"I, René Tardi, had fought...to destroy the enemy. I obeyed. Yes, I had fought, and on Wednesday, May 22, 1940, 12 days after the offensive, in the early morning at the edge of the woods, I had been captured." Thus begins the dark turn in Stalag IIB, Jacques Tardi's gripping and humane biographical portrait of his father's life as a soldier during WWII. Captured by the Germans and sent to a POW camp where he spends the rest of the war, René Tardi lives a harrowing day-to-day existence. He recalls in vivid detail roll calls in sub-zero temperatures, senseless executions--and especially the gnawing hunger. And yet, in the face of daily brutality, he perseveres, thinking of his wife Henriette, awaiting his return home to France"--Page 4 of cover.
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