Al-Faẓia'الفظیع – the Horror

Tobi Dahmen is a graphic artist and illustrator, and the author of the graphic novels Fahrradmod and Columbusstraße. His work has received numerous honours, including the ICOM Award for Best Short Comic and the Red Dot Design Award.Akram Al Saud was born in Deir ez-Zor and raised in Damascus. From a young age, he stood against the Syrian regime, which led to his first arrest while studying architecture in Aleppo. When the revolution began, he joined in its early days, facing three more arrests and having to abandon his studies. He has lived in the Netherlands since 2016, where he resumed studying architecture and continues his commitment to freedom and dignity.Uğur Ümit Üngör is a professor of Holocaust and Genocide Studies at the NIOD Institute and the University of Amsterdam.Charlotte Schallié is a professor of Germanic Studies in the School of Languages, Linguistics and Cultures at the University of Victoria. Her areas of interests include memory studies, visual culture studies, genocide education, care ethics, and more. She also edited the award-winning collection of graphic novels But I Live.Amjad M. Tadros is a four-time Emmy Award-winning investigative journalist, former CBS News Middle East producer, and author of The Fixer, a memoir chronicling three decades of reporting across the Arab world.

"What can one person's story tell us about an entire system of repression and torture? The physical and emotional torture Akram Al Saud endured in the Syrian regime's prisons reminds us of how all Syrians endured decades of fear, violence, and repression in pursuit of their freedom. The sensorial richness of the imagery teaches us about life under the Syrian regime in ways that very few books can. Al Saud's story does more than bear witness to Syria's horrors – it reminds us of the necessity of justice and healing for all of Syria's victims." - Samer Abboud, author of Syria and Betrayal of the Homeland"The atrocities of the Assad regime and steadfastness of the Syrian people have been documented in scholarly research, human rights reports, memoirs, and other genres. Al-Faẓia' – The Horror breaks fresh ground in bringing the Syrian struggle to life in a completely new way. Related with sensitivity, courage, and care, this unforgettable graphic novel showcases a one-of-a-kind collaboration between a gifted storyteller and a gifted artist, supported by leading academic experts. The voice of one survivor and so much more, it is a tremendously valuable contribution and should be read far and wide." - Wendy Pearlman, author of We Crossed a Bridge and It Trembled: Voices from Syria and The Home I Worked to Make: Voices from the New Syrian Diaspora"Representing what is essentially unrepresentable is the challenge Akram Al Saud and Tobi Dahmen committed themselves to undertake, and they have done so in graphic novel form, which is an unprecedented method of representing Syrians' experiences. Their work in seeking to put Al Saud's tormenting memories in order has acquired a new life after the long-awaited fall of the torturous Assad regime. It tells a typical story of many secularists' contributions in the struggle for freedom and justice in Syria – something that, presently, many tend to forget." - Yassin al-Haj Saleh, author of The Impossible Revolution: Making Sense of the Syrian Tragedy"This graphic novel is a powerful account of the Syrian revolution and the horrors of Assad's prison system. It draws attention to the brutality that was meted out to those who resisted Assad's authoritarian rule, their courage to overcome, and the need for transitional justice for the hundreds of thousands whose stories we still do not know." - Leila Al- Shami, Co-author of Burning Country: Syrians in Revolution and War and Co-founder of From the Periphery Media"Through his memories of revolt, imprisonment, torture, displacement and exile, Akram Al Saoud restores in this powerful graphic novel a human face to Syria's contemporary history. A necessary work of memory, dignity, and transmission." - Ziad Majed, American University of Paris

• 1. Al Fazia الفظیع – The Horror; Surviving Syria’s Prisons Tobi Dahmen and Akram Al Saud2. Glossary3. Map 4. The Syrian Gulag: a System of Detention, Repression, and Torture Uğur Ümit Üngör5. I Will Not Stay SilentAkram Al Saud6. Conversations with Akram Tobi Dahmen7. To Draw Darkness: Editors’ Notes Uğur Ümit Üngör and Charlotte Schallié8. AcknowledgementsTobi Dahmen, Akram Al Saud. Uğur Ümit Üngör and Charlotte Schallié9. Biographies