Episode 289 - Nora Krug

With the brand-new visual memoir Belonging (Scribner), writer/illustrator Nora Krug explores her family's history in World War II and her own struggles with her identity as a German expat in America. We get into the meaning of Heimat and why her questions arose when she was living outside of Germany, the challenges of telling the story without devaluing the Holocaust itself (thanks, Jewish beta-readers, incl. Nora's husband!), the pendulum swing of collective guilt, the failings of German's education system to address the war, and whether certain books should be banned (and what happened the time she tried reading Mein Kampf on the subway). We also get into the process of editing her life and her discoveries into a narrative without eliding the truth, how Belonging/Heimat has been received in Germany, writing it in English, and the detective work that went into making the book. Plus, we talk about her visual storytelling style, teaching art at Parsons, why she doesn't keep a sketchbook (but doesn't tell her students that), and the German stereotypes she does and doesn't live up to (she's getting better at small talk!). • More info at our site • Support The Virtual Memories Show via Patreon or Paypal