'Second Generation - Things I Didn't Tell My Father' by Michel Kichka is an autobiographical graphic novel. The subject is fairly heavy with some lighter moments. I'm hoping it was quite cathartic for the author.

Michel's father survived the holocaust, but it looms over his life and the life of his family. They live in Belgium at the beginning of the novel. The kids just want to be kids, but they are constantly reminded of the horrors of their father's generation. Years later, Michel has moved to Israel. His father has written a book about his experiences and leads tours to Auschwitz. He invites Michel many times, but Michel is reluctant.

This book reminded me a bit of the famous graphic novel Maus, and the author even says it was an inspiration for him. How this differs is that the focus is much more on the second generation of survivors, those with parents that were traumatized by life in the camps. It's a poignant story with incredible art. I am thankful I got a chance to read this 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.

parents who lived through the Holocaust. He focuses his story on how their father's issues impacted their life, how the family lived under the shadow of the Holocaust. Kichka describes the loves for his father as well as his frustrations for the way his life is because of the circumstances of the times.
I enjoy the art. It has a more classic look with clean lines and I was intrigued as to how the family was impacted b what their father went through. But the section didn't flow into each other and the ending seemed abrupt with out a real conclusion.
I enjoyed the story and seeing how the author lived, but the organization of the story was a little off.

3.5 stars...
Michel Kichka's father was an Auschwitz survivor who lost his entire family, making Michel part of the second generation to process the trauma of the Shoah (Holocaust). This memoir graphic novel details his childhood growing up with a father who was constantly fixated on proving himself and his worth because having a son who was best in his class would "show Hitler". It also references Michel's adulthood as he tries to relate and understand the man his dad has become in response to the trauma he's survived.

It was really intriguing, and an incredibly insightful look into one family's experience with the Holocaust. The only problems I had with it were the weirdly fragmented and abrupt ending and a few strangely placed anecdotes that I feel could have been left out. It was not the most seemless memoir, but I was captivated by it all the same.

Emotional and compelling, I enjoyed so much about this book. From the art style to the deeply moving story told. I thought it was well paced, had interesting characters and was packed full of emotion.
An eye-opening look at the effects of the war on this second generation. I'd never read anything along these lines before and I'm very glad I got the chance to read this.
I'd definitely recommend it.

Life as a young Jewish man (albeit an atheist one), where you're forced to live life in the shadow of a father who was in turn forced to live life in the shadow of the Holocaust, as the only survivor from an extended family. Here, very Eisner-esque layouts and other tics push this book into the pages of graphic novel history, while the actual content is relating to stories told far too regularly, and far too often - or of course, for some people, never. While some survivors could never stop saying what they had been through, some never told anyone the truth, and our author's father did both over long periods. In stark black and white, with some personal humour and much great metaphorical imagery, we see the result of being on both sides of that fence, through the eyes of the second generation of Shoah sufferers. A quite compelling, and most freshly different, approach to the subject.

The graphic memoir is something that I feel has become more and more popular in recent years, particularly Maus by Art Speigelman (which I haven't yet read). This falls into that same category though I feel that Michel Kichka's humour and brilliant illustrations made this book feel all the more real.

I feel that Kichka portrayed his father, a concentration camp survivor, in a very honest way; he didn't fall into the trap that I think other authors sometimes do of making all survivors perfect flawless people. The author's father has his flaws but this made the story stand out even more to me and I really felt like I was getting to know these people as I was reading.

Some parts of this book felt a little rushed but overall this was a great read. The themes of trauma and living under the weight of your parent's experiences really came across in a way that I think many people could relate to. I would highly recommend this if you enjoy graphic memoir or books about WWII.

Michel Kichka is part of the so-called Second Generation, the children of the survivors of the Holocaust. Growing up, Michel was haunted by the ghosts of events that happened years before he was born. His father survived Auschwitz, but the rest of his family was murdered. The experience left him (understandably) with a bitter outlook on life and a sense of arrested development where reality ended for him in 1942. He couldn't handle television, newspapers, or any news of the modern world. He related to things only in terms of his own suffering ("Oh, you have the measles? Well, guess what, I was in the camps.") and complains about everything just because he's free to do so. His top priority is having a large family, common for Jewish survivors after the war, but he and his wife send the children to boarding schools to avoid raising them. Kichka grows up both sympathetic toward and frustrated with his parents.

An article in Scientific American suggests that the children of Holocaust survivors have altered levels of stress hormones and are more susceptible to PTSD, anxiety disorders and other issues. There's even a term for it: Second Generation Syndrome. Kichka's youngest brother commits suicide, as does his brother-in-law. At his brother's funeral, his father decides, after decades of silence, to open up about the Holocaust. From that point on, his father became consumed with writing and publicizing his memoirs and taking student tour groups to Auschwitz. For Kichka, it was another example of his father hijacking important moments for himself. But he also recognizes that it isn't that simple. Maybe his father opened up about the Holocaust at that moment (which seems inappropriate to the outsider), because he saw his dead son as one more victim of it.

I'm not one for graphic novels, but this one is really good. The author is a cartoonist, so the illustrations in this book aren't as dark and gritty as I've seen in other graphic novels, despite the seriousness of the subject matter. My mother grew up in a predominately Jewish community and is the same age as the author/illustrator, but I'd never heard on Second Generation Syndrome before, so I do appreciate this memoir bringing a bit of light to that little discussed topic. There were some harsh jumps in the timeline and flow of the story, giving it a "stream of consciousness" feel that I'm personally not a fan of. But, really, the only thing I would change is being able to have a paper copy (this appears only available in e-form right now).