Yossel, April 19, 1943

by Joe Kubert

Reproduced from Kubet's raw pencil work, this is a tale of inspiring triumph -- of how people deprived of everything rise above the horror and degradation that is their existence and , in a final acto fo defiance and humanity, turn on their oppressors and launch the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising of 1943.

Genres: Graphic Novels, Comics, Historical Fiction, Holocaust, War, Fiction, Historical

128 pages, Hardcover

First published October 21, 2003

About the author

Joe Kubert was a Jewish-American comic book artist who went on to found the Joe Kubert School of Cartoon and Graphic Art. He is best known for his work on the DC Comics characters Sgt. Rock and Hawkman. His sons, Andy Kubert and Adam Kubert, have themselves become successful comic-book artists.

Kubert's other creations include the comic books Tor, Son of Sinbad, and Viking Prince, and, with writer Robin Moore, the comic strip Tales of the Green Beret.

Kubert was inducted into the Harvey Awards' Jack Kirby Hall of Fame in 1997, and Will Eisner Comic Book Hall of Fame in 1998.

Reviews

[Dolceluna ♡ · Rating 4 out of 5]

Scoperto grazie a Goodreads, non ho atteso a cercarlo in biblioteca, visto che coniuga la mia passione per le graphic novels al mio ormai risaputo pallino per le storie ambientate al tempo della Shoah.
Joe Kubert proviene da una famiglia polacca di origine ebraica, sfuggita dalla Polonia negli Stati Uniti poco prima dell’occupazione nazista. Da bambino apprende, tramite il resoconto del viaggio del padre, la terribile situazione del ghetto di Varsavia e si chiede come sarebbe stata la sua vita se i suoi genitori non fossero riusciti ad emigare negli Stati Uniti: questa graphic novel, fusione di autobiografia ed elementi immiginari, inseriti però in un contesto storico ben definito, è la risposta a tale domanda.
Il protagonista è lui, Yossel, un bambino forte e fragile al tempo stesso, che tenta di sopravvivere agli orrori del ghetto di Varsavia grazie alla sua passione più grande, il disegno, che diventa una via di fuga ma anche uno prezioso strumento per fissare nella memoria gli orrori di cui egli è testimone. Sono questi disegni, schizzi a matita talvolta appena abbozzati ma di straordinaria potenza espressiva, a costituire la graphic novel. La storia non narra nulla di nuovo a chi ha letto tanto sulla Shoah, eppure gli schizzi di Kubert sanno penetrare dentro comunicando tutta la loro angoscia e la loro disperazione.
Da leggere.

[Dave Schaafsma · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hubert did entertainment comics for decades--Tarzan, Hawkman, Sgt. Rock--but later in life he turned to realistic subjects perhaps closer to his heart? Works like Jew Gangster about how Jews in the Depression might have turned mobsters, and this one, done at the age of 76 for the 60th anniversary of the Warsaw ghetto uprising. This is historical fiction in part, we are told, based on Kubert's supposition about what had happened if he and his family had not been able to emigrate to the U.S. to escape the Nazi terrors. What if Kubert--depicted here as young talented cartoonist Yossel--had been stuck in the Warsaw ghetto and keep drawing superheroes that the Nazi soldiers saw as emblems of the Nazi superrace? What if Kubert had been able to participate in the uprising?

Depicting Yossel as a comics artist helps us see some of the uses for art in general and comics in particular. Kubert also made the choice to draw in some ways as a young and (very) talented young man might draw, or as he might have drawn if he had more paper and opportunity. Kubert drew the art with pencil but then typically most comic artists would ink over the pencil drawings and erase vestiges of the pencil, but he decided to leave the drawings in pencil for their immediacy and realism. They're sketchy, and deliberately so. And reveal Kubert's artistry and humanity.

Both the art and story in this tale are solid but unsurprising. I feel many of us know this story of Nazi horrors. Maybe some of us know less about the uprising than Auschwitz, and it is important everything continues to be documented, but other than the Yossel-as-cartoonist angle, this is not a story that is new in any way, Maus in several ways is a new and unique Holocaust tale. Shoah (Claude Lanzmann's epic documentary film) is a strikingly unique and important contribution (no shown--only narrated--images of Holocaust horror, and yet it is somehow the most horrific) to WWII literature. But I am still glad Kubert made this personal and political statement. It would be great for history courses.

[Roberta · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ottima graphic novel semi-autobiografica. Le vicende si svolgono nel ghetto di Varsavia, uno dei pochi che si è ribellato alle SS e che per questo è stato raso al suolo. L'autore, un affermato fumettista americano, immagina cosa sarebbe accaduto a lui e alla sua famiglia se non fossero riusciti ad emigrare negli USA poco prima che Hitler invadesse la Polonia.

[Mehsi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wauw, dat is alles wat ik over dit boek kan zeggen. Oh, en lees het.

[Cathy · Rating 4 out of 5]

The drawings are definitely what makes this book. They are stark and bare yet wonderfully illustrate the mood and sense of urgency in the Warsaw ghetto. I will recommend this book to my students who ask why no one fought back. The book is fiction but is based on the Warsaw ghetto uprising of April 19, 1943. Excellent.

[Todd · Rating 4 out of 5]

A nice WWII what if graphic novel by master DC artist and writer Joe Kubert. The artwork is unfinished pencil sketches that nicely highlight a well developed story.

[Joey Sais · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book is about a teenage boy who loves art during the time of the Nazis. The Nazis took their possessions, and they make him go to Warsaw, Poland. As he began to draw and use his artistic skills the guards started to become fond of him, giving him special duties. they wouldn't starve them like they would to others. Instead they would feed him, and let him draw what he saw in the concentration camp, like the gas chambers in use or even the beatings that took place.

[Arja-täti · Rating 5 out of 5]

Kaikin tavoin järkyttävä ja pysäyttävä kirja. Tällä kuvituksella keskitysleiri tuli todella lukijan iholle.

[Reuven Fischer · Rating 5 out of 5]

“What If “ is the title of a comic book series published by Marvel Comics that explore "the road not traveled" by its various Marvel characters. Events in the “What If” series are considered separate from mainstream continuity in the Marvel Universe.

Joe Kubert’s book “Yossel” is essentially a hard hitting powerful “What if” original graphic novel published by DC comics. Joe “Yossel” Kubert in his graphic novel explores his life in a “What if the Kubert family didn’t reapply for immigration from Poland to the United States after they were turned down in 1926” style.

“Yossel” is a gripping story about a 15year old boy living in the Warsaw ghetto during World War II. Yossel, like Kubert discovers cartoon drawing at an early age. It is his passion. It is his dream. It’s what keeps him going. As quoted from the book: “If I could not draw, I could not survive”

To mentally escape, Yossel sketches super heroes. His art is discovered by his Nazi guards, and provides entertainment for the guards as they watch him sketch for them. This earns Yossel favors in the way of scrapes of bread or a bit of strudel. Back in his cramped ghetto room, Yossel’s sketches turn from comic super heroes to the grim reality around him as he watches death and despair.

Separated from his family who is deported to Auschwitz, it doesn’t take Yossel long to join a resistance movement headed by the young Mordechai. Although the book does not call out Mordechai’s last name, one can infer that Kubert is chronicling the life of Mordechai “The Little Angel” Anielewicz, the leader of the Zydowska Organizacja Bojowa (Jewish Combat Organization), during the Warsaw Uprising.

The book’s subtitle is Yossel, April 19, 1943… The date the Warsaw Uprising started, the second night of Passover. Yossel details the Warsaw uprising in Mr. Kubert’s compelling art style.

Kubert’s heartfelt story of the horrors of the Nazi era is hammered home with his raw artwork. The art in Yossel is phenomenal. Mr. Kubert does not ink his sketches, but rather leaves them as raw penciled sketches. This, combined with the greyish darkened paper really gives you the feeling that these are Yossel’s Warsaw ghetto sketches. The manner in which Mr. Kubert draws facial expressions, will leave the reader breathless.

One can’t help comparing Yossel with Maus (another original graphic novel detailing the Holocaust by Art Spiegelman). Where Maus is a non-fictional account of a survivor’s tale, the fictional account of Yossel isn’t any less gut wrenching. Maybe more so because of Mr. Kubert’s art. Yossel’s story is no different then countless number of Jews who were subjected to the horrors of the Holocaust. In Yossel, I saw my father in-law’s story, as did I find my Grandfather’s escape from Bergen Belsen.

Yossel is an emotional book, and one that (along with Maus) should be required reading.

Yossel is Joe Kubert at his finest.

[Rebekah May · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was an intense reading experience. I can't even begin to imagine what life was like for the Jews in Eastern Europe, in the Warsaw ghetto, in the concentration camps. In Yossel, April 19, 1943 Joe Kubert explores the big 'what if' in his life. What if his parents hadn't refused to be turned away, what if, in 1926, they had returned to Poland, rejected from America, and stayed there. What would have happened if, while Jews were being shipped off to concentration camps to die, he was with them, instead of in high school, drawing comics for newspapers and magazines.

Yossel isn't like other graphic novels, Kubert left his pencil drawings, unedited, no ink and colour. This definitely increases the sense of urgency, and as I got further immersed into the story I felt like I was holding pages that had been found in the ghetto, that Yossel had documented his short life whilst waiting in the sewers for the German officers to find his small group. There was a sense of these being quick sketches, drawn quickly by someone who had little time to put this to paper, and the faces of the Jews that Yossel drew are etched into my mind.

His story, and the stories of others told through him, came alive off the page, and my heart is heavy. Nothing has hit me like this in a long time, and I can't praise Yossel enough. It will definitely be sticking with me for a long, long time.

[Rob McMonigal · Rating 5 out of 5]

As early as 2007, I was developing my opinion that showing real people in the horrors of war works better than substituting animals.

This may be the most powerful graphic novel I ever read and possibly the most powerful one I will ever read. This is far better than Maus in terms of showing the sheer horror and terror of the Holocaust. Why? Because the people Kubert draws in all their desperation are real. They're humans and they're drawn as humans, and seeing them suffer should move anyone who reads this. In a way, this is a very personal What-If? story for Kubert, namely what if his parents had not made the decision to leave for America when they did. Drawn in rough pencil--not a daub of ink anywhere, Kubert takes us through the Warsaw ghetto, relates a survivor's of the concentration camps, and shows how horrible the entire thing was. The drawing here may be the best of Kubert's life--figures are either detailed or sketchy, depending on need, and his scenes from the camps literally gave me nightmares. I won't lie--this is a hard book to read. I had to take it in small pieces before my brain would say "enough!" and I'd stop for awhile. But this is truly a masterpiece--you simply must read this, especially since we appear to be in another "was the Holocaust really that bad?" phases. (Library, 01/07)

[David Corleto-Bales · Rating 5 out of 5]

Joe Kubert was one of my favorite comic book artists of all time, he being famous at DC for Hawkman, Tarzan and especially "Sgt. Rock" for which he drew the art for 30 years. In this graphic novel, Kubert tells the tale of a heroic boy from Poland named Yossel who gets forced into the Warsaw ghetto with his family and ends up in the Warsaw ghetto uprising of 1943; not surprisingly, Yossel is an aspiring comic book artist who spends most of his time drawing, mirroring at least part of Kubert's life, although he was born in Brooklyn to Jewish immigrants from Poland, luckily escaping the horrors of the Holocaust, graphically and disturbingly recounted here.

[Sebastian · Rating 2 out of 5]

The art in this is bloody gorgeous, but it doesn't have near the punch it should. The art screams of an urgency, sketchy and beautiful. However, the story itself, while very personal, was oddly detached. It's gorgeous and well-done, but I never felt truly moved. It felt all-too speculative to me. The story felt almost overdone. What I mean is, the story is an almost cookie-cutter example of a Holocaust narrative. I could never contemplate the character of the characters. There is a vagueness, a non-specificity, that you often see in "what-if" narratives.

[Kitty Red-Eye · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great drawings. Depressing matter. A fictional story on a non-fiction canvas, that of the fate of the Polish Jews, the camps, and the Warsaw ghetto. Joe Kubert's real-life story is the story of what became, here imagining a different timeline, in which his story would have been "what might have been". His family emigrated to America in 1926.

[Brynne · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is kind of in the same realm of writing as Maus. Except that it uses real people and not mice to tell of one person's experience in a Nazi Death Camp. I really loved the way it was told and the pictures say more than the words ever could.

[KayG · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've always wanted to know more about the Warsaw Uprising. I plan to read more graphic novels.

[Ronan · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very good Graphic Novel about World War Two.

[Monica Caldicott]

April 19, 1943 – the day Jews living by Nazi order in the Jewish ghetto in Warsaw, Poland, started to fight back. The Jews fought for nearly a month before the Nazi forces crushed their small rebellion.

This graphic novel is a “what if” story. The author and illustrator is a successful comic book artist who lives in NYC. His parents tried to emigrate to the US from Poland in 1926, while he was still waiting to be born. Because his mother was pregnant, the small family was at first denied passage. But they were persistent and so were safe in the US during the Holocaust.

But Kubert asks himself – what if? What if I had been a young Polish Jew who loved to draw? What would my life have been in the Warsaw Ghetto? In a concentration camp?

In the preface, Kubert says that the drawings in this book were initially just quick sketches – pencil renderings – that he later intended to ink over. But the sketchy nature of them – the hurried nature, seemed more in line with the story, so he kept them as is.

[L.L. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dla mnie trochę za surowa kreska, chociaż tak miało być i jakiś urok to też ma. Co do treści, to też trochę to takie... proste, no ale takie chyba są komiksy, jednak to inny sposób opowiadania historii niż książka. Chyba nie jestem wielkim fanem komiksów ;) No ale było to coś innego, coś ciekawego, dla fanów komiksów pewnie spoko.
Można się dopatrzeć błędów, paradoksalnie to chyba więcej niż w "Tajemnicy z Auschwitz" :D ale może to i zabieg celowy, żeby w tym komiksie wszystko zmieścić - taka historyjka dla młodzieży, która pierwszy raz styka się z Auschwitz i nic nie wie ;)

Ale jest też coś, co mi się wyjątkowo podoba - mimo, że rysunki są proste, tzn wydają się proste, czasem to tylko kreski, to jednak te kreski tworzą scenę, sytuację, historię... to jest talent. Mnie też ciągnie do rysowania, dlatego tak się temu przyglądam, ale nadal trudno mi sobie wyobrazić, że można tak prosto, a jednak wyczerpująco przedstawić historię... Troszkę zazdroszczę.

(czytana: 20-23.01.2021)
4-/5

[Mara · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ci si chiede spesso se un fumetto è adatto a trattare temi importanti e delicati come l'olocausto. Maus ha segnato una pietra miliare in questo e, a mio parere, resta il migliore in assoluto per tantissimi motivi. Di norma, per "deformazione accademica", non leggo fiction sull'olocausto, ma devo dire che Yossel mi ha colpita. La storia dell'insurrezione del ghetto di Varsavia la conosco bene, l'ho letta e studiata sui documenti storici. Yossel non è - e non ha pretese di essere - un resoconto a immagini di quanto è successo. Semplicemente l'autore si cala nei panni di un ragazzino che ama il disegno e che decide di seguire Mordecai e gli altri fautori di quell'incredibile insurrezione. L'autore lo fa per cercare di capire ma senza poterlo veramente fare. Una cosa che ho apprezzato molto, i disegni solamente abbozzati.

[Martina11 · Rating 3 out of 5]

Niente da dire riguardo ai disegni che sono bellissimi e il fatto che siano in bianco e nero e semplicemente abbozzati conferisce ancora più drammaticità alla storia.

Yossel è un racconto inventato ma basato su fatti realmente accaduti: la rivolta del ghetto di Varsavia del 1943.
Non sono del tutto soddisfatta della storia, mi sembra che l'autore abbia voluto dire troppo e alla fine l'abbia fatto in maniera superficiale. Questo ha reso il tutto un po' irreale e a tratti inverosimile.
Non mi ha convinta... avrei preferito si concentrasse sulla vita nel ghetto, avrei lasciato fuori i campi di sterminio o li avrei introdotti in maniera diversa (l'espediente con cui si racconta ciò che succede ad Auschwitz non mi è proprio piaciuto)

[farfalla.dilibri · Rating 4 out of 5]

Questa graphic novel è ricca di emozioni che trasudano pagina dopo pagina.
Parto col dire che la storia è inventata dall’autore che affronta il tema delle persecuzioni naziste ma anche quella riguardante il suo retaggio ebraico, inserendo elementi autobiografici in una vicenda immaginaria.
Questo lo fa attraverso il personaggio di Yossel, nella quale lui stesso si identifica come fosse un suo alterego giovanile.
Yossel racconta questa struggente storia del ghetto di Varsavia attraverso i suoi disegni che sono schizzi di matita abbozzati, ma che riescono, attraverso la potenza dell’ espressività, a prendere vita e a raccontare una storia struggente che merita di essere letta.

[Chelsea Martinez · Rating 4 out of 5]

An imagined alternative future of the author, if his family had not left for America before Hitler's Holocaust. The book, told in flashback, from the sewers, is efficiently and effectively sketched in charcoal, and tracks the author's imagined alternate self, family, and community members through forced labor, sequestration, and whispers about what happens outside of the ghetto to those who are shipped away; the book captures well how this was mysterious to contemporaries (would you really believe what happened was real without photo evidence, survivors, or, well, being born after the Holocaust?)

[UnemployedGamer138 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great read by Joe Kubert and based on stories he was told as a child growing up about the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising and the brave ones that died with dignity. It started pretty slow but once it picked up I was really engaged. I've always been a fan of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising heroes and read countless book about it and seen a million movies. I admire these people that died taking down some evil Nazis. I recommend this book a lot and it will get your blood pumping until you finish it! Excellent book.

[Mark · Rating 5 out of 5]

Heartbreakingly well-realised by Joe Kubert in a loose, naturalistic sometimes impressionist style that forgoes ink and colours to tell a kind of 'what if?' story that imagines the horror of Joe Kubert's adolescent life if his family had not left Yzeran in Poland for America in 1926 and instead remained there until the outbreak of WWII and been caught up in the Nazi invasion of Poland and their murderous intent to eradicate the Jews...
The last double-page spread made me well-up and the last page made the hairs on the back of my arms stand up.
Everybody should read this.

[ThatBookGal · Rating 3 out of 5]

The subject matter is obviously one of great importance, and its intriguing to see it represented in this way. Given that this is Joe's interpretation of what might have been, rather than something based in fact, you can generally feel that its lacking that personal touch. The artwork wasn't for me, it felt unfinished and was a little hard to connect to. A fairly average graphic novel about a moving topic.

[Dariusz Płochocki · Rating 4 out of 5]

Surowy komiks Kuberta złożony właściwie z samych ołówkowych szkiców, przenosi nas do okupacji hitlerowskiej w Polsce. Rodzina Kuberta znalazła się szczęśliwie już ponad dekadę wcześniej w Stanach Zjednoczonych, lecz co by się stało gdyby nie wpuszczono ich na statek i musieli "przeżyć" piekło Holocaustu, na ile zdałby się talent młodego rysownika w rzeczywistości warszawskiego getta? Można mieć kilka zastrzeżeń historycznych, ale i tak mocne dzieło.

[Starship · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

Beautiful art style, you can tell he is a very talented artist. The quality of the book also stood out to me, with thick textured pages.

I didn't love the writing style at first, but it does end up sucking you in. I didn't find the story surprising, as someone who has read other holocaust books. Maus is a bit darker as it goes more in depth about the horrors of the camps, but I appreciated a different perspective with Yossel and learned much more about the Warsaw uprising.

[Zsaffryn Terra · Rating 5 out of 5]

In the author’s words, this is “a work of fiction based on a nightmare that was fact.”
It is a heart-wrenching tale of what could have been had the author’s parents remained in Europe during the Second World War.
I perused it in small bits—the greatest I could handle at any given time. The writing style is simple in nature, directing attention to the horrors of the story and the images which are striking and immediate.

This was my first graphic novel.

[Kaska-Boom! · Rating 4 out of 5]

The drawings are definitely what makes this book. They are stark and bare yet wonderfully illustrate the mood and sense of urgency in the Warsaw ghetto. I will recommend this book to my students who ask why no one fought back. The book is fiction but is based on the Warsaw ghetto uprising of April 19, 1943. Excellent.