Mala's Cat

An analysis on why the Holocaust graphic novel Maus (Mouse) has been such a target argues that many want a "friendly" account. Seems logical on some level. [I don't remember it much, but did read Maus eventually.]

As I noted in a comment, the diary of Anne Frank is largely a Young Adult novel plot. Imagine a graphic novel that involves her final months, including each one of the family (except for Otto Frank) dying in the camps. I saw one account fairly recently that said that Peter (or whatever his real name is) died (at least officially) about when the camp he was in was liberated.  Or, brings up Otto Frank trying to get permission to emigrate to America, but stopped by its immigration policy.

There are now various accounts that tell a more complete story, including how Otto Frank edited the diary to remove some more negative or explicit material (nothing too bad).  There was also the overall knowledge of what happened.  Plus, the usual diary volume had an introduction that provided various details.  Still, many just read the diary (or parts of it) or watched the movie (or maybe saw a play version).  Again, nothing too dark.

Maus has some vulgarities that people can point to ("inappropriate for eighth graders" or something), but the basic "issue" might be book provides a messy version of things.  At least, it's a reasonable hypothesis (if maybe not the whole story), and you can read the blog post to see how the person makes the case.

Mala's Cat (originally published in the 1990s as Alone in the Forest) is an autobiography, but deals with the dark side.  The antisemitism starts before the Germans come, including the Mala being smacked so hard by a teacher once that she was knocked unconscious.  She later has to beg for food and sees her brother murdered by her side.  Surviving at times means lying, including to an old lady who thinks she is a relative. 

The title (and cover) might suggest it is a cute book about a teen and her cat.  The teen protagonist sees the cat as a sort of guardian angel (who interestingly happened to disappear when she was engaged to be married after the war ... making one wonder if the cat was symbolic, though she says otherwise ... how the cat was able to stick with her while she traveled all over is curious).

The book starts before the war and quickly enough (in the first 100 pages) her immediate family is rounded up when she is away.  And, she is on her own, though she does come back to her home village (by then a ghetto) for short time.  We get  a mix of stuff within those pages, from her happy childhood, economic struggles in the mid-1930s, and then antisemitism and the problems war brought.  

Given my current issues with books, I really had not big desire to read the last two hundred pages.  The book is well written (a lot of detail and so forth) though it feels a bit stiff at times.  We aren't talking a professional author after all.  I wonder how many others didn't feel a need to read three hundred pages of it. 

Already (at around 15) used to begging and surviving on her own (including taking the place of her older sister when called up for work), she learns how to live by her wits.  Readers will often be impressed by her ability to survive.  She eventually pretends to be a Christian and obtain work as a maid until the war ends.  

There are various people who survived the war "on the run" basically like Mala did.  She is not exactly a typical person, but neither was Anne Frank with her years in an "attic" in hiding.  I think many should like this book and it includes some of the horrors of war.  We know ultimately that Otto Frank was the lone survivor.  But, he is not the narrator of the story.

 ===

ETA: I skimmed the rest of the book.  After avoiding being arrested as a Jew more than once, Mala finds another Jewish girl [how exactly she "looked" Jewish isn't clear].  

The girl said she was going to be pretend to be from a destroyed Polish town -- a punishment for resisting the Germans -- thus her records were destroyed.  Mala already found a Christian girl whose name she took as her own.  Given identification documents, Mala then was sent with other Polish girls to Germany, and obtained work. She staid there until the Allies took over.

On the way there, some mean girl from her home area recognized her, and threatened to expose Mala as a Jew if she did not give up her coat. She talked so loudly, a guard noticed.  But, Mala called her a crazy person, sticking by her story [and pretending not to understand German] even when taken into custody.  It is suggested that instead the other girl was arrested or worse [Mala heard "torturing" with dogs and so forth while being questioned].

Mala had various moments in Germany too, in part since she continued to be reckless (taking the "P" off to more free wander around etc.).  She once even wrote to some family, implying she was their imprisoned mother/wife, to show her fellow workers that she had family herself back in Poland.  

Again, it is hard to believe her cat managed somehow to stick around for years as she traveled to Germany and so on.  But, the amount of trickery and so on Mala herself managed is rather amazing too.