Most online accounts of Ernst Kaltenbrunner and Albert Speer mention that they were convicted at the Nuremberg trials but few accounts mention the testimony and evidence provided by Francesco Boix that enabled those convictions. Nor do they mention the bravery and sacrifices of the people involved in preserving and delivering that evidence to the outside world.

The Photographer of Mauthausen by Salva Rubio (writer), Pedro J Colombo (illustrator) and Aintzane Landa (colourist) tells the story of Boix, a Spanish photographer and veteran of the Spanish Civil War. Following his part in the civil war, Boix was exiled to France and joined the French army before being captured by the Germans. The Photographer of Mauthausen starts with Boix's arrival at Mauthausen in 1941.

Boix starts off his internment as a translator but soon finds a position in the photography lab. Somehow, inexplicably, SS-Hauptscharführer Paul Ricken takes a liking to to Boix and recruits him as assistant to his macabre photography project. In this role, Boix is exposed to the many atrocities being committed at Mauthausen (in addition to the ones he had already witnessed).

Boix realises initially that this evidence needs to be preserved and several prisoners get involved in making this happen. However, as news reaches camp of an impending Russian victory, Boix realises that he needs to get proof of the atrocities to people on the outside of the camp.

Boix was successful and both his testimony and the photographic evidence proved that Nazis such as Kaltenbrunner and Speer were not only aware of what was happening at Mauthausen but they were complicit in the atrocities too.

The value of The Photographer of Mauthausen is in the questions that it raises about justice and remembrance. At the time of the Nuremberg trials, the photos were used to obtain convictions but Boix expresses frustration on page in the graphic novel about why people weren't more concerned about what happened at Mauthausen and the atrocities committed.

The Photographer of Mauthausen is an excellent graphic novel that tells, in an accessible format, an important story in the annals of Holocaust history while serving as an educational source on both Nazi atrocities and the trials following the war.

This is a very well-written book! It had my attention since the beginning. The illustration was excellent and holds the reader's attention. Perfect for people who feel reading history is boring. A perfect graphic novel. The horrors and hardships faced by the inmates are beyond anyone's imagination.

This is the story of a Spanish press photographer and communist who fled to France at the beginning of World War II, found himself in a concentration camp and witnessed horrific events. I know there are many books linked with WW2 lately, but this one definitely stayed with me.

Graphic novels have to be very good to capture my attention and keep me invested. This one didn’t. It wasn’t bad, just okay.

*received for free from netgalley for honest review* Awesome detail in the artwork for this! good thing it was an ebook and i was able to zoom in a lot though.

It's just heartbreaking how the protagonist of this graphic novel risks everything just so he can get the proof of what's going on out into the world. It's a grueling read since it depicts inhumane treatment of all kinds without sensationalizing or sugarcoating anything. But then things get even sadder as the proof he so painstakingly obtained fails to generate the effect that it should have!

In any case, I'd have rated the novel higher had I not experienced Elie Weisel's Night.

5 Stars
The Photographer of Mauthausen follows the true story of a man who was imprisoned in a nazi concentration camp during World War II. In this, we are following Francisco Boix, a Spanish photographer, who became a prisoner of war and was sent to Mauthausen. At Mauthausen, Francisco was assigned to help assist the Nazi photographer in charged of documenting prisoner death. He then hid the negatives of these photos -even though it would most certainly mean death if caught - These photos played an integral part in the Nazi trials post WWII. This is a heart-wrenching novel that shows the atrocities of war and how evil man can be to fellow humans.

Somehow simultaneously harrowing, uplifting, and depressing. Tells the true story of Francesc Boix, a Spanish communist imprisoned in Mauthausen, a Nazi concentration camp. He worked around the Nazis and within and around the prisoner Communist hierarchy to smuggle out photographic evidence of the Nazi camp atrocities. He has to risk death, his soul, the safety of his friends and everyone in the camp, and his health to get the pictures out, and in the end it feels amazing that he succeeds. But then the letdown when no one wants to dig into his pictures and honor the dead and hear what was done......it's immense. In the end, what did it matter? Is doing good and seeking justice its own reward? I have to think it is; in an uncaring universe we have to forge our own kind, just path. But man sometimes it's hard to want to continue to try to do the right thing. This one is going to stick with me for a long time.

I was unable to download this in the proper format, something I realised only after its archiving so unfortunately will be unable to provide a full review for this.

I received an ARC of this book through NetGalley in exchange for my unbiased opinion.

Francisco Boix was a Spanish press photographer who fled to France at the beginning of World War II. There, he and other communists were handed over by the French to the Nazis and sent to Mauthausen concentration camp. When the Nazis learn about his photography skills, he is put to work processing photos taken in the camp. When he is made to develop pictures of the deaths of prisoners in the camp, Francisco realizes this is his chance to share with the outside world the atrocities being committed in the camp. Knowing he is risking not only his own life but the lives of others at the camp, Francisco vows to do whatever it takes to get these photos out to the world.

This is a true story of one of the many atrocities experienced in the concentration camps at the hands of Nazis in World War II. The illustrations capture the horrors of Mauthausen, making this a powerful, moving graphic novel. This book makes me want to learn more about Boix. I highly recommend this graphic novel!

This was a pretty amazing story to read. When I first started it, I will admit I wasn’t sure what to expect of it. The story it tells is an important one, and it has plenty of violent moments. This graphic novel helps brings this story to life, and tells how a man survived a terrible ordeal. This won’t be a graphic novel for everyone, but some people might enjoy it.

Beautiful artwork and an incredible story. This was hard to read at times, and of course it’s hard to give a review about a work so full of emotion and based on true events. However, I thought it was all done incredibly well and I’m happy to have learned more about this event in history.

Intense but so well done. Made me tear up but it's going to be going into my son's WWII unit learning for this year.

An emotional account of the atrocities at Mauthausen, a Nazi concentration & work camp. The story is told through the eyes of a survivor who risked his life photographing the horrors at Mauthausen. The photos prove how the Nazi's inflicted suffering and torture onto the prisoners at the camp.
This book is not for the feint of heart. Lots of pictures of dead bodies and people suffering. Important to witness and acknowledge, but can be hard for people to stomach.

"Things will change. One day or another, they'll understand. If not, history will repeat itself."

"The Photographer of Mauthausen" is based on the real-life experience of Francisco Boix, a Spanish photographer affiliated with the Spanish communist party. After fleeing Spain at the beginning of World War II to go to France, he finds himself handed over by the French to the Nazis, who take him to the Mauthausen concentration camp. Unlike other Nazi concentration camps, Mauthausen was an "extermination through labor" camp, that imprisoned political prisoners and members of high social classes from countries subjugated by the Nazis. This set this book apart for me, as almost all other Nazi-related books I've read focused on the Jewish Holocaust, and not on the other categories of camp prisoners.

Soon after arriving at Mauthausen, Boix manages to be assigned to work as a photographer documenting the "accidental" deaths at the camp. Through this work he becomes more aware of the sadism of the Nazis and realizes he is in a position that allows him to expose this sadism to the world. Despite its short length, this graphic novel presents a lot of valuable information and tugs at its readers' emotions, as it does not hold back from describing the horrors that the prisoners lived through at the hands of the Nazis. The illustrations, with their bleak blueish-gray colors, pair very well with the narrative. This is definitely a worthwhile read for those with an affinity for history. Thank you NetGalley and Europe Comics for the opportunity to read this graphic novel in exchange for my honest review.

To say this is a beautiful book seems wrong because of the content, but this book is beautiful. This is the story of Francisco Boix and how he saved thousands of negatives during his time at Mauthausen to prove the horrible things the Nazis were doing to the prisoners.

The illustrations in this book were accurate and haunting. I thought the use of somber, darker colors lent the illustrations an air of realism.

One can only hope that we learn from these atrocities and that we don't allow this to happen again.

Thank you NetGalley for the DRC.

The first time I heard the term "graphic novel" I was worried that such novels included graphic violence. To date, this is the only graphic novel I have read that contains actual graphic violence. It just goes to show that first impressions aren't everything.
Nazi concentration camps have been the subject of a lot of documentaries, whether in film, nonfiction book, or in another medium. This one toes the line between being historic fiction and documentary, but I'm not sure which side it falls on. Naturally, due to the subject matter (namely Nazi death camps), some of the material is rather disturbing. The illustrator doesn't hesitate to create graphic renderings of the violence and cruelty that occurred in this camp, frequently referencing actual photos taken at the time (and which presumably had something to do with the inspiration for this book). Primarily because of this, the novel is sometimes brutally honest and hard to stomach. The main character himself, however, justifies this in the end, saying that if no one knows and the survivors aren't believed, then history is destined to repeat; a hard truth that has played out too many times in the decades since the Nazi war camp liberation.
Sirah, did you like this book? What a foolish question; how can one say that one enjoyed reading a book about cruelty, injustice and pain? However, this book skillfully works with the abominations that occurred in order to weave an inescapable picture of what should have been done and what still needs to be done to protect human rights everywhere. It was especially meaningful to me as a photographer to see that photographs really can make a difference if people have the eyes to see them for what they really are. I can't say I'll be recommending this book to my elementary students since it contains so much mature content, but I think this is a story worth being told.

Thank you so much to net galley for sending me a copy of this graphic novel. I was so interested to read this and I was not disappointed. I would definitely recommend this

Narrated by a Spanish photographer, Francisco Boix, The Photographer of Mauthausen, is a gripping look at the atrocities the Spanish experienced during WWII in the concentration camp of Mauthausen, Francisco volunteered for the French army and was arrested when the Nazis invaded and immediately ended up in a level 3 work camp- no one is meant to get out alive, The focus of this graphic novel is of Francisco working with other Spanish prisoners to get film negatives out of the camp to expose the Nazis. The artwork, drawn by Pedro Colombo, is so realistic and somber that you could almost envision what it may have looked like in these concentration camps. I highly recommend this graphic novel to anyone interested in WWII history as it is a story many would not be too familiar with.

**I was given a free digital copy of this book through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review**

When I requested this book, I was under no delusions that the contents would be painful. this graphic novel depicts a photographer, Francisco Boix, who was captured and sent to Mauthausen during World War II. This is a heavy graphic novel. On every page, there's a reminder of the atrocities carried out at Nazi concentration camps. If you are not emotionally prepared to see such details, then perhaps this is not the book format for you. The message of this book is extremely important, as are the stories of the countless survivors who lived to tell their tales. My kudos to the illustrator and author for conveying this story to the world in a manner that is polished and full of dignity. It is fitting that Francisco Boix was a photographer and his story is now being portrayed in images. This may be a bold statement, but I believe Francisco would have liked that.