I’m a history buff, and I take it upon myself to wander down the more obscure paths of history and discover what I called “Great Undertold Stories of History” (GUSH). History is truly an amazing force, and just as powerful as History is the victor’s ability to re-write it to suit their tastes and purposes. No revolution is the product of one pivotal man (or woman), but “official” accounts of history tends to talk only about these pivotal figures; leaving the people on the peripheral who have stories just as powerful out of the picture. And here’s one of these neglected stories.

Portrait of a Young Forger
Marian Pretzel

I think one of the Greatest Undertold Stories of the Holocaust happens to be that of Marian Pretzel, author of the book “Portrait of a Young Forger”. Most people probably haven’t heard of this book, though it tells a story as compelling, brilliant and important as “Schindler’s List”, “The Piano”, “Adolf”, “Maus”, and other real-life accounts of the Jews in Nazi Europe.

The Nazi occupation of Lvov in Poland started when Marian was a 17 year-old art student, and like many other Jews, he was rounded up and bundled into the infamous Janowska concentration camp. However, he managed to escape, and thus began his astonishing story of survival that is unlike any other Holocaust story I’ve read. Marian had the luck of being a blond-haired blue-eyed Jew, looking pretty much like the perfect Aryan specimen. His art training also gave him the ability to forge documents and seals, and this gave him a cover for masquerading as a German officer; withdrawing German money, travelling on top-class German trains, and eating German food. He basically escaped the Holocaust by successfully passing himself off as a German, though tragically many of his family did not escape the concentration camps. One can only imagine how painful it was for him to have done what he did, knowing that he was able to live in luxury while other Jews perished in the gas chambers.

While his experience may sound as if he was “let off lucky”, it’s an important and under-mentioned part of the Jewish experience in World War 2. Marian was not the only German-masquerading Jew – the book reveals there was actually a network of Jews who pretended to be German in WW2. His is the story of a daring con-man who conned his way into the heart of the enemy, and while his experience is completely different, I couldn’t help comparing him to Oskar Schindler. Also lurking beneath the surface of this story is the satisfaction of knowing the Nazis weren’t even aware there were Jews right under their noses. It pounds the stereotypes people have of Jews into the dust.

Overall, a highly recommended and important part of the Holocaust that is frequently overlooked. If I were to adapt a story about Holocast into manga format, I would do this one.