Irmina

by Barbara Yelin

In the mid-1930s, Irmina, an ambitious young German, moves to London. At a cocktail party, she meets Howard Green, one of the first black students at Oxford, who, like Irmina, is working towards an independent existence. However, their relationship comes to an abrupt end when Irmina, constrained by the political situation in Hitler's Germany, is forced to return home. As war approaches and her contact with Howard is broken, it becomes clear to Irmina that prosperity will only be possible through the betrayal of her ideals. In the award-winning Irmina, Barbara Yelin presents a troubling drama about the tension between integrity and social advancement. Based on a true story, this moving and perceptive graphic novel perfectly conjures the oppressive atmosphere of wartime Germany, reflecting with compassion and intelligence on the complicity that results from the choice, conscious or otherwise, to look away.

Genres: Graphic Novels, Comics, Historical Fiction, Fiction, War, Germany, German Literature

288 pages, Paperback

First published October 8, 2014

About the author

Barbara Yelin, geb. 1977 in München.
2004 Diplom der Illustration an der HAW Hamburg. Barbara Yelin lebt und arbeitet als Comiczeicherin und Illustratorin zur Zeit in Berlin und München.

Barbara Yelin (born 1977 in Munich) studied illustration at the Hamburg University of Applied Sciences. She lives and works in Berlin and Munich as illustrator and comic book artist. Her comic novels include »Le Visiteur« (2004), »Le Retard« (2006), both published by Actes Sud/L’An 2, and »Gift« (2010, with Peer Meter) published by Reprodukt. Since 2005 she has been contributor and co-editor of SPRING, the annual magazine of women illustrators and comic artists. In 2011, she was commissioned to run a series of comic workshops in Cairo on behalf of the Goethe-Institute Cairo. In winter 2011/12, she taught as a visiting professor at the »Hochschule der Bildenden Künste Saar« in Saarbrücken (Germany), presenting a seminar on Graphic Novels.

Reviews

[Sam Quixote · Rating 4 out of 5]

Set in 1930s England, Irmina, a young German exchange student, befriends Howard, a black scholarship student from Barbados attending Oxford, but money problems force her back to Germany, prematurely ending their burgeoning relationship. Before she can make it back to England, WW2 kicks off – will the two ever see each other again?

I was really impressed, not to mention thoroughly enjoyed, Barbara Yelin’s Irmina. The comic is partly based on her grandmother’s letters and diaries, as well as research on the time, which convincingly recreates an historically accurate vision of what everyday life in Nazi Germany was like for ordinary people. What’s really compelling though is seeing Irmina change from a liberal, headstrong young woman into a supporter of the Nazis, turning her eyes away from the increasingly flagrant injustices against the Jews.

Through Irmina, Yelin shows how many Germans came to enable the Third Reich through silence, as well as indirectly through standing with loved ones like Irmina’s SS officer husband, and the cost that complicity wrought upon their psyche in the post-war years. She doesn’t make excuses for people like her grandmother, instead succeeding in making her life choices understandable, even relatable, given the difficult time.

The story certainly has the air of tragedy about it though, that a once-promising student who could’ve been anything became who she did after choosing the path of fascism, particularly contrasted with Howard, who made such positive differences with his life through more progressive efforts. Yelin further highlights Irmina’s passivity by making her namesake, Howard’s daughter, a soprano who makes her living with her voice, compared to Irmina herself, who chose to silence her voice by not speaking up against the Nazis.

Yelin’s scratchy art is the only aspect of the book I wasn’t very taken with. Otherwise, I found the book to be a very well written, gripping and oftentimes powerfully moving read with several moments of tangible poignancy. A very good, artful and important comic that vividly connects the reader to the past, Irmina both entertains and enlightens.

[Dave Schaafsma · Rating 4 out of 5]

Yelin, a Munich-based illustrator, finds a box of letters and a diary after her grandmother's death and we are off: Irmina is a fictionalized biography of said grandma, told in three parts with different watercolor schemes to fit the different tones of the sections. In the first she is studying and working in London to be a typist/clerk, in 1934. She's not political in the least, which is evident when she meets and falls in love with Howard, from Barbados, the first black man to attend Oxford. In this section she is fiercely independent, but likes this guy who can get in trouble having a relationship with a white woman.

In the second section Irmina has to go back to Germany, as Naziism ramps up and her parents can't send her money anymore, and then out of almost necessity she marries an SS Guard (!). (And we were just beginning to like her a little!!) But we see how it could have happened, financial burdens, social pressures. But she becomes a Nazi. Her husband is killed in the war, and she becomes a school administrative assistant for decades, until she gets a letter from Howard, who invites her to Barbados, where he is now governor.

In the third section we have the meeting of Howard and Irmina, and we get to reflect on how we can't escape politics, and shouldn't escape love. Overall, this is a complex and sad story, beautifully rendered in ink and watercolor, in a thankfully large format so we can more fully experience the story. It's a novel about a real person, not someone who easily fits into a category. We like her, we admire her a bit, but she has faults, even deep flaws, and so on. She could be us. She is us. You really live in her story, which I read in one sitting, in spite of the 271 page length. Irmina is a gorgeous and somewhat disturbingly haunting graphic novel of how one can become part of something so horrific and try to distance oneself from it at the same time.

Reminds me a bit of of Jason Lutes's Berlin graphic novel series, and also The Book Thief, stories that expand your idea of Germany in the Nazi regime, to look at how "normal" Germans got conscripted by a crazy guy and a kind of right-wing "movement" to buy into his fascist scheme.

[Whitney Atkinson · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 Stars

I tried typing this review in German but I got stuck after the first sentence because it's hard to formulate my complex emotions about this book in another language that I can only write at the level of a 10 year old in lol. So I really enjoyed the beginning of this book. Irmina was a great character who I could relate to, I liked seeing historical England, and her relationship with Howard was really meaningful and powerful. However, near the middle of this book, she goes back to Nazi Germany and just.... stops caring. The total shift of her personality from someone who hated being stereotyped a Nazi to actually sympathizing with them was just really shocking to me and I couldn't quite forgive her for the shift she underwent. At the end, there's just a massive skip in time, and this book didn't go the direction I wanted it to and I ended up really annoyed and angry with the main character. Idk, i'm just so conflicted. Read the first half of this story and throw the rest away.

[Dov Zeller · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a gorgeous. engaging and troubling book. A biography of sorts of the author's grandmother, who, as a young adult, wanted nothing more than to live in a world that supported her industry and independence. One might look at her and think she is "a person ahead of her time." And yet, she only wants to fight that which directly gets in the way of her own goals. The women who paved the way for her particular struggle are little acknowledged by her, and she uncritically takes in propaganda, particularly German propaganda that dehumanizes so many people in order to raise up some fictional idealized "normal" German. She considers herself to be one of the "normal" ones and her complicity in crimes against "non normal" people becomes more and more frightful as the story progresses.

The book is broken up into three sections each with a unique color palate, but the mood of the art, its beauty and care for emotional and social architecture is quietly provocative and close to breath-taking.

In the first section Irmina goes to London to study to be a typist. She's determined to be independent, and struggles against cultural pressures that undermine female autonomy. She shows defiance in the face of economic hardship and British caste systems. But she defends Germany when confronted--by hr British community--with the intensifying horrors as Hitler gains power and momentum.

Soon Irmina gets romantically involved with a black Oxford student from Barbados. She doesn't seem to have a conscious, philosophical sense of his challenges or her own. On one hand, I think she wants to live in a world where their love is accepted and honored, but she doesn't seem interested in the larger picture, the complexities or politics of injustice that threaten their relationship and their well-being. She does not connect their experiences with larger historical conflicts and systems of oppression. She is willing to butt heads with a system that doesn't give her access to what she wants...but only in the exact place where it affects her, and only to a point.

In part two, when Irmina's dreams come in conflict with the harsher realities of war time, she lets the dreams go and focuses on her own comfort. She closes herself off to her friends and dismisses their concern and pain. She threatens (that might be a bit of a strong word, but she presents it as an action she considers to be appropriate) to turn people in for showing vulnerability (having compassion for those being murdered) and those who are worried for their loved ones on the front lines. She considers it to be weakness and anti-nationalistic.

It's a lot to take in, reading this now, in a historical moment so haunted again (still) by Hitler and nazism. So often we offer our complicity in harmful systems and the lines between victim and perpetrator can be blurry and endlessly tangled. This book seeks to understand how a person who, in her youth, had some anti-establishment sentiments, winds up supporting very dangerous establishment views and in her way supporting the nazi regime itself. At the end of the book, the melancholy and somewhat heart-breaking part three, Irmina is aging and seems disconnected from herself emotionally, and from her family. It's as if she's left quite a bit of herself behind when she made certain choices (i.e. to become a nazi sympathizer)...She travels to see her old love and the journey (internal and external) is painful and sad and beautifully provocative and I'm still thinking about it. There is no 'happily ever after' here. Irmina doesn't get to 'discover herself', certainly not in any way she might have hoped. This is, I think, a nice antidote to the kind of stories in which people go to 'exotic' places and narrativize these encounters as a way of 'finding' themselves. Though she does, in a way, discover, while there, a sense of loss or longing. I'm not sure whether this is the thing that makes the story so strong, or something that undermines it a little (too neatly sews up the loose ends.)

[Jon Nakapalau · Rating 5 out of 5]

The sad story of a young woman who was just finding herself only to be lost in war. The choices that we all make in our day to day existence become the hidden history behind every social movement...and after events that shape the world have lost momentum we must all reflect on the role our choices made in making us who we are.

[Paul Secor · Rating 4.5 out of 5]

A well illustrated and well written novel. What I took away from reading it is that countries, governments, politics, and social systems separate people and that it's in the best interests of those who are in control of those entities to do so, even though people are more important than any or all of those entities.
I was annoyed to read Alexander Korb's afterward, even though Barbara Yellin in her introduction urges her readers to do so. Everything that a reader needs to know is already in the book. I find it interesting that while Korb focuses on Irmina's time in Germany after she leaves England, he makes little or no mention of the racism and oppressive class system that was (and is) found in England. Look at your own backyard too, sir.
I also found it annoying that he referred to Irmina as a "comic book". If that's so, I would submit that his afterward is pretentious, academic twaddle.
I've spent too much space writing about the afterward. Please read the book. Everything you need to know is there. Skip the afterward.

[Raina · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm noticing a trend. At least, I think I'm noticing a trend.
I've noticed a few - no, a trickle of books about the Holocaust from the perspective of Germans who were bystanders. Not directly controlling events. Not underground railroading the targets. Not targeted for concentration camps themselves.
Just living their lives alongside the horror.

"Just" seems like the wrong word.

Irmina is about a light-skinned woman named, well, Irmina. We meet her on a boat, headed to London from her native Germany, headed there in order to learn how to be a secretary/typist/working woman of the era. While in London, she meets a black guy. They fall into a bit of a relationship and then Irmina finds herself headed back to Germany.
I don't usually go into even that much of a summary of the books I review, but I find this book interesting and memorable and worthy of note specifically because of what happens next.
She becomes a bystander.
Although she was someone who defended and aligned herself with an "other" in London, in Germany she engages in no such human rights advocacy.
Why does she stand by?
Is it because she is cowed by the power of the third reich?
Is it because she fell in love with the person she married?
Is it because she was less comfortable resisting injustice in her native land than she had been in a foreign setting?
All of these things are worth thinking about in the current era. How do I handle living life in a nation that is moving in a direction I don't support? What will I do when I witness injustice close to home?

The book is based on the letters and writings of the author's grandmother, which might be why some of the motivations of the character are left inscrutable.
In addition to its value as an unusually recorded story and relevant and powerful and thought-provoking, it's also a beautiful piece of art. Full color illustrations, a variety of layouts on the pages, a beautifully produced physical book.

[Banu Yıldıran Genç · Rating 4 out of 5]

sevgili arkadaşım bürkem’den harika bir grafik roman daha ödünç aldım.
hani uzunca zamandır konuşuyoruz ya, hele şu son 3 yıldır gözümüzün önünde cereyan eden israil filistin savaşından sonra, görmedim bilmiyordum demek mümkün değil, 2. dünya savaşı’nda bu nasıl oldu, almanlar yahudilere yapılanlara nasıl gözlerini kapattı diye…
işte “irmina” bize tam da düşündüğümüz gibi olduğunu anlatıyor. barbara yelin büyükannesinin ardından bulduğu özel eşyalardan sonra bu grafik romanı yazmış. kitabın sonunda sonsöz niyetine de 2. dünya savaşı’nda kadına dair çok güzel bir makale var.
irmina 1930’larda ingiltere’ye eğitim için gidiyor, sekreterlik okulu. orada yaşadığı 3-5 yılda hem ingilizlerin almanlara önyargısını okuyoruz hem de sömürgecilik tarihlerini. hitler’i sordukları irmina’dan aldıkları cevap aynı: beni ilgilendirmiyor. zamanla kendine güvenen ve barbados’lu siyahi howard’la güzel bir aşka yelken açan irmina ne yazık ki değişen ve sertleşen döviz koşulları yüzünden ülkesine geri dönüyor.
ve 2. dünya savaşı ve ingiltere’ye geri dönmek üzere çalışan irmina’nın dönemeyişi ve ingiltere’de bulunduğu sırada howard sayesinde kazandığı objektif bakış açısının yavaş yavaş kocasının da hitlerci olması dolayısıyla değişmesi, bir süre sonra yahudiler hakkında herkesle aynı şeyi düşünmesi gibi olaylara şahit oluyoruz. işte o günleri anlatmayan, bilmiyordum diyen almanların seçtiği şey buydu aslında. bilmemeyi seçtiler.
bu karanlık günler sonrası irmina yaşlılığında o tipik alman disipliniyle çalışırken bağımsızlığını kazanmış barbados’tan bir davet alır, howard onu bulmuştur. orada hayatının en güzel günlerini geçiren irmina bir yerden sonra howard’ın ailesine anlattığı o idealist, hümanist kadın olmadığını anlıyor. çünkü şartlar herkesi değiştirir.
valla ben artık dünyada kimsenin bilmiyordum deme lüksünün olduğunu düşünmüyorum. biliyoruz ve hiçbir şey yapamadık, bu kadar.
karakalem ya da kuruboyayla çizilen resimlere özellikle bayıldım. hikayenin gidişatına göre renk seçimi, detaylar müthişti. kuruboyayla yaratılan mucizeye inanamadım hatta.

[Rachel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Yelin's Irmina is a sobering story inspired by the life of real individuals, and runs as thus. In the 1930's, the young German woman Irmina makes her way to England to find her independence. There she meets Howard, a studious, kindly gentleman. Both are outcasts in society's eyes, her for being a working woman and German, and him for being black and for studying at a prestigious university, and it is because of this shared status they form a bond. But when a series of unfortunate events beset Irmina, she is forced to return to her home, and she is never able to return to England because of war. Circumstances change, she changes, and she comes to accept her life, and to some degree the Nazi rhetoric. Pastels are the perfect medium for exploring this story, the history, and the themes of equality, independence, and support. Their dark sketchy quality establishes a strong sense of atmosphere, and their ability to create sharp contrast between the lighting and shadows gives an edge to character emotions. By ending the story with Irmina's and Howard's reunion, we really see the kind of life Irmina missed out on. However, it is unsurprising because that "what if" feeling permeates almost three quarters of the book. Irmina was an intelligent woman who fell in love with black man at a time where that was frowned upon, and to see her lose her spark, to see her fall to rhetoric, and to see her become cold and hard is heartbreaking. Howard, on the other hand, we can feel some degree of happiness for. He lived up to his potential, but even he seems to think about the "what if". Irmina is not a happy tale, it is a tale of life during hard times which asks us to think hard about the ordinary people who lived back then, and, why they might have accepted the horrible things that were happening around them. This is a timely reminder of why we must fight against intolerance.

[Eva · Rating 5 out of 5]

'Leef je volgens je eigen keuzes of worden keuzes voor je gemaakt?' Daarover gaat deze beeldroman. De Duitse Irmina reist in 1934 naar Londen om een opleiding tot internationaal secretaresse te volgen. Ze weet wat ze wil: een zelfstandige vrouw zijn, een opleiding volgen en eigenlijk had ze willen studeren. Het is een moeilijke tijd. In Duitsland komt Hitler aan de macht en Irmina wordt door iedereen in Londen continu geconfronteerd met de politieke veranderingen in haar thuisland. Omdat ze daarnaast een bijzonder stug meisje is, maakt ze niet makkelijk vrienden. Ze is eenzaam en ontmoet dan Howard, een van de eerste zwarte studenten in Oxford. Ze worden verliefd en hopen op een leven samen, maar dat is niet wat het leven voor hen in petto heeft.

Irmina keert terug naar Duitsland. Ze begint als eigenzinnige sympathieke vrouw, maar langzamerhand behoort ze steeds meer tot de zwijgende meerderheid van Duitsers die het naziregime goedkeurt. Hoe kan dat, vraag je je af als lezer. Is dat het lot? Zijn het de keuzes die je maakt? Die zwijgende meerderheid bestaat niet uit monsters die de jodenvervolging volhartig goedkeurden. In het geval van Irmina steekt ze vooral haar kop in het zand en is gepreoccuppeerd door haar eigen problemen.

Het verhaal maakt vooral duidelijk dat het niet zwart wit is. En zeker niet eenvoudig. Ondanks alles voel je mee met Irmina. Ik hoop meer te lezen van Barbara Yelin.

Prachtig verhaal, echt een aanrader!

[Patricia · Rating 5 out of 5]

While visiting my public library, I found this gem on the new book shelf. An excellent graphic novel. Beautifully presented and author Barbara Yelsin tells the story of her grandmother during WWII in Berlin. The story is based on her grandmother's letters and diaries. An excellent perspective of German life during the rise and fall of the Third Reich.
Highly recommend.

[Moira Macfarlane · Rating 5 out of 5]

‘Leef je volgens je eigen keuzes of worden die keuzes voor je gemaakt?’ Deze indringende vraag is de eerste die je treft als je de achterkant van het boek leest, een vraag die Barbara Yelin bezighoudt na het vinden van een doos dagboeken en brieven in de nalatenschap van haar oma. Deze vondst inspireerde haar om deze, bijna 300 bladzijden tellende, striproman over Irmina te maken, een jonge Duitse vrouw, om via haar een beeld te schetsen van de zwijgende generatie Duitsers die de Tweede Wereldoorlog meemaakten.

1934 London, dat is waar het verhaal van Irmina begint. Irmina is dan een jonge vrouw van 19 uit een welgesteld gezin die via een uitwisseling een opleiding aan een handelsschool voor meisjes in Londen volgt. Ze is jong en wil vrij zijn, droomt ervan de wereld over te reizen en een eigen leven op te bouwen, maar tegelijkertijd staat de tijdgeest en haar karakter haar in de weg. Ze is streng op het stugge af, stil en serieus staat ze in het leven. Irmina heeft het in Londen niet makkelijk en in haar eenzaamheid ontmoet ze Howard Green, een van de eerste zwarte studenten van Oxford, samen delen ze het buiten de groep staan en ontwikkelen een hechte vriendschap. Howards leven zorgt voor een tweede verhaallijn die op de achtergrond aanwezig blijft en een tegenwicht biedt aan de keuzes die Irmina heeft gemaakt. Keuzes die niet per se onlogisch zijn, maar ook anders genomen hadden kunnen worden. Uiteindelijk vult een mens zijn leven vaak in aan de hand van grote persoonlijke gebeurtenissen als een huwelijk, het krijgen van een kind en simpel weg de wil om te overleven.

1935 Berlijn. In mooie, ietwat melancholieke tekeningen schetst Yelin het decor van het leven van Irmina, langzaam laat ze de tijdgeest tot leven komen door veel aandacht te besteden aan details als het straatbeeld, etiquette en de positie van de vrouw in die jaren. Yelin kiest ervoor om de naderende oorlog louter door de ogen van Irmina te laten beleven, haar wil om vrij te zijn staat in een schril contrast met wat het Duitse Rijk van een vrouw verwacht (de NS-Frauenschaft leerde vrouwen vanaf 15 jaar zich dienstbaar te maken als moeders en echtgenotes). Irmina is niet alleen een verhaal over Duitse vrouwen en hun positie tijdens de jaren 30 en 40, maar laat ook de geschiedenis van de zwijgende massa zien. Hoe kan het vervolgen en vernietigen van zoveel Joden vlak onder al die ogen gebeuren? Het is een vraag waarop meerdere antwoorden mogelijk zijn, antwoorden die dit boek niet rechtstreeks aanreikt, maar wel alle ruimte geeft daarover na te denken.

Barbara Yelin, geboren in 1977 in München, studeerde illustratie aan de Hochschule für Angewandte Wissenschaften in Hamburg. Ongeveer 12 jaar lang tekent en publiceert ze al stripromans, waaronder ook biografieën over Albert Dürer en Vincent van Gogh. Met Irmina maakt ze (terecht) indruk, dit indringende portret, getekend alsof je door de herinneringen in Irmina’s hoofd bladert, heeft Yelin de Max & Moritz prijs 2016 voor beste Duitse stripauteur gewonnen. Het is een roman die veel mensen zal weten te raken, historisch goed onderbouwd en door het verbeelden is de sfeer van de tijd nog tastbaarder geworden en daarmee ook heel geschikt voor jongeren. Het boek heeft alles wat een boek mooi maakt. Prachtige subtiel ingekleurde tekeningen, een verhaal dat je meeneemt het leven van Irmina in, waarin er dromen waren, romantiek en een harde werkelijkheid van een leven in oorlogstijd.

Geschreven voor Hebban: https://www.hebban.nl/recensies/moira...

[Laurence · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ontzettend mooi getekende graphic novel, de mooiste die ik al gelezen heb. Het verhaal vertelt over een Duitse vrouw (vooral) tijdens WOII en hoe ze meedraait in het systeem. Het siert dit boek dat het nooit dramatisch of sentimenteel wordt, en dat het zo de belangrijke vraag in hoeverre alles de verantwoordelijkheid van elke mens apart is geloofwaardig aan bod brengt. En vooral: kan je helemaal uitsluiten dat je zelf ook zo zou handelen als je, net zoals Irmina, gewoon je eigen leven wil leiden? De enkele keren dat het boek toch een sterkere emotie toelaat (het einde bijvoorbeeld), dan breekt je hart gewoon mee - de expressieve tekenstijl is daar uiteraard ook medeverantwoordelijk voor. Bijzonder knap boek.

[LN · Rating 4 out of 5]

Representation: Black character
Trigger warnings: Fire, World War Two, military violence and war themes, racism, antisemitism, physical illness, death of a husband
Score: Seven points out of ten.
Find this review on The StoryGraph.

I saw Irmina as a new library arrival so I immediately wanted to read it. I glanced at the blurb which made me think it would be a heavy yet intriguing read. Afterward, I checked the high ratings and reviews so I headed in with high expectations. I soon read it, and when I finished it, I found it an enjoyable read.

It starts with the titular character, Irmina, moving to England from Germany where she comes across another person named Howard Green, one of the first Black students at the University of Oxford. It only took around 800 years. However, Howard's experience in England felt inauthentic as the author is dissimilar to him. They start a platonic relationship which lasts the opening pages when Irmina had to return to Germany since her funds stopped transferring. Back in Germany, I saw the chilling rise of fascism as Irmina had to start a deep relationship with another character, George. The narrative quickens its pace from here as Irmina has her first child. Here's the thing: how could Irmina be so defiant in England by starting a relationship with another person not of her race but blend in and do nothing rebellious in Germany? That is a question with no answer yet. The author sets part three of the story in Barbados, forty years from part two as Irmina meets Howard again, concluding it on a high note.

[Lio · Rating 4 out of 5]

'Irmina' is a fictionalised biography of the author's grandmother, and it's a fascinating and rather different look than I expected at the Nazi era. Irmina is a German working and training in London a few years before World War Two, at the rise of the Nazi party. She meets Howard, the first black man to attend Oxford University, and their differing backgrounds, aspirations and motivations are a large foundation for their friendship-almost-relationship, and also their separation. It's told in three parts, in beautifully drawn pages, with many stunning 2-page spreads of city scenes. The whole graphic novel is drawn in a messy but enchantingly detailed style, coloured in melancholic greys and browns that mirror Irmina's mood throughout, but for one specific colour in each part (Part 1: blue, 2: red, three: green) which really highlight certain things, and like with the red in part 2, have some scary connotations about what Irmina is choosing to ignore.

The story though, started well, with strong scenes and dialogue that really allowed me to get a feel for the characters and their attitudes and emotions. Yelin is very good at drawing facial expressions and presenting moods in her scenery. I really enjoyed the first part and had high hopes for the rest of the story. However, I did feel a bit let down by later parts. They felt rushed and more summarised, with large time-skips and less obvious character development through certain events or interactions, and instead more through a sense of the years piling on and the mood gradually sinking into a kind of bitterness. The later parts were much more specifically about the political changes going on in Germany and through the war, than character development and interaction. As important as the historical context is, I'm not sure it should have been prioritised so much over story and characters, but needed to be blended more. There are glimpses of the horrors happening in Berlin to Jewish shopkeepers, the propaganda, the rumours and ignored knowledge of what was really happening. And these are important and valuable, but I think the heavy focus on trying to show what was going on while Irmina tried to ignore it and protect her son from it made the story suffer in terms of its characterisation and scene-crafting. I wanted to know more about how Irmina got together with her husband when they didn't seem to have much of a connection to each other, and more about her relationship with her son and friend. I also wanted some kind of parallel of what Howard was experiencing or thinking during part 2, from the perspective of someone with very different goals in life, but still living in places where what was going on in Germany during the war was very relevant. Really, I think I just wanted to know more about Howard, full-stop. I think, in a sort of life-being-wasted way, the rushed-ness sort of worked, as it reflects Irmina's mood well, but it took the rich story and character development established in the first part and then became more vague. I definitely just wanted more in there and felt the second and third parts were weaker in comparison to the first part because of that.

I liked what the ending tried to achieve though, and the contrast of Howard's happy old age to Irmina's bitter and depressed one, and how realistic it felt that Irmina would believe that meeting Howard again might change her life somehow. That strong sense of regret felt very true to her, and true to the story-seeking people we are: we want to live happy endings, and for things to have happened or been lost for a purpose, for life not to pick up briefly and then to go back to its regular ennui, we want to be changed and we want to feel, especially if we've not allowed ourselves to feel for a long time. And this graphic novel certainly carries a weight of those complex emotions with it. It's an unusual look at the life of ordinary Germans during a complicated time, and the conflicts and regrets that come with hindsight.

The commentary and analysis at the end of the graphic novel is also important to read, I think. It analyses some of the scenes and draws out details that I certainly missed, and added more to the historical context and intended characterisation of Irmina, as well as expounding a little on the source material that this story is based on.

It's really the artwork that stands out for me though. It's a truly beautiful graphic novel, with a lot of care gone into not only telling a story in pictures, but filling it with history and atmosphere and so many details you'll probably notice something new every time you read it. The cover itself is beautiful, too, and wonderfully conveys that comparison between the life Irmina could have had, and then did have, with the reflection showing the darker realities of Irmina's life. It's not something immediately noticable, but it's clever artistic layouts like that and the little emotional nuances that go with them that really show how talented Yelin is as an artist.

[Rebecca · Rating 4 out of 5]

(Nearly 4.5) Irmina is one of the most visually stunning graphic novels I’ve ever come across. Not only that, but it’s based on a fascinating family story: after her grandmother’s death Yelin, a Munich-based artist, found a box of diaries and letters that told the story of a budding love affair that was not to be and charted a young woman’s gradual capitulation to Nazi ideology. How could her grandmother go from being a brave rule-breaker to a cowed regime supporter in just a few short years, she wondered? This fictionalized biography is her attempt to reconcile the ironies and hard facts of her ancestor’s life.

In 1934 Irmina von Behdinger arrives in London for a cultural exchange, attending a commercial school to train as a typist. One night she accompanies a friend to a fancy party and meets Howard, a young Barbados native she initially assumes to be a bartender. It turns out he actually has a scholarship to study law at Oxford. He’s learned, dignified and charming, and soon he and Irmina begin spending a lot of time together. Although she wishes she, too, could study at a proper university, women’s education is not valued in Germany.

Irmina and Howard’s carefree explorations of Oxford and London contrast with the increasingly bleak news coming from Germany about Hitler and his treatment of Jews. As her host family decries Nazism, Irmina tries to protest: “they are not MY Germans … this is politics! It doesn’t affect the average person.” She dreams of being an independent working woman and pursuing a relationship with Howard, but a change in her financial circumstances means she has to go back to Stuttgart instead. Promising to return to England as soon as she can raise some money, Irmina bids farewell to Howard at Portsmouth harbor in April 1935.

Back in Germany, she finds a translation job with the Ministry of War, hoping desperately to be transferred to the German consulate in London once she proves herself. But as the years pass and German relations with the rest of Europe grow strained, her dream seems increasingly unlikely. Having recently lost touch with Howard, she meets Gregor Meinrich, an architect for the SS, and gives up work when they marry and have a son. With the rare exception of a shocking event like Kristallnacht, it’s all too easy to ignore what’s happening to the nation’s Jews and absorb the propaganda that says they have earned their misfortune.

The novel is in three parts: London, Berlin and Barbados – Irmina gets a brief, late chance to see what her life might have been like with Howard. Yelin’s usual palette is muted and melancholy: grays, charcoal, slate blue, browns and flesh tones. However, in each section she chooses one signature color that adds symbolic flashes of life. For London it’s the bright blue of Irmina’s scarf, mirrored in Oxford’s sky and river, as well as in the occasional shopfront and lady’s dress.

In Berlin the red of the Nazi flag crops up in lipstick, dress patterns, flowers, wine and the décor of a ballroom. In the most poignant scene of all, though, red is equated with the spilling of Jewish blood. As a friend discusses what she doesn’t want to hear – “they’re taking them all to the East now, where they kill them” – Irmina is getting a jar of berry preserves down from a high shelf and drops it, spattering scarlet everywhere. On the other hand, to evoke the calm and natural beauty of 1980s Barbados, the featured hue is a seafoam green.

I was particularly impressed with the two-page spreads showing city scenes. They range from Impressionist fog to Modernist detail, reminding me of everything from Monet to Modigliani. Although the artwork stands out a bit more than the story, this still strikes me as a fresh look at the lives of ordinary Germans who were kept in the dark (by themselves and others) about Hitler’s activities. In an afterword, Dr. Alexander Korb, Director of the University of Leicester’s Stanley Burton Centre for Holocaust and Genocide Studies, reflects on Irmina’s motivation:

Irmina had a full range of possibilities. Yet the fact that she chose the Nazi path from the wide variety in front of her, encompassing feminism, internationality and individuality, makes her story typical of this time. It was just as typical that she failed to find happiness in fascism, like millions of others.

For the out-of-the-ordinary window onto Third Reich history and the excellent illustrations, I highly recommend Irmina to graphic novel lovers and newbies alike.

With thanks to the publisher, SelfMadeHero, for the free copy.

Originally published with images at my blog, Bookish Beck.

[Irene · Rating 4 out of 5]

'Leef je volgens je eigen keuzes of worden keuzes voor je gemaakt?'

De ambitieuze en beetje eigenwijze Duitse Irmina reist in 1934 als 19-jarige naar Londen voor een opleiding tot internationaal secretaresse. Ze wil vrij zijn, studeren, haar eigen geld verdienen en haar eigen leven opbouwen. Ze is stil, serieus en soms zelfs streng. Een jonge vrouw die 'iemand' wil worden. Een jonge vrouw die weet wat ze wil.

In Londen leert ze Howard kennen, één van de eerste zwarte studenten in Oxford. Net als zij staat hij buiten de groep en ze ontwikkelen een hechte vriendschap. In die tijd komt Hitler aan de macht en ze wordt regelmatig geconfronteerd met de politieke veranderingen in Duitsland. Het naziregime duikt op waardoor ze haar dromen minder makkelijk na kan jagen. Ze keert terug naar Duitsland, huwt een SS'er en krijgt een kind. Maar hoe ga je verder in oorlogstijd? Eerst was ze nog redelijk sympathiek, maar langzaamaan behoort ze steeds meer tot de stille massa Duisters die het naziregime navolgen en goedkeuren.
Het leven van Howard is een tweede verhaallijn die heel licht op de achtergrond nog aanwezig is. Hij is er niet, maar toch ook wel. Levens lopen anders door de keuzes die je maakt, begrijpelijk of onbegrijpelijk. Uiteindelijk laat je je soms toch leiden door een huwelijk, het krijgen van kinderen, maar in dit geval ook de oorlog waardoor overleven belangrijker lijkt dan het maken van goede keuzes.

Deze graphic novel is niet alleen een verhaal over een vrouw in oorlogstijd. Dit is ook het verhaal van een massa zwijgende mensen in oorlogstijd. Miljoenen mensen zijn omgekomen in deze gruwelijke oorlog onder de ogen van zwijgende mensen. Een boek wat stof tot nadenken geeft.
De eerste keer dat ik een graphic novel las, maar het is goed bevallen. Er is grondig onderzoek gedaan naar de geschiedenis en juist door de illustraties is de sfeer heel tastbaar. Knap hoe je een verhaal zo mooi over kan brengen met beeld en tekst. Een verhaal over liefde, dromen, keuzes, oorlog en vooral de harde werkelijkheid. Een compleet, indringend verhaal over een vrouw die een SS'er trouwt en het op zich goed heeft in vergelijking met andere mensen. Op haar manier heeft zij het ook niet goed, maar hoe verklaar je dat zij haar kop soms in het zand steekt? Dit boek deed mij ook beseffen dat ik helemaal niet veel weet over de Tweede Wereldoorlog en Duitse inwoners op dat moment.

[Maricruz · Rating 3 out of 5]

Quería entender a Irmina y solo acabé odiándola un poco.

[Martin · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don't know how they do it, but most of SelfMadeHero's publications are a hit with me and so is one of their most recent publications Irmina. Irmina is a young German lady that moves to London in the mid 1930's to work on a better future. At a cocktail party she meets Howard Green, who is one of the first black students in Oxford. The two immediately bond. However what could have been a perfect love story ends quite abruptly as Irmina has to move back to Germany. She finds work in Berlin, but she promises herself to move back to London soon again to see Howard. As Hitler gains more power, contact with Howard is broken and Irmina's hope of going back to London is reduced each day, and she decides to follow another path. Will she still realise the ambitions she had when back in London, or will she betray her ideals?

This graphic novel touches on quite a delicate subject and is now more actual than ever. If you want to read a graphic novel about war time in Germany from the perspective of a young German lady struggling with her choices to either accept, be complicit of, or to look away from what is happening around her, do pick this up!

[Elizabeth A · Rating 4 out of 5]

I actually think the less you know going into this graphic novel the better, so I'll keep my comments to a minimum.

The author finds a cache of letters and journals that her Grandmother kept, and creates a fictionalized biography based on that material. The story unfolds over three sections, and the major action occurs in the mid-1930s in London and Germany. The art while not as polished and finished as some, wonderfully evokes the right mood for each of the sections.

I am always fascinated to read stories told from the German point of view, and while it is easy to judge others harshly, until we walk in their shoes we don't really know how we might act. Especially if our options are limited, and one is a woman. After all, would your late teen/early twenty year old self even begin to comprehend the person you are today?

This graphic novel explores the tension between integrity and social advancement, and is rather pertinent to our times.

[Katy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was such a beautifully illustrated graphic novel (the book itself too was beautiful; hard cover, smooth pages; I loved it). There were so many images on one page--sometimes up to eight panels! I have no idea how long this must have taken. Also a very good book to read due to the political situation we are in right now. It inspired me to keep questioning myself and pushing myself not to be just "a normal American."

[Marijana☕✨ · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tužno i životno istinito, primenjivo u svakom vremenu, nevezano za istorijski kontekst.

[Emily · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this in German but it was recently translated into English, too. I liked the author's artwork here better than any graphic novel I've ever read--beautiful little vignettes and double-page spreads evoking London, Berlin, and the Caribbean at different points in the 20th century. Each period has its own accent color that draws out the mainly grayscale drawings.

The reason you should read the book, though, its is topicality. The author based it on her grandmother's letters and diaries, which reveal how she lived in London as a young German woman in the 1930s--falling in love with a Barbadian student--before returning to Germany and marrying an SS officer. Irmina's imperfections, which are relatable early in the book, trouble and alienate the reader as we see her fail to act or even ask questions about her country's fall into war and genocide. Irmina appears convinced that she deserves a certain kind of life and is frustrated that international events prevent her from achieving it; she is already shirking responsibility in the mid-1930s, insisting to Londoners that Hitler does not represent Germany. As the wartime situation closes around her, Irmina's compromises, which were never deliberate, start to seem oblivious.

I think this has some pacing issues in the last third and it provoked questions about Irmina's life that it doesn't answer (in particular, I'd like to know more about her romance with Gregor, and why she married him). I assume this is because of the spotty nature of the source material.

I highly recommend this book--a thought-provoking read on your own and a great one for a book club.

[Els Deveuster · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ik pikte deze graphic novel op als leestip van een vriendin. Het is de eerst graphic novel dat ik las. Wat is me dat goed meegevallen. Het verhaal sprak mij erg aan, ik lees wel graag over de tweede wereldoorlog. Prachtige tekeningen illustreren dit verhaal. We volgen het levensverhaal van een Duitse vrouw. Een jonge vrouw met dromen, die "iemand" wilde worden. Het naziregime duikt op, ze kan haar dromen niet meer najagen, huwt en krijgt een kind en de oorlog breekt uit.
Een meeslepend verhaal over keuzes die je al dan niet maakt.
In een nawoord wordt duiding gemaakt bij dit verhaal. Heel interessant ! Een aanrader !

[Derek Royal · Rating 4 out of 5]

A friend and listener of the podcast recommend that I read this book, and I wanted to do so not only because of his suggestion, but also because we're about to begin a new monthly series on The Comics Alternative devoted to European albums or bandes dessinées. This will be one of the books that inaugurates that series.

That episode can be found at http://comicsalternative.com/euro-com....

[Lata · Rating 3 out of 5]

I can't write anything else but that I'm so angry.

[Dorien · Rating 4 out of 5]

4,5/5.
Prachtig uitgewerkt verhaal. Prachtige tekeningen.
5 sterren voor de eerste helft van het boek, 4 voor de tweede helft.

[Vivone Os · Rating 4 out of 5]

Globalni ciljevi: ženski autor

Ovaj sam strip posudila od prijateljice još prije par mjeseci, ni ne sjećam se više što me njemu privuklo. Ovih dana sam pretraživala policu s planom da do kraja godine barem probam pročitati sve što imam od nekog posuđeno pa je i on došao na red.
I baš me ugodno iznenadio. Radnja se odvija u rasponu od 50-ak godina, prije 2. svjetskog rata, za vrijeme rata i 40 godina poslije rata. Pratimo mladu Njemicu i njeno suočavanje s predrasudama u prijeratnoj Engleskoj, a kasnije konformizam i prešutno prihvaćanje Hitlerovog režima (jer je bilo lakše prepustiti se, zato se po mom mišljenju i udala za Gregora) te život u bijedi jer se “našu veliku zemlju moramo žrtvovati”. Nisam zapravo nikad razmišljala o tome kako su “obični” Nijemci živjeli za vrijeme 2. sv. rata, o čemu su razmišljali, jesu li se slagali s nacističkom politikom. Ovaj me strip baš potaknuo na razmišljanje o toj tematici.
Ilustracije mi nisu lijepe, ali su zaista odlično dočarale tu prijeratnu i ratnu atmosferu te odnose i emocije likova. Voljela bih pročitati još koji strip ove autorice.

[emre · Rating 2 out of 5]

kitapçıda ayaküstü okudum. çizimler harika, öyküyü beğenmedim, karakterin neyi neden yaptığını asla anlamadım.

[Koen Claeys · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dit is een beeldroman over de impact van het naziregime op een Duitse vrouw, over keuzes die men maakt of niet kan maken. Het verhaal heeft me geraakt. Een uitzonderlijke strip zoals er maar weinig gemaakt worden. Prachtig uitgegeven hardcover.