Vancouver Holocaust survivor Adam Policzer, 87, is marking three major milestones this summer: the publication of his first English-language Holocaust autobiography in the form of a 60-page graphic novel, The House Across the Street; the premiere of a documentary about his life; and the 80th anniversary of his reunion with his father after the Second World War in July 1946.
Eighty years ago, Policzer was reunited with his father, who had fled Hungary before the outbreak of the Second World War and found safety in Chile. But the child and his mother didn’t get out in time before the Nazis invaded Hungary. So, Policzer’s mother arranged to hide her young son with the Christian family living across the street in the city of Miskolc. She was later deported to Auschwitz, and eventually perished in a Nazi slave-labour camp in Poland.
Policzer eventually moved from Chile to Vancouver, B.C. in the 1970s, where he worked as an architect. He and his wife wanted to leave a memoir for their grandchildren, so he drew his story as a graphic novel, published in Canada in June by Dirty Water Comics.
Policzer believes he is one of the few child survivors who vividly remembers the Holocaust, and possibly one of the only survivors to tell his story as a graphic novel with his own drawings. The story has also inspired a new documentary about him which recently premiered at the Toronto Jewish Film Festival.
On today’s fresh episode of The CJN’s North Star podcast, Adam Policzer joins host Ellin Bessner to explain how drawing his images helped him deal with his Holocaust trauma, while paying tribute to the Christian family that repeatedly risked their lives to save his, but never qualified for recognition by Yad Vashem. Also joining are the filmmakers Jamie Michaels and Liam Karp, both from Winnipeg.
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Learn more and buy the book “The House Across the Street” by Adam Policzer, published by Dirty Water Comics, in Winnipeg.
Watch the trailer for the new documentary about Adam Policzer, called “I draw them the Best I Can”, which had its world premiere at the Toronto Jewish Film Festival on June 8, 2026.
Check out director Jamie Michael’s 2019 graphic novel “Christie Pits” in The CJN , and also co-director Liam Karp’s solo Holocaust short film called “Tattoo” (2023), which also screened at the TJFF in June.
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