On the Streets for Ukraine by Elke Rollmann

On the Streets for Ukraine by Elke Rollmann and Niko Rollmann. They are a mother and son team who make lovely books with pictures. Elke was selling her book at an event I’ve been to in London, in support of Ukraine. The money for the selling of the book are donated to causes helping Ukraine. This is the second book I read by them, with the A Photographic Journey Through the London Underground being reviewed in 2021.

This book is only about events in support of Ukraine taking place in UK and Germany. This focus makes it very interesting as most of the books I read are on what is happening in Ukraine and, of course, there are some that explain the long history of russia trying to conquer and control Ukraine.

I liked the book, it shows different aspects of protesting, from art pieces to hand written messages. I am happy that I bought the book to have this selection of beautiful photos. The reason I gave it 4 stars is their presentation of the russians. The book has short descriptions for each chapter. For instance, in the last chapter on heroes it starts with a picture of Volodymyr Zelenskyy, it has a poster with a picture of Oleksandr Matsievskyi (POW who was made to dig his own shallow grave and was executed by the russian soldiers after saying Slava Ukraini!, who became a symbol of Ukrainian resistance). It also has a poster with “free navalny”. navalny was happy about the annexation of Crimea and talked appalling about the Georgians. There are also a couple of pictures with so-called “good russians” who are opposing what they say it’s “putin’s war”. There aren’t 600,000 putins in Ukraine right now, on the frontlines, there aren’t tens of thousands of putins working in the factories to make bombs and weapons. It’s russia’s war. This attitude is normal among Germans, who seem to ignore their own history and see the russians as the liberators from Nazism, when in fact the russian elites in moscow started WW2 with them, and the soviets (including all ethnicities) liberated them. The Germans should have this attitude towards UK, instead, as it was the country which stood up to them for the entirety of the war.

On the Streets for Ukraine by Elke Rollmann, Niko Rollmann

Details about the picture: the mug is from Ukraine
My rating: 4/5 Stars
Would I recommend it: yes
Published by: BookVAULT Publishing
Year it was published: 2024
Format: Paperback
Genre(s): Picture book
Pages: 105

About the author: Niko Rollmann was born in Hamburg and studied History & Politics in London and Berlin. He works in adult education and as a nonfiction writer focusing on “underground” topics.
Elke Rollmann was born in Berlin, studied Visual Arts and worked in Hamburg as a photo-journalist before moving to London in 1982 and, after a spell of working in fashion, went back to photography.
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