"We. Knew. Nothing." Can be true what the grandmother claims? Was the grandfather just a follower or a convinced Nazi after all? - These are personal questions that Bianca Schaalburg explores in her graphic novel. But her autobiographical search for clues is far more than a piece of personal memory or reappraisal - it is a contribution against forgetting, an invitation to confront the past. For by revealing her own family history, she succeeds here in a profound engagement with historical events: The artist skilfully embeds her research, which is itself an essential part of the documentary narrative, as well as the insights gained in the respective temporal context, thus revealing an astonishing web of untruths, ignorance and repression.
Carefully researched explanations and background information presented in the pictures, text passages as well as in an extensive appendix complete the multi-faceted graphic narrative and at the same time help to reconstruct and shed new light on history on both a small and a large scale. The Scent of the Pines impressively shows how graphic storytelling expands and enriches the possibilities of imparting knowledge. This title was honoured with the 2022 German Children´s Literature Award.