The tragic raid of the Izieu children, told in comics by the Breton author Pascal Bresson

To mark the 80th anniversary of the Izieu raid in Ain, Pascal Bresson has created a comic with illustrator Giulio Salvadori about this dark side of the German occupation during the Second World War.

On April 6, 1944, the fate of 44 Jewish children and 7 adults changed. They escape to a house that has been converted into a summer camp and are arrested by the Gestapo. Only one adult will survive Nazi barbarism. A dramatic story that Pascal Bressonalready the author of works about Simone Veil and the Klarsfeld couple, wanted to tell the story in a comic in order to reach a wide audience, especially the youngest.

A documented comic

“It’s the first day of vacation, it’s 8:30 a.m. The children have breakfast with a good hot chocolate. Two trucks with two engines arrive and there is chaos, hell. They round up all the children under the pretext that…”they are Jews.” says Pascal Bresson. This very precise story is the result of several stays in what is now the Izieu colony a memorial museum.

The author, who lives in Saint-Malo, delved into the still intact places, the atmosphere, the context. He observed the children’s drawings and discovered the story of their teacher, who, after the raid, found a small pipe in her blouse pocket that one of her students had given her. “It’s moving because she sees this little Raoul again who gave it to her.” says Pascal Bresson. The teacher is buried with this pipe.

Anecdotes that helped the author tell the story of the raid. Pascal Bresson also met the director of the Maison d’Izieu, who provided him with details and recommended works, including the book by Sabine Zlatin, the founder of the colony, who was not in Izieu on April 6, 1944.

A duty to remember

Preserve the memory of these children in the younger generation. This motivated Pascal Bresson to write the texts for the comic. “For several years I have been producing works that speak of the duty to remember. After recounting the life of Simone Veil, the fate of the three Jacob sisters and the hunt for the Nazis by the Klarsfeld couple, it seemed essential to me to do so. I recognized very early on that the duty of remembrance lies with the youngest to teach and pass on”, he explains on his publisher’s website The bubble box.

All deported, the 44 children died, most of them in Auschwitz. Klaus Barbie, head of the Gestapo in Lyon in 1944, was sentenced to life imprisonment in 1987 for crimes against humanity. At her trial, Sabine Zlatin, who dedicated her life to protecting the memory of Izieu’s children, will take the stand. “Why did you do that? They were children, they weren’t resistance fighters, they hadn’t done anything.” […]. Everyone in the room is upset. There’s only one who laughs, that’s Barbie. remembers Pascal Bresson.

The author from Saint-Malo will take part several book signings until June almost everywhere in France.

Comic strip La rafle d’Izieu, by Pascal Bresson (screenplay) and Giulio Salvadori (drawings), published by La Boîte à Bulles, 160 pages, 26 euros (publication April 2024)