Chleb wolnościowy | Comic book

Celebrating its 75th anniversary, the State Museum at Majdanek published a comic book based on accounts by the former prisoners of the German Nazi concentration camp. It was created by Paweł Piechnik, the artist who presented a collection of graphic stories about the fate of eleven prisoners of Konzentrationslager Lublin in the comic book Chleb wolnościowy.

The author used fragments of memories from the books entitled Niebo bez ptaków by Danuta Brzosko-Mędryk, Pole śmierci by Andrzej Stanisławski. He used also the book entitled Majdanek. Obóz koncentracyjny w relacjach więźniów i świadków written by Marta Grudzińska and accounts of Jolanta Nowakowska-Korzeniewska who was detained at Majdanek as a child. The comic book comes with: short historical afterword, dictionary of terms and biographical entries of prisoners whose stories were fundamental for the whole storytelling.

Phrase “chleb wolnościowy” [literally: bread of liberty] was used by people imprisoned in concentration camps during the Second World War. It meant a bread baked outside the camp and was clearly associated with homesickness. “Chleb wolnościowy” was and is today a value, which indicates various forms of human attitudes and behaviour presented in three parts of the comic book: On Hunger, On Death and On Freedom. The broadly understood hope for freedom was the factor, which united fellow prisoners and gave them strength to fight every day for a living.

Paweł Piechnik – graduated from the Poznań Univeristy of Technology, Faculty of Architecture, and the University of Fine Arts in Poznań. Since 2005, a professional comic book artist, illustrator and co-maker of animated films. Author of films for computer games and murals. In 2012 he was granted Grand Prix for his work Link in the international contest for a short comic book at the International Festival of Comics and Games in Łódź. More info at pawelpiechnik.com.