Forced

Personal testimony to interactive graphic novel

Co Knuppelder is 99 years old, still loves to party, and never leaves home without a necktie. But at just eighteen, he was packed into a train bound for Nazi Germany as a forced laborer. Wearing his finest suit, he had no idea what lay ahead.

Forced is an audio-visual digital graphic novel that invites you to step into Co's memories. Guided by the real voice of 99-year-old Co, atmospheric sound design, and illustrative storytelling, users click through a deeply personal journey of a stolen youth in wartime.

A Journey Into the Reich

Left with no choice, Co was forced to leave his home in Amsterdam and board a train heading east. Along the way, he met a few other young men who would end up sticking by his side for much of the war.

Stationed at factories across eastern Germany, Co looks back on his labor duty with a surprising lack of bitterness - though the intensifying Allied bombardments toward the war's end were terrifying.

When the war finally ended, Co had to find his own way back. He joined a small group of Dutch and Belgian survivors, trekking across the German countryside on foot. Near the Dutch border, he unexpectedly ran into the very same boys he’d met on the train ride out. It was a rare, happy reunion amidst the chaos.

Co still visits schools to tell his story to children, giving them a view into a very different teenage life. To further expand the scope the graphic novel was adapted into a physical exhibition in Kamp Vught, one of the Netherland's concentration camps which is now a WWII memorial.