The Dreams of Helga Goebbels: From Ulli Lust’s New Graphic Novel

The following is excerpted from Voices in the Dark, a graphic novel by Ulli Lust based on Marcel Beyer’s The Karnau Tapes. It follows Hermann Karnau, a sound engineer employed by the Nazis. His assignments take him to Party rallies, to the Eastern Front, and into the household of Joseph Goebbels. There he meets six-year-old Helga: bright, good-natured, and just beginning to suspect the horror that surrounds her. Helga will eventually become the subject of Hermann’s most haunting recording, and the one that will finally make him open his eyes.

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From Voices in the Dark by Ulli Lust, translated by John Brownjohn, translation adapted by Nika Knight. Courtesy of New York Review Comics. Copyright 2017.