Freiheit! [graphic novel] : the White Rose graphic novel / Andrea Grosso Ciponte.

Title:

Summary:

Disillusioned by the propaganda of Nazi Germany, Sophie Scholl, a young German college student, her brother, and his fellow soldiers formed the White Rose, a group that wrote and distributed anonymous letters criticizing the Nazi regime and calling for action from their fellow German citizens.

Author:

Grosso Ciponte, Andrea, author, illustrator.

Format:

Books

Genre:

Graphic novels.

Biographical comic books, strips, etc.

Subject Term:

Anti-Nazi movement -- Comic books, strips, etc.

Anti-Nazi movement -- Juvenile literature.

Underground movements, War -- Comic books, strips, etc.

Underground movements, War -- Juvenile literature.

Geographic Term:

Germany -- History -- 1933-1945 -- Comic books, strips, etc.

Germany -- History -- 1933-1945 -- Juvenile literature.

ISBN:

9780874863444

Corporate Subject:

White Rose (German resistance group) -- Comic books, strips, etc.

White Rose (German resistance group) -- Juvenile literature.

Physical Description:

111 pages : illustrations (some colour) ; 26 cm.

Target Audience:

Ages 12+.

Publication Date:

2021

Available in Onecard network:

Library	Shelf Location	Shelf Number	Item Barcode	Material Type	Status
Searching... SAPL	Being acquired by the library	XX(2549714.1)	2549714-1001	Book	Searching... Unknown

Bound With These Titles

On Order

Summary

The dramatic true story of a handful of students who resisted the Nazis and paid with their lives, now in a stunning graphic novel.

With an entire nation blindly following an evil leader, where did a handful of students find the courage to resist? The university students who formed the White Rose, an undercover resistance movement in Nazi Germany, knew that doing so could cost them their lives. But some things are worth dying for.

The White Rose printed and distributed leaflets to expose Nazi atrocities and wake up their fellow citizens. The Gestapo caught and executed them. Sophie Scholl was twenty-one; her brother Hans, twenty-four; Christoph Probst, twenty-three; Alexander Schmorell and Willi Graf, twenty-five.

But the White Rose was not silenced. Their heroism continues to inspire new generations of resisters. Now, for the first time, this story that has been celebrated in print and film can be experienced as a graphic novel. Italian artist Andrea Grosso Ciponte's haunting imagery will resonate with today's students and activists. The challenges they face may vary, but the need for young people to stand up against evil, whatever the cost, will remain.

Reviews (3)

Publisher's Weekly Review

The anti-Nazi resistance of Germany's youth-led White Rose collective is depicted in a somber, gorgeous style by Ciponte's painterly hand. The memorial opens in 1943 in Munich with 21-year-old Sophie Scholl and her brother, Hans, covertly distributing thousands of leaflets that call on German students to fight fascism: "The day of reckoning has come--the reckoning of German youth with the most abominable tyrant our people have ever been forced to endure." The timeline and additional characters who join them can be hard to follow in Ciponte's elegaic retelling, which features many cinematic shots of the students striding and in strident discussion, but in places lacks context clues and labels that would help guide readers unfamiliar with the history. (Though the many interspersed quotes and full reproductions of the leaflets in back matter provides ample authenticity.) The beautifully lit panels play with darkness and light, balancing youthful joy with the long shadows of Nazis' power. In one poignant scene, the youth paint the rallying cry "Freiheit!" (German for "freedom!") in white across a wall at night. Even though their graffiti is erased the next day, the friends cherish every wild glimmer of defiance, even as three are killed for their role in the resistance. Their anti-fascist fearlessness resonates in Ciponte's moving treatment, which will speak to like-minded young activists. (Feb.)

Kirkus Review

A graphic account of the lives and tragic ends of the young anti-Nazi White Rose martyrs. Aside from dates, glimpses of documents, and a few invented lines of dialogue, Ciponte's sketchy narrative text is largely a mix of quotations from classic German writers, Nazi propaganda, and snippets of rhetoric drawn directly from the six exhortatory leaflets (all of which are provided in full as backmatter in an English translation by Arthur R. Schultz) that the White Rose printed and distributed before its abrupt end. This leaves it to the art to create a storyline, and it's not up to the task, being arranged in loosely sequenced panels, marked by confusingly abrupt changes in time and locale, in which watery figures with hard-to-distinguish features are either posed in static groups or portrayed in head shots. Reproductions of official reports serve in place of explicit depictions of the executions. Russell Freedman's We Will Not Be Silent (2016) and Kip Wilson's White Rose (2019) offer a more coherent picture of the short careers of Sophie Scholl and her fellow protesters, but readers will come away appreciating the courage it took for these young collegians to stand up as they did. Though the leaflets are almost unreadably cerebral, they do serve as primary sources for the White Rose's message. A heartfelt, well-deserved tribute but a muddle for readers not already familiar with the story. (Graphic nonfiction. 12-15) Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Booklist Review

In shadowy, cinematic artwork with ample quotes from primary sources, this graphic novel about the White Rose movement in Nazi Germany tells the story of several members who were arrested and eventually executed for distributing pamphlets encouraging resistance. This graphic history doesn't offer much in the way of context, instead diving right into introducing the major players and some of the literature that inspired their own writing. The plot progresses almost exclusively through dialogue and the artwork, which is striking and atmospheric, though dark and impressionistic enough that it's occasionally difficult to parse what's happening. The tight focus on language and its power to change minds--both the writing in the leaflets and the anti-Semitic and fascist rhetoric of the Nazi party--offers a valuable angle, however, and Ciponte's choice to include the full text of six leaflets emphasizes the lasting importance of their words. Perhaps best suited to classrooms, this will likely be most useful as a supplement to other lessons about WWII or resistance movements.