Christophe Gallaz

Heartbreaking, stark, focusing on the lack of empathy, actions of brutality of the Nazi occupation, and terror at the hands of soldiers who follow directions, without feeling from their soul.

Rose Blanche is based on the life of the author. In this story, Rose notices the tanks that hurry through what was a quiet, calm hometown. One day she witnesses a little boy who is taken abruptly by the Nazi soldiers.

Following him, she discovers him in a concentration camp located through the woods. She show more finds him and she bravely provides bread to him through the wire. While the book does not say that Rose is killed in helping him, the image of shots ringing out and Rose Blanche never returning to her home, lets the reader no that her assistance and caring cost her life.

This is an incredibly powerful book. show less

Rose Blanche lives in a small town in Germany. She notices that her town has become full of soldiers and trucks. One day she decides to follow one of the trucks into a forest until she stumbles upon something terrible. This story is about the Holocaust from the point of view of a young German girl. The illustrations in this book are incredibly detailed and moving. I found the story to be sad. I think it would be very hand navigating introducing a book like this to elementary students. show more Although I enjoyed this book, I don’t think I would use it to introduce the Holocaust to young students. show less

Rose Blanche is an interesting and fascinating look at WW2 and the abdication of Jews and the Holocaust seen from the eyes and perspective of a young German girl. Rose sees the war as a child would, without subjective influence and through a child's eyes. She ventures out amongst the forest to follow a truck taking a young boy and others to a concentration camp, and in horror spends the rest of the war helping to feed the survivors of the camp secretly. The book in a short time takes us show more through the beginning and end of the war with stunning detail as if you were a witness to it yourself. What I find fascinating is how accurate it pictures the speed to which these atrocities were occurring and how a it takes a child to see how horrendous and evil humans can become. It also plays to the history of the White Rose, an underground german resistance movement made up of German university students actively opposing the Nazi regime at home. show less

This heart-wrenching tale takes us back into the era of the worst genocide in history. A little girl stumbles upon a Nazi Concentration Camp and does her best to help the Jewish prisoners. As World War 2 comes to an end, and the American soldiers come in to clear out the Nazis, the little girl disappears. She tries to go say goodbye to her new friends, but they were gone and there were terrified soldiers everywhere. The little girl was never found. This story introduces the horrific events show more of World War 2 to children without terrifying them before they can understand what is happening. This story would be appropriate for middle school aged students. show less