“They boarded up the synagogues – Uzis on a street corner”
Freiheit! comes to us from Andrea Grosso Ciponte, an Italian professor. That’s pretty keen. Plough Publishing brings it to us, which was awfully nice of them. Let’s take a look!
I was both curious and worried about this book when I first saw it offered in Previews, so I figured I’d get it and see what was up. 
I was curious because the White Rose group is fascinating – regular German students, none of whom were in any danger from the Nazi regime (except for getting conscripted, which isn’t something that necessarily leads to rebellion), decided to print treasonous pamphlets denouncing Hitler and the Nazis and distribute them around Munich in 1942 and early 1943. I learned about them when I was in college lo those many years ago, and any resistance to the Nazis, especially from when after Hitler was firmly entrenched, is bound to be interesting. I was worried because the White Rose was spectacularly terrible at getting anything done – the students distributed six pamphlets, got arrested, and were quickly murdered by the regime. It was definitely something to study, but in a much bigger context of World War Two or even domestic life in Germany during the war, because on its own, it’s not very “exciting” … by which I mean that as a comic or movie, it feels like liberties would have to be taken to make it more cinematic. On its own, it seems like it wouldn’t work.
Well, my curiosity has been sated, but my worry has been justified, because Freiheit! just isn’t very good. Ciponte focuses on Sophie Scholl, who joined the group a bit late but became a driving force in it before being guillotined in February 1943. By starting with Sophie, he allows us to discover what she does as we go along, but it’s not the best place to start, because Scholl came in after her brother, Hans, and other members had already begun. So while it’s not a bad idea to have a point-of-view character to help the reader get into the story, in this case, it feels like Sophie is almost a tourist, despite her later deep involvement and subsequent martyrdom. 
That becomes a problem with the entire book – none of the characters are that interesting, and we never really get into who they are, so their rebellion feels almost perfunctory. One of them seems to be anti-Semitic, so his involvement is curious but unexplained. They talk a lot about freedom, but there’s nothing to show why they chose to rebel in this way. “Freedom” is a nice byword, but everyone wants “freedom” – Hitler himself claimed he was working for freedom for Germany – and not many people are willing to die for it. The frustrating thing about this book is that the students seem like dilettantes … until they aren’t, because they are willing to die for their beliefs, which seems like it comes out of nowhere. We never really get a sense of who these people are and what drives them – they don’t like the Nazis, but it feels like it’s more of a philosophical disagreement with them than anything … which, to be fair, is the mindset of a lot of students. There’s very little indication that the war affects them specifically, so why do they do this? Ciponte doesn’t need to research this too much – it’s a work of fiction, after all (based on a true story, sure, but still fiction), so a little invention would make it work better. Plus, they still are spectacularly bad at resistance. They don’t seem to watch their mouths around random people, they pull some dumb stunts that puts them on the SS’s radar, and they don’t seem terribly organized. It’s not surprising they got caught, it’s surprising it took so long.
Ciponte’s art is decent but nothing special. Like a lot of artists, he has trouble with fluid motion, so the very few scenes of action are a bit stiff and stilted. He keeps his characters sitting and talking, which makes for a less visually interesting book but does allow him to play to his strengths, which is in facial expressions. He gives each character a lot of expressiveness, which is good because except for Sophie, they’re mostly interchangeable, but at least we can see what they’re feeling when they do talk. 
He paints the book nicely, even with the heavy sepia tones, because the watercolors make everything look just the slightest bit shabby, implying that Germany at this time was fraying at the seams. He uses blacks well to shroud characters’ eyes and make them more secretive, and there’s a terrific splash page that is obviously Escher-inspired and implies the maze in which the students have found themselves. It’s clear that Ciponte is a clever artist, but the subject matter doesn’t seem to allow him to do too much with the art, and that’s too bad.
I hate not liking a comic that is more important than good, because the White Rose is a crucial – if impotent – part of World War Two history, as it shows in microcosm that the Nazis were not necessarily supported by all Germans, and it shows what people can and can’t do against a totalitarian regime. But while I feel a bit guilty for not liking it more, it’s just not that good a comic. Like a lot of “important” comics, Ciponte seems to think that just telling us that German students rebelled against the Nazis is good enough, when it’s not, even for a history book. The White Rose seems like an irresistible subject for a writer, because it has Nazis and brash young people and tragedy, but it’s harder to get a good story than it looks, and Ciponte misses the mark. Freiheit! is a frustrating book, because it should be something more people know about and this is a good way to dramatize it, but it’s just not that good. (However, I will provide a link to it in case you think I’m an idiot who doesn’t know anything and you really want to read it – who’s to say you’re wrong?)
Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆
