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= White_Rose =
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Introduction
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The White Rose (, ) was a non-violent, intellectual resistance group
in Nazi Germany which was led by five students and one professor at
the University of Munich: Willi Graf, Kurt Huber, Christoph Probst,
Alexander Schmorell, Hans Scholl and Sophie Scholl. The group
conducted an anonymous leaflet and graffiti campaign that called for
active opposition to the Nazi regime. Their activities started in
Munich on 27 June 1942; they ended with the arrest of the core group
by the Gestapo on 18 February 1943. They, as well as other members and
supporters of the group who carried on distributing the pamphlets,
faced show trials by the Nazi People's Court (); many of them were
imprisoned and executed.
Hans Fritz Scholl and Sophie Magdalena Scholl, as well as Christoph
Probst were executed by guillotine four days after their arrest, on 22
February 1943. During the trial, Sophie interrupted the judge multiple
times. No defendants were given any opportunity to speak.
The group wrote, printed and initially distributed their pamphlets in
the greater Munich region. Later on, secret carriers brought copies to
other cities, mostly in the southern parts of Germany. In July 1943,
Allied planes dropped their sixth and final leaflet over Germany with
the headline 'The Manifesto of the Students of Munich.' In total, the
White Rose authored six leaflets, which were multiplied and spread, in
a total of about 15,000 copies. They denounced the Nazi regime's
crimes and oppression, and called for resistance. In their second
leaflet, they denounced the persecution and mass murder of the Jews.
By the time of their arrest, the members of the White Rose were just
about to establish contacts with other German resistance groups like
the Kreisau Circle or the Schulze-Boysen/Harnack group of the Red
Orchestra. Today, the White Rose is well known both within Germany and
worldwide.
Members and supporters
======================================================================
Students from the University of Munich comprised the core of the White
Rose: Hans Scholl, Alexander Schmorell, Willi Graf, Christoph Probst,
and Kurt Huber, a professor of philosophy and musicology. Hans's
younger sister, Sophie later came to be a core member of the White
Rose.
They were supported by other people, including: Otl Aicher,
("Grogo"), Theodor Haecker, Anneliese Graf, Traute Lafrenz, Katharina
Schüddekopf, Lieselotte "Lilo" Ramdohr, , Falk Harnack, Marie-Luise
Jahn, , Manfred Eickemeyer, , , , , Helmut Bauer, , Hans Conrad
Leipelt, Gisela Schertling, Rudi Alt, Michael Brink, Lilo Dreyfeldt,
Josef Furtmeier, Günter Ammon, Fred Thieler and Wolfgang Jaeger. Most
were in their early twenties.
Wilhelm Geyer taught Alexander Schmorell how to make the tin templates
used in the graffiti campaign. Eugen Grimminger of Stuttgart funded
their operations. Grimminger was arrested on 2 March 1943, sentenced
to ten years in a penal institution for high treason by the "People's
Court" on 19 April 1943, and imprisoned in Ludwigsburg penal
institution until April 1945. His wife Jenny was murdered in the
Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination camp, presumably on 2 December 1943.
Grimminger's secretary Tilly Hahn contributed her own funds to the
cause, and acted as go-between for Grimminger and the group in Munich.
She frequently carried supplies such as envelopes, paper, and an
additional duplicating machine from Stuttgart to Munich.
In addition, a group of students in the city of Ulm distributed a
number of the group's leaflets and were arrested and tried with the
group from Munich. Among this group were Sophie Scholl's childhood
friend Susanne Hirzel and her teenage brother and Franz Josef Müller.
In Hamburg, a group of students including , , , , , , , , , Ilse
Ledien, Eva von Dumreicher, Dorothea Zill, Apelles Sobeczko, and
formed the White Rose Hamburg resistance group against the National
Socialist regime and distributed the group's leaflets.
Germany in 1942
=================
White Rose survivor Jürgen Wittenstein described what it was like for
ordinary Germans to live in Nazi Germany:
The activities of the White Rose started in the autumn of 1942. This
was a time that was particularly critical for the Nazi regime; after
initial victories in World War II, the German population became
increasingly aware of the losses and damages of the war. In summer
1942, the German Army was preparing a new military campaign in the
southern part of the Eastern front to regain the initiative after
their earlier defeat close to Moscow. This German offensive was
initially very successful, but it slowed in the autumn as Army Group
South approached Stalingrad and the Caucasus region. During this time,
the authors of the pamphlets could neither be discovered, nor could
the campaign be stopped by the Nazi authorities. When Hans and Sophie
Scholl were discovered and arrested whilst distributing leaflets at
Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, the regime reacted brutally.
The "Volksgerichtshof" was not bound by law, but its decisions were
guided by Nazi ideology. Thus, its actions were declared unlawful in
post-war Germany. The execution of the White Rose group members, among
many others, is considered judicial murder today.
Social background
===================
The members of the core group all shared an academic background as
students at Munich University. The Scholl siblings, Christoph Probst,
Willi Graf and Alexander Schmorell were all raised by independently
thinking and wealthy parents. Alexander Schmorell was born in Russia,
and his first language was Russian. After he and Hans Scholl had
become friends at the university, Alexander invited Hans to his
parents' home, where Hans also met Christoph Probst at the beginning
of 1941. Alexander Schmorell and Christoph Probst had already been
friends since their school days. As Christoph's father had been
divorced and had married again to a Jewish wife, the effects of the
Nazi Nuremberg Laws, and Nazi racial ideology had impacts on both
Christoph's and Alexander's lives from early on.
The German Youth Movement and the Hitler Youth
================================================
The ideas and thoughts of the German Youth Movement, founded in 1896,
had a major impact on the German youth at the beginning of the
twentieth century. The movement aimed at providing free space to
develop a healthy life. A common trait of the various organizations
was a romantic longing for a pristine state of things, and a return to
older cultural traditions, with a strong emphasis on independent,
non-conformist thinking. They propagated a return to nature,
confraternity and shared adventures. The (abbreviated as "d.j.1.11.")
was part of this youth movement, founded by Eberhard Koebel in 1929.
Christoph Probst was a member of the German Youth Movement, and Willi
Graf was a member of ("New Germany"), and the ("Grey Convent"),
which were illegal Catholic youth organizations.
The Nazi Party's youth organizations took over some of the elements of
the Youth Movement, and engaged their members in activities similar to
the adventures of the Boy Scouts, but also subjected them to
ideological indoctrination. Some, but not all, of the White Rose
members had enthusiastically joined the youth organizations of the
Nazi party: Hans Scholl had joined the Hitler Youth, and Sophie Scholl
was a member of the . Membership in both party youth organizations was
compulsory for young Germans, although a few--such as Willi Graf, Otl
Aicher, and Heinz Brenner--refused to join. Sophie and Hans' sister
Inge Scholl reported about the initial enthusiasm of the young people
for the Nazi youth organization, to their parents' dismay:
Youth organizations other than those led by the Nazi party were
dissolved and officially forbidden in 1936. Both Hans Scholl and Willi
Graf were arrested in 1937-38 because of their membership in forbidden
Youth Movement organizations. Hans Scholl had joined the 1. 11. in
1934, when he and other Hitler Youth members in Ulm considered
membership in this group and the Hitler Youth to be compatible. Hans
Scholl was also accused of transgressing the German anti-homosexuality
law, because of a same-sex teen relationship dating back to 1934-1935,
when Hans was only 16 years old. The argument was built partially on
the work of Eckard Holler, a sociologist specializing in the German
Youth Movement, as well as on the Gestapo interrogation transcripts
from the 1937-38 arrest, and with reference to historian George
Mosse's discussion of the homoerotic aspects of the German Youth
Movement. As Mosse indicated, idealized romantic attachments among
male youths were not uncommon in Germany, especially among members of
the associations. It was argued that the experience of being
persecuted may have led both Hans and Sophie to identify with the
victims of the Nazi state, providing another explanation for why Hans
and Sophie Scholl made their way from ardent "Hitler Youth" leaders to
passionate opponents of the Nazi regime.
Religion
==========
The White Rose group was motivated by ethical, moral, and religious
considerations. They supported and took in individuals of all
backgrounds, and it did not depend on race, sex, religion, or age.
They came from various religious backgrounds. Willi Graf and Katharina
Schüddekopf were devout Catholics. Alexander Schmorell was an Orthodox
Christian. Traute Lafrenz adhered to the concepts of anthroposophy,
while Eugen Grimminger considered himself a Buddhist. Christoph Probst
was baptized a Catholic only shortly before his execution. His father
Hermann was nominally a Catholic, but also a private scholar of
Eastern thought and wisdom. In their diaries and letters to friends,
both Scholl siblings wrote about their reading of Christian scholars
including Augustine of Hippo's 'Confessions' and Etienne Gilson, whose
work on Medieval philosophy they discussed amongst other philosophical
works within their network of friends. The Scholls read sermons by
John Henry Newman, and Sophie gave two volumes of Newman's sermons to
her boyfriend, Fritz Hartnagel, when he was assigned to the Eastern
Front; he wrote to her: "[W]e know by whom we are created, and that we
stand in a relationship of moral obligation to our creator. Conscience
gives us the capacity to distinguish between good and evil." This is a
paraphrase of Newman's sermon, "The Testimony of Conscience".
Mentors and role models
=========================
In 1941, Hans Scholl read a copy of a sermon by an outspoken critic of
the Nazi regime, Catholic Bishop August von Galen, decrying the
euthanasia policies expressed in Action T4 (and extended that same
year to the Nazi concentration camps by Action 14f13) which the Nazis
maintained would protect the German gene pool. Horrified by the Nazi
policies, Sophie obtained permission to reprint the sermon and
distribute it at the University of Munich.
In 1940, Otl Aicher had met Carl Muth, the founder of the Catholic
magazine 'Hochland'. Otl in turn introduced Hans Scholl to Muth in
1941. In his letters to Muth, Hans wrote about his growing attraction
to the Catholic Christian faith. Both Hans and Sophie Scholl were
influenced by Carl Muth whom they describe as deeply religious, and
opposed to Nazism. He drew the Scholl siblings' attention to the
persecution of the Jews, which he considered sinful and
anti-Christian.
Both Sophie Scholl and Willi Graf attended some of Kurt Huber's
lectures at the University of Munich. Kurt Huber was known amongst his
students for the political innuendos which he used to include in his
university lectures, by which he criticized Nazi ideology by talking
about classical philosophers like Leibniz. He met Hans Scholl for the
first time in June 1942, was admitted to the activities of the White
Rose on 17 December 1942, and became their mentor and the main author
of the sixth pamphlet.
Experience on the World War II Eastern Front
==============================================
Hans Scholl, Alexander Schmorell, Christoph Probst, and Willi Graf
were medical students. Their studies were regularly interrupted by
terms of compulsory service as student soldiers in the Wehrmacht
medical corps on the Eastern Front. Their experience during this time
had a major impact on their thinking, and it also motivated their
resistance, because it led to their disillusionment with the Nazi
regime. Alexander Schmorell, who was born in Orenburg and raised by
Russian nurses, spoke perfect Russian, which allowed him to have
direct contact and communication with the local Russian population and
their plight. This Russian insight proved invaluable during their time
there, and he could convey to his fellow White Rose members what was
not understood or even heard by other Germans coming from the Eastern
front.
In summer 1942, Hans, Alexander, and Willi had to serve for three
months on the Russian front alongside many other male medical students
from the University of Munich. There, they observed the horrors of
war, saw beatings and other mistreatment of Jews by the Germans, and
heard about the persecution of the Jews from reliable sources. Some
witnessed atrocities of the war on the battlefield and against
civilian populations in the East. In a letter to his sister Anneliese,
Willi Graf wrote: "I wish I had been spared the view of all this which
I had to witness." Gradually, detachment gave way to the conviction
that something had to be done. It was not enough to keep to oneself
one's beliefs, and ethical standards, but the time had come to act.
The members of the White Rose were fully aware of the risks they
incurred by their acts of resistance:
Origin of the name
======================================================================
Under Gestapo interrogation, Hans Scholl gave several explanations for
the origin of the name "The White Rose", and suggested he may have
chosen it while he was under the emotional influence of a 19th-century
poem with the same name by German poet Clemens Brentano. It has also
been speculated that the name might have been taken from either the
Cuban poet, Jose Marti's verse "Cultivo una rosa blanca" or the novel
'Die Weiße Rose' ('The White Rose') by B. Traven, which Hans Scholl
and Alex Schmorell had both read. They also wrote that the symbol of
the white rose was intended to represent purity and innocence in the
face of evil.
If the White Rose was indeed named after Traven's novel, Hans Scholl's
interrogation testimony may have been intentionally vague in order to
protect Josef Soehngen, the anti-Nazi bookseller who had supplied this
banned book. Söhngen had provided the White Rose members with a safe
meeting place for exchange of information, and receipt of occasional
financial contributions. Söhngen kept a stash of banned books hidden
in his store, and had also hidden such books when being printed.
Actions: The leaflets and graffiti
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After their experiences at the Eastern Front, having learned about
mass murder in Poland and the Soviet Union, Hans Scholl and Alexander
Schmorell felt compelled to take action. With a portable Remington
typewriter Schmorell borrowed from a friend, from late June until
mid-July 1942, they wrote the first four leaflets. Quoting extensively
from the Bible, Aristotle and Novalis, as well as Goethe and Schiller,
the iconic poets of German bourgeoisie, they appealed to what they
considered the German intelligentsia, believing that these people
would be easily convinced by the same arguments that also motivated
the authors themselves. These leaflets were left in telephone books in
public phone booths, mailed to professors and students, and taken by
courier to other universities for distribution. From 23 July to 30
October 1942, Graf, Scholl and Schmorell served again at the Soviet
front, and activities ceased until their return. In autumn 1942,
Sophie Scholl discovered that her brother Hans was one of the authors
of the pamphlets, and joined the group. Shortly after, Willi Graf, and
by the end of December 1942, Kurt Huber became members of the White
Rose.
In January 1943, the fifth leaflet, '"Aufruf an alle Deutsche!"'
("Appeal to all Germans!") was produced in 6,000-9,000 copies, using a
hand-operated duplicating machine. It was carried to other German
Cities between 27 and 29 January 1943 by the members and supporters of
the group to many cities, and then mailed from there. Copies appeared
in Saarbrücken, Stuttgart, Cologne, Vienna, Freiburg, Chemnitz,
Hamburg, Innsbruck and Berlin. Sophie Scholl stated during her Gestapo
interrogation that from summer 1942 on, the aim of the White Rose was
to address a broader range of the population. Consequently, in the
fifth leaflet, the name of the group was changed from White Rose to
"German Resistance Movement", and also the style of writing became
more polemic and less intellectual. The students had become convinced
during their military service that the war was lost: "'Hitler kann den
Krieg nicht gewinnen, nur noch verlängern.' - Hitler cannot win the
war, he can only prolong it." They appealed to renounce "national
socialist subhumanism", imperialism and Prussian militarism "for all
time". The reader was urged to "Support the resistance movement!" in
the struggle for "freedom of speech, freedom of religion and
protection of the individual citizen from the arbitrary action of
criminal dictator-states". These were the principles that would form
"the foundations of a new Europe".
By the end of January 1943, the Battle of Stalingrad ended with the
capitulation and near-total loss of the Wehrmacht's Sixth Army. In
Stalingrad, World War II had taken a decisive turn, inspiring
resistance movements throughout the European countries then occupied
by Germany. It also had a devastating effect on German morale. On 13
January 1943, a student riot broke out at Munich University after a
speech by Paul Giesler, the Nazi Gauleiter of Munich and Upper
Bavaria, in which he had denounced male students not serving in the
army as skulkers and had also made obscene remarks to female students.
These events encouraged the members of the White Rose. When the defeat
at Stalingrad was officially announced, they sent out their sixth--and
last--leaflet. The tone of this writing, authored by Kurt Huber and
revised by Hans Scholl and Alexander Schmorell, was more patriotic.
Headed "Fellow students!" (the now-iconic 'Kommilitoninnen!
Kommilitonen!'), it announced that the "day of reckoning" had come for
"the most contemptible tyrant our people has ever endured." "The dead
of Stalingrad adjure us!"
On 3, 8, and 15 February 1943, Alexander Schmorell, Hans Scholl, and
Willi Graf used tin stencils to write slogans like "Down with Hitler"
and "Freedom" on the walls of the university and other buildings in
Munich.
Months later, a smuggled copy of the sixth leaflet caught the
attention of UK Prime Minister Winston Churchill, who had millions of
copies printed and, in summer and fall of 1943, dropped over Germany
by Royal Air Force pilots.
Capture, Gestapo interrogation and trial
======================================================================
On 18 February 1943, the Scholls brought a suitcase full of leaflets
to the university main building. They hurriedly dropped stacks of
copies in the empty corridors for students to find when they left the
lecture rooms. Leaving before the lectures had ended, the Scholls
noticed that there were some left-over copies in the suitcase and
decided to distribute them. Sophie flung the last remaining leaflets
from the top floor down into the atrium. This spontaneous action was
observed by the university maintenance man, Jakob Schmid, who called
the Gestapo. The university doors were locked, and the fate of brother
and sister were sealed. Hans and Sophie Scholl were taken into Gestapo
custody. A draft of a seventh pamphlet, written by Christoph Probst,
was found in the possession of Hans Scholl at the time of his arrest
by the Gestapo. While Sophie Scholl got rid of incriminating evidence
before being taken into custody, Hans did try to destroy the draft of
the last leaflet by tearing it apart and trying to swallow it.
However, the Gestapo recovered enough of it and were able to match the
handwriting with other writings from Probst, which they found when
they searched Hans's apartment.
Christoph was captured on 20 February. The main Gestapo interrogator
was Robert Mohr, who initially thought Sophie was innocent. However,
after Hans had confessed, Sophie assumed full responsibility in an
attempt to protect other members of the White Rose.
The Scholls and Probst were scheduled to stand trial before the
'Volksgerichtshof'--the Nazi "People's Court" infamous for its unfair
political trials, which more often than not ended with a death
sentence--on 22 February 1943. They were found guilty of treason.
Roland Freisler, head judge of the court, sentenced them to death. The
three were executed the same day by guillotine at Stadelheim Prison.
Sophie went under the guillotine first, followed by Hans and then
Christoph. While Sophie and Christoph were silent as they died, Hans
yelled "es lebe die Freiheit!" (long live freedom) as the blade fell.
Willi Graf had already been arrested on 18 February 1943; in his
interrogations, which continued until his execution in October 1943,
he successfully covered other members of the group. Alexander
Schmorell was recognized, denounced and arrested on 24 February 1943,
after his return to Munich following an unsuccessful effort to travel
to Switzerland. Kurt Huber was taken into custody on 26 February, and
only then did the Gestapo learn about his role within the White Rose
group.
The second White Rose trial took place on 19 April 1943. Among those
on trial were Hans Hirzel, Susanne Hirzel, Franz Josef Müller,
Heinrich Guter, Eugen Grimminger, Otto Aicher, Theodor Haecker, Willi
Graf, Anneliese Graf, Heinrich Bollinger, Helmut Bauer and Falk
Harnack. At the last minute, the prosecutor added Traute Lafrenz,
Gisela Schertling and Katharina Schüddekopf. Willi Graf, Kurt Huber,
and Alexander Schmorell were sentenced to death. Eleven others were
sentenced to prison, and Falk Harnack was acquitted of the
accusations, which was unexpected, given that his brother and sister
had been killed by the Nazis for subversive activities. Schmorell and
Huber were executed on 13 July 1943. Willi Graf was kept in solitary
confinement for about seven months. During that time, he was tortured
in an attempt to make him give up other names of members of The White
Rose. He never gave up any names, even when the Gestapo threatened to
capture his family if he continued to withhold information. He was
executed on 12 October 1943. On 29 January 1945, Hans Konrad Leipelt
was executed. He had been sent down from Hamburg University in 1940
because of his Jewish ancestry, and had copied and further distributed
the White Rose's pamphlets together with his girlfriend Marie-Luise
Jahn. The pamphlets were now entitled '"And their spirit lives on."'
The third White Rose trial was scheduled for 20 April 1943, Hitler's
birthday, which was a public holiday in Nazi Germany. Judge Freisler
had intended to issue death sentences against Wilhelm Geyer, Harald
Dohrn, Josef Söhngen and Manfred Eickemeyer. Because he did not want
to issue too many death sentences in a single trial, he therefore
wanted to postpone his judgment against those four until the next day.
However, the evidence against them was lost, and the trial finally
took place on 13 July 1943. In that trial, Gisela Schertling--who had
betrayed most of the friends, even fringe members like Gerhard
Feuerle--changed her mind and recanted her testimony against all of
them. Since Freisler did not preside over the third trial, the judge
acquitted for lack of evidence all but Söhngen, who was sentenced to a
six months' term in prison. After her acquittal on 19 April, Traute
Lafrenz was placed under arrest again. She spent the last year of the
war in prison. Trials kept being postponed and moved to different
locations because of Allied air raids. Her trial was finally set for
April 1945, after which she probably would have been executed. Three
days before the trial, however, the Allies liberated the town where
she was held prisoner, thereby saving her life.
The student members of the White Rose make up a few of the nearly 70
juveniles that were indicted for high treason by the People's Court
from 1933 to 1945.
Reactions in Germany and abroad during World War II
======================================================================
The hopes of the White Rose members that the defeat at Stalingrad
would incite German opposition against the Nazi regime and the war
effort did not come true. On the contrary, Nazi propaganda used the
defeat to call on the German people to embrace "Total War".
Coincidentally, on 18 February 1943, the same day that saw the arrests
of Sophie and Hans Scholl and Willi Graf, Nazi propaganda minister
Joseph Goebbels delivered his Sportpalast speech, and he was
enthusiastically applauded by his audience.
Shortly after the arrest of the Scholl siblings and Christoph Probst,
newspapers published all-points bulletins in search of Alexander
Schmorell. On 22 February 1943, the students of Munich were assembled,
and officially protested against the "traitors" who came from within
their ranks. Gestapo and Nazi jurisdiction documented in their files
their view of the White Rose members as "traitors and defeatists". On
23 February, the official newspaper of the Nazi party, 'Völkischer
Beobachter' and local newspapers in Munich briefly reported about the
capture and execution of some "degenerate rogues". However, the
network of friends and supporters proved to be too large, so that the
rumors about the White Rose could not be suppressed any more by Nazi
German officials. Further prosecutions took place until the end of
World War II, and German newspapers continued to report, mostly in
brief notes, that more people had been arrested and punished. On 15
March 1943, a report by the 'Sicherheitsdienst' of the 'Schutzstaffel'
stated that rumors about the leaflets spread "considerable unrest"
amongst the German population. The report expressed particular concern
about the fact that leaflets were not handed in to the Nazi
authorities by their finders as promptly as they used to be in the
past.
On 18 April 1943, 'The New York Times' mentioned the student
opposition in Munich. The paper also published articles on the first
White Rose trials on 29 March 1943 and 25 April 1943.
Though they did not correctly record all of the information about the
resistance, the trials, and the execution, they were the first
acknowledgement of the White Rose in the United States.
On 27 June 1943, the German author and Nobel prize winner Thomas Mann,
in his monthly anti-Nazi broadcasts by the BBC called '"Deutsche
Hörer!"' ("German Listeners!") highly praised the White Rose members'
courage. Soviet Army propaganda issued a leaflet, wrongly attributed
by later researchers to the National Committee for a Free Germany, in
honour of the White Rose's fight for freedom.
The text of the sixth leaflet of the White Rose was smuggled out of
Germany through Scandinavia to the United Kingdom by the German lawyer
and member of the Kreisau Circle, Helmuth James Graf von Moltke. In
summer and fall of 1943, copies were dropped over Germany by Allied
planes, retitled "The Manifesto of the Students of Munich". Thus, the
activities of the White Rose became widely known in World War II
Germany, but, like other attempts at resistance, did not succeed in
provoking widespread active opposition against the totalitarian regime
within the German population. However, it continued to be an important
inspiration for acts of individual or small-scale resistance
throughout the final years of the war.
Research history
======================================================================
For many years the primary sources for research were limited to those
provided by White Rose members and their supporters. These included
Inge Scholl's 1952 commemorative book "The White Rose", surviving
copies of the pamphlets, the letters and diaries of Sophie and Hans
Scholl and Willi Graf, and other people with direct knowledge of the
group's activities. With the end of communism in the Soviet Union and
the German Democratic Republic in the early 1990s, the Gestapo
interrogation protocols and other documents from Nazi authorities
became publicly available. The interrogation protocols were part of
the 'Volksgerichtshof' documents, and were confiscated by the Soviet
Red Army, and brought to Moscow. Here, they were kept secret in a
special archive. After the foundation of the German Democratic
Republic, the major part of the Nazi documents were handed over to the
East German government, except the documents concerning Alexander
Schmorell, who was born in Russia. The documents were distributed
between the Central Archive of the communist Socialist Unity Party of
Germany and the archive of the Ministry for State Security. With the
German reunification, the documents were transferred to the Federal
Archive of Germany in Berlin, and finally published. The documents
concerning Alexander Schmorell still remain in the State Military
Archive of Russia, but have been fully transcribed and published in a
German/Russian edition.
Memorials and legacy
======================================================================
With the fall of Nazi Germany, the White Rose came to represent
opposition to tyranny in the German psyche and was lauded for acting
without interest in personal power or self-aggrandizement. Their story
became so well known that the composer Carl Orff claimed (falsely by
some accounts) to his Allied interrogators that he was a founding
member of the White Rose and was released. He was personally
acquainted with Huber, but there is no evidence that Orff was ever
involved in the movement.
On 5 February 2012 Alexander Schmorell was canonized as a New Martyr
by the Orthodox Church.
The square where the central hall of Munich University is located has
been named "Geschwister-Scholl-Platz" after Hans and Sophie Scholl;
the square opposite to it is "Professor-Huber-Platz". Two large
fountains are in front of the university, one on either side of
Ludwigstraße. The fountain in front of the university is dedicated to
Hans and Sophie Scholl. The other, across the street, is dedicated to
Professor Huber. Many schools, streets, and other places across
Germany are named in memory of the members of the White Rose.
In Paris, a high school of the 17th arrondissement (collège La Rose
Blanche), is named after the White Rose, and a public park pays homage
to Hans and Sophie Scholl.
One of Germany's leading literary prizes is called the
Geschwister-Scholl-Preis (the "Scholl Siblings" prize).
Asteroid 7571 Weisse Rose is named after the group.
The Audimax of the Bundeswehr Medical Academy in Munich was named
after Hans Scholl in 2012. The Joint Medical Service of the
Bundeswehr, named barracks north of Munich after Christoph Probst at
his 100th birthday in 2019.
The last surviving member of the group was Traute Lafrenz. She was 100
years old on 3 May 2019 and was awarded the Order of Merit of the
Federal Republic of Germany on that same date for her work as part of
the White Rose. She died on 6 March 2023.
In May 2021, Germany issued a stamp to commemorate the 100th
anniversary of Sophie Scholl's birthday.
White Rose appropriation
======================================================================
In 2021, a conspiracy theorist group known as the "White Rose"
appropriated the name of the White Rose anti-Nazi resistance group to
make an analogy between the original White Rose's non-violent
resistance against Nazism and the non-violent supposed "resistance" by
the conspiracy theorists against COVID-19 lockdowns and other measures
by national governments intended to stop the virus during the COVID-19
pandemic in the early 2020s, which the conspiracy theorists falsely
claim was the secret establishment of a worldwide totalitarian
Nazi-style government. The methods of the White Rose conspiracy
theorists are somewhat similar in that the conspiracy theorists
printed stickers asking for resistance against anti-Covid measures
alongside the "White Rose" name with the address of their Telegram
group, then posted the stickers in public places. The use of the
Internet meant that the conspiracy theorists spread misinformation and
gained members across the world unlike the original White Rose who
were limited to Germany. Apart from the name, there is absolutely no
connection between the original White Rose and the conspiracy
theorists who took their name.
Further reading
======================================================================
* DeVita, James 'The Silenced'. HarperCollins, 2006. Young adult novel
inspired by Sophie Scholl and The White Rose.
* DeVita, James 'The Rose of Treason', Anchorage Press Plays. Young
adult play of the story of The White Rose.
* Dumbach, Annette & Newborn, Jud. 'Sophie Scholl & The White
Rose'. First published as "Shattering the German Night", 1986;
expanded, updated edition Oneworld Publications, 2006.
*
* Graf, Willi. 'Willi Graf: Briefe und Aufzeichnungen,' (Willi Graf,
Letters and Records) 'NOTE: only available in German'
* Hanser, Richard. 'A Noble Treason: The Revolt of the Munich Students
Against Hitler'. New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1979. Print.
* Lloyd, Alexandra, 'Defying Hitler: The White Rose Pamphlets'.
Bodleian Library Publishing, 2022. ISBN 9781851245833.
* Lloyd, Alexandra (ed.), 'The White Rose: Reading, Writing,
Resistance'. Oxford: Taylor Institution Library, 2019.
* McDonough, Frank, 'Sophie Scholl: The Real Story of the Woman Who
Defied Hitler', History Press, 2009.
* Richard-Wilson, Stephani. 'Willi Graf of the White Rose: The Role of
Bildung in His Decision to Resist National Socialism.
[
https://www.proquest.com/docview/1432193243 Willi Graf of the White
Rose: The Role of Bildung in His Decision to Resist National Socialism
- ProQuest]'
* Sachs, Ruth Hanna. 'Two Interviews: Hartnagel and Wittenstein'
(Annotated). Ed. Denise Heap and Joyce Light. Los Angeles:
Exclamation!, 2005.
* Sachs, Ruth Hanna. 'White Rose History, Volume I: Coming Together'
(31 January 1933 - 30 April 1942). Lehi, Utah: Exclamation!
Publishers, 2002.
* Sachs, Ruth Hanna. 'White Rose History, Volume II: Journey to
Freedom' (1 May 1942 - 12 October 1943). Lehi, Utah: Exclamation!
Publishers, 2005.
* Sachs, Ruth Hanna. 'White Rose History, Volume III: Fighters to the
Very End' (13 October 1943 - 8 May 1945).
* Sachs, Ruth Hanna. 'White Rose History': The Ultimate CD-ROM
(1933-1945).
* Scholl, Hans and Sophie. 'At The Heart of the White Rose: Letters
and Diaries of Hans and Sophie Scholl.'
* Scholl, Inge. 'The White Rose: Munich, 1942-1943'. Middletown,
Connecticut: Wesleyan University Press, 1983.
* Shrimpton, Paul. 'Conscience before Conformity: Hans and Sophie
Scholl and the White Rose Resistance in Nazi Germany'. Gracewing,
2018.
* Vinke, Hermann. 'The Short Life of Sophie Scholl'. Trans. Hedwig
Pachter. New York: Harper & Row, 1984. Print.
* Wilson, Kip. 'White Rose'. Boston, Massachusetts: Houghton Mifflin
Harcourt, 2019.
*
Primary sources
=================
* [
https://www.white-rose-studies.org/pages/the-leaflets English
translation of all seven leaflets]
The White Rose Leaflets
=========================
* Leaflet I ([
http://www.bpb.de/themen/ZGSY8R,0,0,Flugblatt_I.html
Text] / [
http://www.bpb.de/files/IMH3WQ.pdf Original as PDF])
* Leaflet II ([
http://www.bpb.de/themen/DTJ9Q1,0,0,Flugblatt_II.html
Text] / [
http://www.bpb.de/files/EQEBVG.pdf Original as PDF])
* Leaflet III
([
http://www.bpb.de/themen/QIW5UX,0,0,Flugblatt_III.html Text] /
[
http://www.bpb.de/files/70GDTF.pdf Original as PDF])
* Leaflet IV ([
http://www.bpb.de/themen/KQWNOS,0,0,Flugblatt_IV.html
Text] / [
http://www.bpb.de/files/VYP7TF.pdf Original as PDF])
* Leaflet V ([
http://www.bpb.de/themen/EGK24S,0,0,Flugblatt_V.html
Text] / [
http://www.bpb.de/files/ARBZMA.pdf Original as PDF])
* Leaflet VI ([
http://www.bpb.de/themen/JOELCK,0,0,Flugblatt_VI.html
Text] / [
http://www.bpb.de/files/B2QRDK.pdf Original as PDF])
Primary source materials in English translation
=================================================
* [
http://libcom.org/library/white-rose-documents Leaflets Online
(English)] via libcom.com
* [
https://whiterosehistory.com/ Court testimony, records and
documents (English)] via the Center for White Rose Studies
* Alexander Schmorell: Gestapo Interrogation Transcripts. RGWA
I361K-I-8808.
* Gestapo Interrogation Transcripts: Graf & Schmorell (NJ).
Exclamation! Publishers, Phoenixville.
* Gestapo Interrogation Transcripts: Scholls & Probst (ZC 13267).
Exclamation! Publishers, Phoenixville
* The "Bündische Jugend" Trials (Scholl/Reden): 1937-1938.
* Third White Rose Trial: 13 July 1943 (Eickemeyer, Söhngen, Dohrn,
and Geyer).
* Scholl, Hans, and Sophie Scholl. 'At the Heart of the White Rose:
Letters and Diaries of Hans and Sophie Scholl'. Ed. Inge Jens. Trans.
Maxwell Brownjohn. New York: Harper & Row, 1987.
External links
======================================================================
* [
http://www.white-rose-studies.org Center for White Rose Studies -
Making the White Rose relevant to the 21st century]
* [
http://www.historyplace.com/pointsofview/white-rose1.htm
Wittenstein, George. Memories of the White Rose]
*
[
http://www.wagingpeace.org/articles/2001/09/00_ginder_white-rose.htm
WagingPeace.org] , Waging Peace article on The White Rose
* [
http://www.hearthasreasons.com/bibliography.php Holocaust Rescuers
Bibliography with information and links to books about The White Rose
and other resistance groups]
* "Weiße Rose Stiftung", FJ Müller et al., 1943-2009,
[
http://www.weisse-rose-stiftung.de Weisse-Rose-Stiftung.de]
* [
http://www.hmd.org.uk/resources/item/228/ Case Study: The White
Rose] by the UK's Holocaust Memorial Day, for educational and
commemorative purposes
* [
http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10007188 "White
Rose", United States Holocaust Memorial Museum]
* BBC World Service: [
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p014knxl episode
of 'Witness' broadcast on 22 February 2013.]
* [
http://www.whiteroseproject.org The White Rose Project]: a research
and outreach initiative at the University of Oxford telling the story
of the White Rose in the UK
* [
http://podcasts.ox.ac.uk/defying-hitler-white-rose-resistance-group
'Defying Hitler: The White Rose Resistance Group', lecture given by Dr
Alexandra Lloyd at the University of Oxford introducing the White Rose
and their resistance writings. ]
License
=========
All content on Gopherpedia comes from Wikipedia, and is licensed under CC-BY-SA
License URL:
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
Original Article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_Rose
