We Are on Our Own: A Memoir

By Miriam Katin

Book Overview

A stunning memoir of a mother and her daughter's survival in WWII and their subsequent lifelong struggle with faith

In this captivating and elegantly illustrated graphic memoir, Miriam Katin retells the story of her and her mother's escape on foot from the Nazi invasion of Budapest. With her father off fighting for the Hungarian army and the German troops quickly approaching, Katin and her mother are forced to flee to the countryside after faking their deaths. Leaving behind all of their belongings and loved ones, and
unable to tell anyone of their whereabouts, they disguise themselves as a Russian servant and illegitimate child, while literally staying a few steps ahead of the German soldiers.

We Are on Our Own is a woman's attempt to rebuild her earliest childhood trauma in order to come to an understanding of her lifelong questioning of faith. Katin's faith is shaken as she wonders how God could create and tolerate such a wretched world, a world of fear and hiding, bargaining and theft, betrayal and abuse. The complex and horrific experiences on the run are difficult for a child to understand, and as a child, Katin saw them with the simple longing, sadness, and
curiosity she felt when her dog ran away or a stranger made her mother cry. Katin's ensuing lifelong struggle with faith is depicted throughout the book in beautiful full-color sequences.

We Are on Our Own is the first full-length graphic novel by Katin, at the age of sixty-three.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1896597203
• ISBN13: 9781896597201
• Release Date: May 2006
• Publisher: Drawn & Quarterly
• Length: 122 Pages
• Weight: 1.32 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 8.2" x 8.6"

Customer Reviews

The True Meaning of Displacement

Growing up in the Westside of Cleveland in the 1950's, I had many chances to meet people who were displaced Europeans settling in America. In fact there were so many of these people a colloquial and derogatory term was placed to identify these people being the phrase "DP". In essence all these people were trying to do was to seek a new life in America. Little did I know of any of their stories in which they had to endure to get to the shores of the promised new land. One such story is Marian Katin's graphic depiction of her mother and herself fleeing Budapest under Nazi rule in 1944. The very fact that they were Jewish as late as 1944 under Nazi rule gives one the sense that it took a long time for some Nazi occupied countries to be affected by the genocidical programs inherent to this regime. Katin's story which tells of the Nazi terror and later the Soviet invasion shows the true plight of how people lost their homes and in many cases their very lives in the collateral damage of war. Katin's images and narrative show the true emotional and psychological scars of what transpired. The book shows a true and uncensored depiction of true events of a world gone mad. People acting under stress conditions show both their humanistic qualities to help mankind no matter what country they were from and on the other hand people acting selfishly and thinking only of themselves. This story is of people being people under the stress of a world at war caused by political minds seeking their own selfish ends. This graphic story should be added to all the serious historical accumulation of World War II studies showing what this war was truly about. This book is actual history shown in the graphic genre which deserves our serious attention. Very well done and deserving a high five star rating.

When God dies

The title of Miriam Katin's graphic memoir, We Are On Our Own, is the subtext and conclusion of the story of her survival in Nazi-occupied Hungary. It's one of the most powerful and relentless memoirs I've ever read, graphic or otherwise. For sheer honesty, it ranks right up there with Wiesel's Night, Bechdel's Fun Home, and Sylvia Plath's Bell Jar. Katin's recollections concern the final weeks of WWII, when the Nazis occupying Hungary know that the game is nearly over and the Soviet Army is advancing. Miriam, who's a girl of 5 or 6, and her mother Esther flee Budapest just before the last of the Jews are rounded up. Disguising themselves as gentile peasants, they resettle in the countryside, where Esther finds herself doing what she must to survive--including becoming the mistress of the local Nazi commandant. The tale is gripping: anti-Semetic Hungarians, brutal Nazis, panic and selfishness dancing with compassion and sacrifice. Esther emerges as an incredibly admirable woman. The memoir begins with Esther reading the Biblical creation story to Miriam. But as the harrowing story unfolds, whatever faith in a benevolent and protective God that Miriam and Esther might've had drops away. Time and again, they realize that they, like all humanity, are on their own. The recollections are intercut with contemporary scenes in which Miriam, now a grown woman and still without religious faith, is conflicted about her own child going to Hebrew school and temple. We Are on Our Own's honesty is refreshing as well as potentially disturbing. How can one survive the Holocaust with a comfortable faith--or any faith, for that matter--intact? This is a question too frequently sidestepped, because the answer to it can be unpleasant. Katin doesn't shy away.

Beautifully written and drawn

Miriam Katin is pure brilliance! What a touching, compelling account of a terrible time in our planet's history. The artwork is just spectacular! This has to be one of the best books I've ever read. Highly recommend!!

Wonderful, touching story

This is a wonderful, touching book. It is a harrowing story of a young women's struggle to survive the Holocaust and save her toddler daughter. The story takes place in Hungary in the last year of the war. A resourceful and courageous woman, the mother manages to hide as a servant woman. She is both willing and able to do whatever it takes to stay alive. The latter part of the book is devoted to her husband's search for her and his daughter. This search is eventually successful and the family builds a happy life after the war. The book moved me to tears because it touches the raw pain and desperation both of the mother and of the bewildered child. Unlike many other Holocaust books, this one focuses not so much on the cruelty of the Nazis and their Hungarian helpers, but on the many kind people who took risks to help the two survive or just showed them kindness when it was most needed. One of the central themes of the book is the young child's struggle to understand God in the context of the losses she suffers. Throughout her life, the protagonist yearned to believe in a God that she felt did not exist. It's an interesting theme and is handled in a nuanced manner. This is a graphic novel, in cartoon strip format. I did not fall in love with the images. They lack the graphic power of "Maus." Spiegleman made the cartoon medium work for him, forever changing it. Katin's images seemed to me to be less interesting and challenging. They are carefully drawn and capture the mood, but what made the book work for me was the dialog, and that could have been captured as a narrative as well. This book may not, in my opinion, be appropriate for the younger student because of sexual content. There are two situations of forced sex, and while they are not graphically depicted, the themes are rather adult. There is also discussion of an abortion. The older highschool student should be able to contextualize the material appropriately.

Highly recommended

"We Are On Our Own" is a gripping memoir of a mother's struggle to survive in Hungary during WW ll. Miram Katin recalls her early childhood in this beautifully illustrated graphic novel. It is a moving tale about the horrors of war and a mother's determination to save her child at any cost. I've just read it, and together with Alison Bechdel's "Fun Home: a Family Tracicomic" it's the best book I've read in a long time. Buy it now.