting photos of the deaths of his fellow inmates, because the Nazis, for some reason, want to document it. Perhaps it is art, as they tell him, perhaps it is something else.
And the overwhelming feeling Boix has, through all this, is that these pictures must be preserved at all costs, that the pictures have to get out into the world. That when this is all over, that there will be punishment for those who have done this horrid deeds.
Most of the book is him trying to figure out a) how to survive and b) how to get these photos out into the world.
The sad thing is, he manages to do both. This is not giving away anything, of the story, since the story opens with him being free, but the part where he goes to the Nuremberg trails, and tries to get his story heard is so sad. They only want revenge, they do not want to hear his story.
A little slow in bits, where he is trying to figure things out, but well done, and based on the life of a real person, written from information of those who lived with him, at the camps, and stories passed down.
Thanks to Netgalley for making this book available for an honest review.
August 19, 2023
Most online accounts of Ernst Kaltenbrunner and Albert Speer mention that they were convicted at the Nuremberg trials but few accounts mention the testimony and evidence provided by Francisco Boix that enabled those convictions. Nor do they mention the bravery and sacrifices of the people involved in preserving and delivering that evidence to the outside world.
The Photographer of Mauthausen by Salva Rubio (writer), Pedro J Colombo (illustrator) and Aintzane Landa (colourist) tells the story of Boix, a Spanish photographer and veteran of the Spanish Civil War. Following his part in the civil war, Boix was exiled to France and joined the French army before being captured by the Germans. The Photographer of Mauthausen starts with Boix's arrival at Mauthausen in 1941.
Boix starts off his internment as a translator but soon finds a position in the photography lab. Somehow, inexplicably, SS-Hauptscharführer Paul Ricken takes a liking to to Boix and recruits him as assistant to his macabre photography project. In this role, Boix is exposed to the many atrocities being committed at Mauthausen (in addition to the ones he had already witnessed).
Boix realises initially that this evidence needs to be preserved and several prisoners get involved in making this happen. However, as news reaches camp of an impending Russian victory, Boix realises that he needs to get proof of the atrocities to people on the outside of the camp.
Boix was successful and both his testimony and the photographic evidence proved that Nazis such as Kaltenbrunner and Speer were not only aware of what was happening at Mauthausen but they were complicit in the atrocities too.
The value of The Photographer of Mauthausen is in the questions that it raises about justice and remembrance. At the time of the Nuremberg trials, the photos were used to obtain convictions but Boix expresses frustration on page in the graphic novel about why people weren't more concerned about what happened at Mauthausen and the atrocities committed.
The Photographer of Mauthausen is an excellent graphic novel that tells, in an accessible format, an important story in the annals of Holocaust history while serving as an educational source on both Nazi atrocities and the trials following the war.
The Photographer of Mauthausen by Salva Rubio (writer), Pedro J Colombo (illustrator) and Aintzane Landa (colourist) tells the story of Boix, a Spanish photographer and veteran of the Spanish Civil War. Following his part in the civil war, Boix was exiled to France and joined the French army before being captured by the Germans. The Photographer of Mauthausen starts with Boix's arrival at Mauthausen in 1941.
Boix starts off his internment as a translator but soon finds a position in the photography lab. Somehow, inexplicably, SS-Hauptscharführer Paul Ricken takes a liking to to Boix and recruits him as assistant to his macabre photography project. In this role, Boix is exposed to the many atrocities being committed at Mauthausen (in addition to the ones he had already witnessed).
Boix realises initially that this evidence needs to be preserved and several prisoners get involved in making this happen. However, as news reaches camp of an impending Russian victory, Boix realises that he needs to get proof of the atrocities to people on the outside of the camp.
Boix was successful and both his testimony and the photographic evidence proved that Nazis such as Kaltenbrunner and Speer were not only aware of what was happening at Mauthausen but they were complicit in the atrocities too.
The value of The Photographer of Mauthausen is in the questions that it raises about justice and remembrance. At the time of the Nuremberg trials, the photos were used to obtain convictions but Boix expresses frustration on page in the graphic novel about why people weren't more concerned about what happened at Mauthausen and the atrocities committed.
The Photographer of Mauthausen is an excellent graphic novel that tells, in an accessible format, an important story in the annals of Holocaust history while serving as an educational source on both Nazi atrocities and the trials following the war.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 28, 2024
Auschwitz is perhaps the most infamous concentration camp from World War II, but Nazi Germany operated over a thousand such camps. Mauthausen was one of them.
It is challenging to find the right words to describe the immense suffering inflicted by humans on other humans in these camps. No matter how much I read and learn about these places, it often feels like fiction. It is difficult to fully grasp the reality of it all.
This is the story of a group of prisoners who had the rare chance to document the horrors they endured through photographs and share them with the world. These brave individuals risked their lives, already precarious, to reveal the true nature of Nazi Germany's regime.
The reality is profoundly horrific.
I wish I could say there is no way this could happen again, but sadly, I know there are individuals with hearts full of evil, waiting for an opportunity to unleash pain and suffering once more.
This is a must-read.
It is challenging to find the right words to describe the immense suffering inflicted by humans on other humans in these camps. No matter how much I read and learn about these places, it often feels like fiction. It is difficult to fully grasp the reality of it all.
This is the story of a group of prisoners who had the rare chance to document the horrors they endured through photographs and share them with the world. These brave individuals risked their lives, already precarious, to reveal the true nature of Nazi Germany's regime.
The reality is profoundly horrific.
I wish I could say there is no way this could happen again, but sadly, I know there are individuals with hearts full of evil, waiting for an opportunity to unleash pain and suffering once more.
This is a must-read.
October 12, 2019
This is splendid comics about terrible times. It maps the life of Francisco Boix, the Spanish prisoner in KL Mauthausen, and few of his fellow compatriots. He became a photographer for Gestapo there, secretly determined to bring those photographs, the evidence of the Nazi atrocities, to the communist party.
This is the tale, not document, so the historical facts are adjusted and the blanks are filled for sakes of the narration. But as someone who visited the place, I must say the result feels correct and authentic. The story is working well, the art is close to "Europe classic styles" (with a different style for photographs to make them look more lifelike) and together it gives almost reportage picture of Francisco past. No purposeful emotional scenes, no forced moral points, just the as closest picture of that time, place and one man's fate as comics book could be. And it feels right. The stories who force emotion and morals are more powerful at starts, but they also lose part of their credibility by that. Not The Photographer of Mauthausen. This graphic novel brings you the whole picture of one man (and by his eyes) as unbiased as it could be with one purpose. Not to make you sad or angry or something. But to commemorate Francisco and all his countrymen who shared this grim fate, many of them until their last day. To remind the past so we wouldn't be doomed to repeat it.
This is the tale, not document, so the historical facts are adjusted and the blanks are filled for sakes of the narration. But as someone who visited the place, I must say the result feels correct and authentic. The story is working well, the art is close to "Europe classic styles" (with a different style for photographs to make them look more lifelike) and together it gives almost reportage picture of Francisco past. No purposeful emotional scenes, no forced moral points, just the as closest picture of that time, place and one man's fate as comics book could be. And it feels right. The stories who force emotion and morals are more powerful at starts, but they also lose part of their credibility by that. Not The Photographer of Mauthausen. This graphic novel brings you the whole picture of one man (and by his eyes) as unbiased as it could be with one purpose. Not to make you sad or angry or something. But to commemorate Francisco and all his countrymen who shared this grim fate, many of them until their last day. To remind the past so we wouldn't be doomed to repeat it.
September 24, 2018
'The Photographer of Mauthausen' by Salva Rubio with illustrations by Pedro Columbo is a retelling of the life of Francisco Boix, a Spanish press photographer who found himself in a concentration camp and was witness to horrific events.
Francisco, or Francois, fled to France at the beginning of World War II. The French handed him over to the Nazis and he was sent to Mauthausen, a camp with an entrance, but not much of an exit. He found himself using his photographic skills in a bid to survive. He photographed Nazi officers, but also the dead. He realized that he had access to evidence to potentially convict the Nazis, but first he had to figure out how to get the photos out.
It's not an easy story to read, but it's a good one. The things that Francisco saw were pretty terrible, and that's alluded to with the amazing cover to this volume. The art is top notch throughout, as is the story.
I received a review copy of this graphic novel from Europe Comics and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you for allowing me to review this graphic novel.
Francisco, or Francois, fled to France at the beginning of World War II. The French handed him over to the Nazis and he was sent to Mauthausen, a camp with an entrance, but not much of an exit. He found himself using his photographic skills in a bid to survive. He photographed Nazi officers, but also the dead. He realized that he had access to evidence to potentially convict the Nazis, but first he had to figure out how to get the photos out.
It's not an easy story to read, but it's a good one. The things that Francisco saw were pretty terrible, and that's alluded to with the amazing cover to this volume. The art is top notch throughout, as is the story.
I received a review copy of this graphic novel from Europe Comics and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you for allowing me to review this graphic novel.
August 12, 2018
Les Républicains espagnols ont connu une triple tragédie dans les années 1930 et 1940. Après la défaite face aux troupes de Franco, épaulé par ses alliés fascistes et nazis, ils furent parqués dans des camps en France. Puis c'est la déportation dans les camps de concentration nazis qui vint sceller leur destin, quand le gouvernement de Vichy décide de les expulser pour les livrer à Hitler. Plus de 9300 d'entre eux furent ainsi emprisonnés dont plus de 7500 à Mauthausen où ils connurent un sort particulièrement atroce, assimilés par les nazis à la "peste communiste" qu'ils étaient en train de combattre sur le front de l'est. La suite ici: https://pagesdhistoires.blogspot.com/...
August 17, 2020
English and Spanish review
This graphic novel. Is really.... Graphic. As always with the WW2 stories.
So, this is the adaptation of a real photographer who risked his life in order to try and let the people know what really was happening in this concentration camps.
This was harsh, it was short but really hit. I don't usually read WW2 histories because I'm soft but I think is important to learn about this dark time.
I really, really liked it, I would've wanted this to be longer but I don't complain.
The illustrations were really amazing, one of the best I've seen in graphic novels.
*there's a movie based in this events on Netflix. You should check that movie out. It's Called "the Photographer Of mauthansen"
Review en español
Esta novela gráfica. Es realmente... Gráfica. Como siempre con las historias de la Segunda Guerra mundial.
Así que, esta es la adaptación de un verdadero fotógrafo que arriesgó su vida para intentar que la gente sepa lo que realmente estaba pasando en estos campos de concentración.
Fue duro, fue corto pero realmente importante. No suelo leer historias WW2 porque soy blanda pero creo que es importante aprender sobre este momento oscuro en la historia.
Realmente, realmente me gustó; hubiera querido que fuera más largo, pero no me quejo.
Las ilustraciones fueron realmente increíbles, una de las mejores que he visto en novelas gráficas.
Hay una película basada en estos eventos en Netflix. Deberían ver esa película. Se llama "El Fotógrafo de Mauthansen"
This graphic novel. Is really.... Graphic. As always with the WW2 stories.
So, this is the adaptation of a real photographer who risked his life in order to try and let the people know what really was happening in this concentration camps.
This was harsh, it was short but really hit. I don't usually read WW2 histories because I'm soft but I think is important to learn about this dark time.
I really, really liked it, I would've wanted this to be longer but I don't complain.
The illustrations were really amazing, one of the best I've seen in graphic novels.
*there's a movie based in this events on Netflix. You should check that movie out. It's Called "the Photographer Of mauthansen"
Review en español
Esta novela gráfica. Es realmente... Gráfica. Como siempre con las historias de la Segunda Guerra mundial.
Así que, esta es la adaptación de un verdadero fotógrafo que arriesgó su vida para intentar que la gente sepa lo que realmente estaba pasando en estos campos de concentración.
Fue duro, fue corto pero realmente importante. No suelo leer historias WW2 porque soy blanda pero creo que es importante aprender sobre este momento oscuro en la historia.
Realmente, realmente me gustó; hubiera querido que fuera más largo, pero no me quejo.
Las ilustraciones fueron realmente increíbles, una de las mejores que he visto en novelas gráficas.
Hay una película basada en estos eventos en Netflix. Deberían ver esa película. Se llama "El Fotógrafo de Mauthansen"
November 12, 2020
Terug een prachtig vormgegeven graphic novel over de tweede wereldoorlog. Een waargebeurd verhaal, gebaseerd op historische feiten staat vermeld op de achterkant van het boek.
Het verhaal is zeer mooi weer gegeven en is zeer makkelijk volgbaar. De auteur probeert de emoties die de personages beleven weer te geven via de tekeningen en slaagt hier zeer goed in. De gruwel die men moet beleefd hebben komt ook in beeld zonder echt schokkend over te komen. De reacties van de rechtbank op het einde van het boek des te meer. Ik ben fan van dit boek.
Engels
Another beautifully designed graphic novel about the second world war. A true story based on historical facts is featured on the back of the book.
The story is beautifully presented and is very easy to follow. The author tries to convey the emotions experienced by the characters through the drawings and succeeds very well. The horror that one must have experienced also comes into the picture without being really shocking. The court's reactions to the end of the book are all the more so. I am a fan of this book.
Het verhaal is zeer mooi weer gegeven en is zeer makkelijk volgbaar. De auteur probeert de emoties die de personages beleven weer te geven via de tekeningen en slaagt hier zeer goed in. De gruwel die men moet beleefd hebben komt ook in beeld zonder echt schokkend over te komen. De reacties van de rechtbank op het einde van het boek des te meer. Ik ben fan van dit boek.
Engels
Another beautifully designed graphic novel about the second world war. A true story based on historical facts is featured on the back of the book.
The story is beautifully presented and is very easy to follow. The author tries to convey the emotions experienced by the characters through the drawings and succeeds very well. The horror that one must have experienced also comes into the picture without being really shocking. The court's reactions to the end of the book are all the more so. I am a fan of this book.
December 8, 2020
Somehow simultaneously harrowing, uplifting, and depressing. Tells the true story of Francesc Boix, a Spanish communist imprisoned in Mauthausen, a Nazi concentration camp. He worked around the Nazis and within and around the prisoner Communist hierarchy to smuggle out photographic evidence of the Nazi camp atrocities. He has to risk death, his soul, the safety of his friends and everyone in the camp, and his health to get the pictures out, and in the end it feels amazing that he succeeds. But then the letdown when no one wants to dig into his pictures and honor the dead and hear what was done......it's immense. In the end, what did it matter? Is doing good and seeking justice its own reward? I have to think it is; in an uncaring universe we have to forge our own kind, just path. But man sometimes it's hard to want to continue to try to do the right thing. This one is going to stick with me for a long time.
**Thanks to the artist, publisher, and NetGalley for a free copy in exchange for an honest review.
**Thanks to the artist, publisher, and NetGalley for a free copy in exchange for an honest review.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 18, 2018
Essendo questa la mia prima graphic novel non sarò sicuramente in grado di giudicare il genere come si deve, ma farò del mio meglio. Il fotografo di Mauthausen parla di una storia vera e straordinaria che ha come protagonista il giovane catalano Francisco (Francesc) Boix. Il suo nome, forse, non dirà molto (io stessa ne sono venuta a conoscenza in modo del tutto casuale spulciando la sezione Cultura del sito de El País), perciò spenderò due parole su di lui prima di passare alla graphic novel.
Francisco nasce in Catalogna nel 1921 e si avvicina alla fotografia grazie al padre e al piccolo studio nel retro della sua bottega. Allo scoppio della Guerra Civile, il giovane, che già militava nelle Juventudes Socialistas Unificadas, si unisce al bando repubblicano e alla fine del conflitto segue la via dell'esilio in Francia. Dall'altro lato dei Pirenei non lo attende una vita felice: nel 1940, infatti, viene fatto prigionieri dai tedeschi e l'anno seguente è internato nel campo di concentramento di Mauthausen, dove furono rinchiusi (e dove trovarono la morte) molti suoi compatrioti. Il talento di Boix come fotografo lo porta a lavorare nel laboratorio del campo destinato al servizio di identificazione ed è grazie a questa posizione che Boix riesce ad entrare in possesso dei negativi di svariate foto che ritraggono i crimini dei nazisti ai danni dei prigionieri, negativi che Boix riesce a far nascondere al di fuori del campo e che, sviluppati, nel 1946 verranno usati nei processi di Norimberga e di Dachau, a cui Boix partecipa come testimone delle atrocità commesse a Mauthausen. Gli history nerds e i curiosi troveranno qui un video del processo di Norimberga con la testimonianza di Boix in francese. Francisco passerà gli ultimi anni della sua vita in Francia, lavorando come fotoreporter e lì morirà di tubercolosi nel 1951, all’età di trent’anni. I suoi resti, che dopo decenni nel cimitero di Thiais hanno rischiato di andar perduti, sono stati trasferiti lo scorso anno al Père-Lachaise grazie all'interesse dell'Amicale de Mauthausen e sotto gli occhi, tra i vari, della sindaca di Parigi, Anna Hidalgo, di Raül Romeva, allora consigliere agli affari esteri della Generalitat de Catalunya, e di Anna Maria Salomó Boix, nipote di Francisco.
Questa graphic novel, come il titolo farà facilmente intuire, si concentra sugli anni di Mauthausen e racconta, mescolando storia e le necessarie licenze poetiche, la resistenza silenziosa per la libertà e la verità di una persona che non si è lasciata sopraffare dalla violenza e dalla morte. È un volume breve, con l'uso dei colori che colpisce molto più dei disegni stessi, che vale la pena leggere, per conoscere Francisco Boix e la sua storia, con tutto quello che hanno da insegnarci e farci ricordare. Segnalo, infine, la breve appendice storica che fa il punto su Mauthausen e sugli spagnoli vittime del nazismo (i superstiti sono poi stati costretti a una vita in esilio, lontano dalla Spagna, per sfuggire alla dittatura di Franco), un altro punto a favore del libro.
Francisco nasce in Catalogna nel 1921 e si avvicina alla fotografia grazie al padre e al piccolo studio nel retro della sua bottega. Allo scoppio della Guerra Civile, il giovane, che già militava nelle Juventudes Socialistas Unificadas, si unisce al bando repubblicano e alla fine del conflitto segue la via dell'esilio in Francia. Dall'altro lato dei Pirenei non lo attende una vita felice: nel 1940, infatti, viene fatto prigionieri dai tedeschi e l'anno seguente è internato nel campo di concentramento di Mauthausen, dove furono rinchiusi (e dove trovarono la morte) molti suoi compatrioti. Il talento di Boix come fotografo lo porta a lavorare nel laboratorio del campo destinato al servizio di identificazione ed è grazie a questa posizione che Boix riesce ad entrare in possesso dei negativi di svariate foto che ritraggono i crimini dei nazisti ai danni dei prigionieri, negativi che Boix riesce a far nascondere al di fuori del campo e che, sviluppati, nel 1946 verranno usati nei processi di Norimberga e di Dachau, a cui Boix partecipa come testimone delle atrocità commesse a Mauthausen. Gli history nerds e i curiosi troveranno qui un video del processo di Norimberga con la testimonianza di Boix in francese. Francisco passerà gli ultimi anni della sua vita in Francia, lavorando come fotoreporter e lì morirà di tubercolosi nel 1951, all’età di trent’anni. I suoi resti, che dopo decenni nel cimitero di Thiais hanno rischiato di andar perduti, sono stati trasferiti lo scorso anno al Père-Lachaise grazie all'interesse dell'Amicale de Mauthausen e sotto gli occhi, tra i vari, della sindaca di Parigi, Anna Hidalgo, di Raül Romeva, allora consigliere agli affari esteri della Generalitat de Catalunya, e di Anna Maria Salomó Boix, nipote di Francisco.
Questa graphic novel, come il titolo farà facilmente intuire, si concentra sugli anni di Mauthausen e racconta, mescolando storia e le necessarie licenze poetiche, la resistenza silenziosa per la libertà e la verità di una persona che non si è lasciata sopraffare dalla violenza e dalla morte. È un volume breve, con l'uso dei colori che colpisce molto più dei disegni stessi, che vale la pena leggere, per conoscere Francisco Boix e la sua storia, con tutto quello che hanno da insegnarci e farci ricordare. Segnalo, infine, la breve appendice storica che fa il punto su Mauthausen e sugli spagnoli vittime del nazismo (i superstiti sono poi stati costretti a una vita in esilio, lontano dalla Spagna, per sfuggire alla dittatura di Franco), un altro punto a favore del libro.
September 15, 2020
Difficult stories come to life in graphic novel form. I'm so glad to be alive in this time where graphic novels or histories or poems or whatever-else are coming into their own. There are things that can't be said in a better way. I can't call this story "beautiful" in the usual sense of the word, but the truth being told clearly and without flinching is a kind of fidelity to life and love and people otherwise overlooked, that is deeply meaningful and, yes, beautiful.
April 14, 2018
A very interesting read this was! I'm a huge fan of anything that has to do with world war 2; it fascinates me. Mauthausen is one of the camps I haven't read much about and reading and seeing it through the eyes of Fransesco, talking to his Nuria gave me a whole new perspective. I really enjoyed the storyline; it matched very well with the graphics and those two combined made the novel feel very much real. For me, this is a book I'd recommend if you're into ww2 stories or if you want to know more about what happened at Mauthausen.
November 9, 2018
En este cómic se cuenta la historia real de Francisco Boix, un español republicano que sufrió la inhumana estancia en el campo de concentración de Mauthausen en la II Guerra Mundial. Su historia es importante no sólo por el hecho de sobrevivir a semejante experiencia, sino porque fue el artífice del robo de negativos de fotos que los nazis hacían de sus atrocidades y posteriormente fue testigo (el único español) en los Juicios de Nuremberg. El cómic está muy bien hecho y bien documentado, quizás se quede un poco corto, pero es una joya.
August 31, 2019
La historia real de Francisco Boix, republicano español deportado a Mauthausen, y de cómo consiguió sobrevivir al campo y participar en el robo de las fotografías que contribuyeron a la condena de los nazis en los juicios de Nuremberg. Imprescindible, tanto la parte gráfica como los textos que cierran el tomo, haciendo evidente el currazo de documentación que hay detrás. El guión de Salva Rubio, los dibujos de Pedro y el color de Aintzane hacen que la experiencia de lectura sea de esas duras, pero por las que hay que pasar.
August 28, 2018
Perfecto en todos los sentidos. La historia está contada magníficamente y el dossier histórico es impresionante. Da gusto encontrarse con una obra accesible, interesante a la par que documentada y reflexiva.
April 8, 2022
Pocass veces un comic se documenta tanto antes de hacerlo. La tematica de fotografia esta presente durante toda la historia y sobrepasa el guion para hacer un despliegue artistico increible. No solo es interesante todo lo que te cuenta, sino que al final de la historia grafica te da un epilogo extenso sobre la realidad demostrando hasta que punto han plasmado la realidad en el comic. Lo unico que siento es que no haya podido gozarlo mas lentamente ya que tenia que devolverlo a la biblioteca pero esta entre 4 y 5 estrellas.
Si te gusta la parte de la historia de la segunda guerra mundial no te puedes perder este comic
Si te gusta la parte de la historia de la segunda guerra mundial no te puedes perder este comic
March 13, 2021
There is so much I’m constantly made aware of that I don’t know. I am so thankful to stories and writers like this that share these stories.
March 9, 2025
Hyper dur mais hyper intéressant j'ai appris plein de choses
April 13, 2018
Communist and photographer Francisco Boix is handed over to the Nazis after fleeing to France at the beginning of WWII. He eventually ends up at the Mauthausen camp where he finds a group of communist comrades who help him get a job working in the identification department, where he officially confirms identities and photographers incoming prisoners, and unofficially develops (discreetly) the personal film of Nazi soldiers.
Francisco learns that a powerful and twisted SS officer is photographing the deaths of prisoners for his own satisfaction and considers it art. The officer notices Francisco is a talented photographer and begins bringing him along to set up lights and sometimes stage these gruesome scenes for photographs.
Francisco decides he will find a way to smuggle out the photo negatives as proof of these war crimes to bring the Nazis to justice at the end of the war. With his comrades fearing for their lives, few support his daring plan but he refuses to give up.
A gripping story of the horrors experienced in concentration camps and the weight of risking one's life and the lives of others for the greater good. The Photographer of Mauthausen is a compelling look at a man divided by political party allegiance and his humanity who risks everything to bring the atrocities he witnessed to light so that history will not repeat itself.
Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for offering a digital ARC to review.
Francisco learns that a powerful and twisted SS officer is photographing the deaths of prisoners for his own satisfaction and considers it art. The officer notices Francisco is a talented photographer and begins bringing him along to set up lights and sometimes stage these gruesome scenes for photographs.
Francisco decides he will find a way to smuggle out the photo negatives as proof of these war crimes to bring the Nazis to justice at the end of the war. With his comrades fearing for their lives, few support his daring plan but he refuses to give up.
A gripping story of the horrors experienced in concentration camps and the weight of risking one's life and the lives of others for the greater good. The Photographer of Mauthausen is a compelling look at a man divided by political party allegiance and his humanity who risks everything to bring the atrocities he witnessed to light so that history will not repeat itself.
Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for offering a digital ARC to review.
July 27, 2020
This “graphic novel” tells the story of a Spanish photographer, Francisco Boix, who was sent to the Mauthausen Concentration Camp as a Communist during the Second World War. [Note: I only put graphic novel in quotes because it’s not a fictitious story, which “novel” implies, but graphic novel seems to be the accepted term for any graphically depicted story – fact or fiction.] Mauthausen was a camp in Austria. While it wasn’t technically one of the extermination camps, it was legendary for the death toll associated with the granite mine where many of the inmates labored. Its “staircase of death” was the location of untold fatalities, including: murders by the Nazis, suicides, and even tripping accidents that will happen when an emaciated prisoner has to carry 50 kg stones up almost 200 uneven steps with no railing day after day.
Boix, who had been a journalistic photographer previously, was assigned to work for a Nazi officer who took pictures in the camp – particularly pictures of fatalities. Boix carried equipment, set up lighting, developed negatives, and made prints. His boss, Ricken, is depicted as bizarre character. On the one hand, Ricken seems not so bad by Nazi SS standards, but, on the other hand, he has a sociopathic inclination to see death as art. Boix takes advantage of his position to make copies of the negatives with the idea that they will be evidence when the war comes to the end. At first, there is support for this plot among the Spanish Communists, who help hide the negatives away in places like the carpentry shop. However, this support dwindles when it becomes clear that the Germans will lose the war, and – thus --surviving to the end becomes everyone’s primary focus. Soon Boix is on his own to figure out how to get the photos out. He develops a plan involving one of the boys at the camp (children being less intensely scrutinized) and an Austrian woman, who is a sympathizer.
The book climaxes with the operation to get the negatives out of the camp, but resolves with the immediate post-War period when Boix attempts to generate interest in the photographs as well providing testimony at the Nuremberg Trials. Boix is portrayed as fiery and impassioned. When the others at Mauthausen just want to survive to the end, he maintains that any risk is worth it. While he is shown to have some conflict about putting a boy’s life at risk with (arguably) the riskiest step in the process, he doesn’t seem waiver. At the trials he’s outraged about the panel’s insistence on “just the facts.” He wants to freely and fully tell the story of Mauthausen, and they – like courts in democracies everywhere – wish to maintain an appearance of the dispassionate acquisition of facts.
I found this book to be engaging and well worth the read. The artwork is well-done and easy to follow. The story is gripping. While there are a vast number of accounts of events at places like Auschwitz, there aren’t so many popular retellings of events at Mauthausen. I highly recommend this book for those interested in events surrounding World War II and the Holocaust.
Boix, who had been a journalistic photographer previously, was assigned to work for a Nazi officer who took pictures in the camp – particularly pictures of fatalities. Boix carried equipment, set up lighting, developed negatives, and made prints. His boss, Ricken, is depicted as bizarre character. On the one hand, Ricken seems not so bad by Nazi SS standards, but, on the other hand, he has a sociopathic inclination to see death as art. Boix takes advantage of his position to make copies of the negatives with the idea that they will be evidence when the war comes to the end. At first, there is support for this plot among the Spanish Communists, who help hide the negatives away in places like the carpentry shop. However, this support dwindles when it becomes clear that the Germans will lose the war, and – thus --surviving to the end becomes everyone’s primary focus. Soon Boix is on his own to figure out how to get the photos out. He develops a plan involving one of the boys at the camp (children being less intensely scrutinized) and an Austrian woman, who is a sympathizer.
The book climaxes with the operation to get the negatives out of the camp, but resolves with the immediate post-War period when Boix attempts to generate interest in the photographs as well providing testimony at the Nuremberg Trials. Boix is portrayed as fiery and impassioned. When the others at Mauthausen just want to survive to the end, he maintains that any risk is worth it. While he is shown to have some conflict about putting a boy’s life at risk with (arguably) the riskiest step in the process, he doesn’t seem waiver. At the trials he’s outraged about the panel’s insistence on “just the facts.” He wants to freely and fully tell the story of Mauthausen, and they – like courts in democracies everywhere – wish to maintain an appearance of the dispassionate acquisition of facts.
I found this book to be engaging and well worth the read. The artwork is well-done and easy to follow. The story is gripping. While there are a vast number of accounts of events at places like Auschwitz, there aren’t so many popular retellings of events at Mauthausen. I highly recommend this book for those interested in events surrounding World War II and the Holocaust.
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