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The Boxer: The True Story of Holocaust Survivor Harry Haft
(text & illus.). SelfMadeHero. 2014. 200p. ISBN 9781906838775. pap. $22.95. GRAPHIC NOVELS
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Shrimpy but scrappy, teenager Hertzko Haft helps his struggling Jewish family survive Nazi occupation of Poland. But just before he is to marry his love, Leah, Hertzko is sent to a work camp and then to Auschwitz. Over four years, he keeps alive by canny friendships, smuggling, and learning to box in tournaments held to entertain Nazi camp officers. Finally, Hertzko escapes and turns professional boxer, seeking the missing Leah. Stark black-and-white drawings from Kleist (the well-received Johnny Cash) convey Hertzko's single-minded calculus of survival. An excellent concluding essay from German sports journalist Martin Krauss further explicates boxing in concentration camps.
VERDICT Based on son Alan Scott Haft's Harry Haft, this wrenching biography coupled with stunning high-contrast storytelling put this title on a par with Nathan Powell's much-praised art for March (LJ 7/13). Moreover, the characters are drawn with the energetic nimbleness so admired in Will Eisner's work. Sports fans and history readers, teen and up, will find this mesmerizing.
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