Argentina's Dictatorship | Graphic Novel "Silence": Against Silence

Why is this graphic novel called "Silence"? In the first chapter, Birgit Weyhe explains: "This book is about two women who were affected in different ways by silence: by private silencing and by political cover-up."

In doing so, she tells two stories. First, how Ellen Marx, as a 17-year-old German Jew, emigrated to Buenos Aires without her parents in the spring of 1939. Her entire family was murdered by the Nazis in the Shoah. Almost 40 years later, in March 1977, her adult daughter Nora "disappeared." The Argentinian military junta fought the left-wing opposition with terror and arbitrary arrests . The abductions and disappearances intensified the violence, and relatives and comrades were terrorized by uncertainty. A lifelong search began for Ellen Marx; she became one of the famous "Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo," who, despite bans and repression, gathered publicly in the central square to ask for their missing children.

The second life story in "Silence" is that of Elisabeth Käsemann: Born in Gelsenkirchen in 1947, she became politicized around 1968 while studying in West Berlin and was a member of the Socialist German Student Union. The '68 movement demanded an end to the silence surrounding the crimes of the Nazi era and protested against the Vietnam War. From 1970 onwards, Elisabeth Käsemann lived in Buenos Aires and, like Nora Marx, participated in self-organization in the city's slums. In a long conversation, spanning several pages in the graphic novel, Nora explains to her mother Ellen what this is all about: organizing practical self-help and solidarity, but also agitating for a more just social order.

Birgit Weyhe cites posters, advertisements, and historically famous photographs, and varies iconic symbols. Her drawings, characterized by clear lines, correspond with the finely lettered font.

Like Nora Marx, Elisabeth Käsemann was arrested in March 1977. In "Silence," we see her British friend Diana waiting for her in vain. Then she, too, is arrested, taken to the El Vesubio torture camp, and tortured. But Diana survives because the British Embassy campaigns vigorously for her release. The Foreign Office, however, which Elisabeth's parents ask for help, remains silent. Diana later recounts how she had to listen to her friend Elisabeth's screams in a neighboring cell and how it smelled of burning flesh when the prisoners were tortured with electricity.

Weyhe quotes from a 1977 "country report" by the German Foreign Office: "Argentina's real problems lie in the domestic political sphere, in the fight against subversion and political extremism. Combating them is a priority. Since the beginning of the military government, great progress has been made." Economic interests are given priority, and the upcoming 1978 World Cup is also expected to run smoothly.

Carefully researched background information underpins the plot. The clear illustrations are not overshadowed by the text. The limited color palette—black, two shades each of green and red, and yellow—gives them a clear appearance. This isn't about spectacle; it's about life. And death. In the chapter that describes Elisabeth Käsemann's murder, the pages are black instead of white. Drawn on them with fragile white lines: objects from the prison. And the text is the sober report by the Elisabeth Käsemann Foundation about the execution of a group of prisoners on May 24, 1977, including Elisabeth Käsemann.

In other chapters, too, there are pages where the depiction of concrete violence transitions into abstraction. Or pages that are almost completely covered in black scribbles. "I broke several pens and brushes for the scribbled areas because I was actually working with incredible pressure and force on the drawing tools," explains Weyhe. "The people drawn here encounter a violent abstraction of violence."

"Silence" is the most extensive of Weyhe's eleven comic books to date. She worked on it for four years. It is an indictment of the politics of silence and an important contribution to the culture of remembrance, both in form and content.

Birgit Weyhe: Schweigen. Avant-Verlag, 368 pp., hardcover, €39. Book launch: June 4 at "Cantina fux & ganz," Bodenstedtstr. 16, Hamburg-Altona, starting at 7:30 p.m.