"Rat: My Friend is a Jew" is a graphic novel created by Liubov Zaitseva (Ukraine), Lena Gęborys (Poland), Magdagelna Janik (Poland), Annelie Specht (Germany), and Barbara Marschall (Germany).
Based on Centropa's interview with Vera Dreezo, this graphic novel features a rat as the story's narrator. Having noticed that Vera casually mentiones the apparation of rats at various points in her story, the creators of the group thought that this could be a good way to show her life story from an outside perspective.
Vera Dreezo, born in Kiev (Ukraine) in 1929 into a Jewish Soviet family, lived through profound upheavals including World War II and the loss of her father, who died early in the war. Her upbringing was shaped by hard work, family resilience, and Soviet cultural life; her parents encouraged education, theatre, and community activities. During the war, Vera and her family were evacuated eastward, endured difficult conditions, and later returned to a devastated Kiev. After the war, she pursued theatrical studies and worked in theatre, where she met her husband, actor Vilia Dreezo; they married in 1954 and had a son, Aleksei. Vera eventually left the theatre to raise her child and later worked at an institute for teacher training until retiring in 1984.