Only a few contemporary witnesses are still alive today. Thus, the recording of memories of Holocaust survivors plays a central role in dealing with the events of the past. The project " Aber ich lebe", a collaboration of survivors, comic artists, experts in Holocaust and human rights education, historians as well as libraries and archives, takes on this task in an unusual way: It creates graphic stories for which there are almost no documented material.

Emmie Arbel survived the concentration camps Ravensbrück and Bergen-Belsen as a little girl. David Schaffer escaped the genocide in Transnistria, partly because he did not follow the rules. The brothers Nico and Rolf Kamp, who had been separated from their parents, were hidden from their murderers by the Dutch resistance in 13 different places. In close dialogue with the four survivors, the illustrators Miriam Libicki (Vancouver, Canada), Gilad Seliktar (Pardes Hanna-Karkur, Israel) and Barbara Yelin (Munich) created a graphic reconstruction of their memories. The anthology " Aber ich lebe", edited by Charlotte Schallié (University of Victoria, Canada), and the exhibition dedicated to her at the Erlangen Stadtmuseum, breaks down habits of seeing and images of the Holocaust. Using original drawings, sketches, archive material and interviews, the presentation also sheds light on the process of creating the book, the personal encounters between survivors and artists, the exchange among the artists in dialogue with current historical research.

With the kind support of the Canada Council for the Arts, the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC), the Government of Canada, the Arolsen Archives and the Institut für Zeitgeschichte München, Zentrum für Holocauststudien.