It’s estimated that 1.3 million people entered the death camp known as Auschwitz, of which 1.1 million of them died.  The survivors were forced to cover up the crime by cremating the bodies of those who passed before them.

Two comic books are in the works to educate individuals about this grisly episode in history.  The books, published by K&L Press, are the brainchild of Jacek Lech and Beata Klos, both former employees in the education department and the publications department of the concentration camp museum.

The first two entries are entitled “Episodes from Auschwitz” series: “Love in the Shadow of Death” and “Witold’s Report.”  The books are about individuals who were imprisoned in Auschwitz and their subsequent fates.  There are other books being worked on and 6 others currently in the planning stages.

“Love in the Shadow of Death” is the story of Polish prisoner Edward Galinkski and a Belgium Jewish woman Mala Zimetbaum.

“Witold’s Report” tells the story not only of the abuse suffered by the Polish people under German rule, but of what happened to people like Polish patriot Witold Pilecki under communist rule in the years after the war.

Suggested for those 14 and over the purpose of the books is to open the history of World War II, Auschwitz and the Holocaust to a new generation who prefer not to read traditional history books.

The publishers have purposely tagged the publications as comic books rather than graphic novels.

“The reason we wanted to stay away from (the term) graphic novel is because novel seems to be fiction,” David Kennedy explained.  Kennedy is acting as both a translator for the series and project manager for the books.  “It’s the semantics of the word. This is more of a graphic history book.”