The White Rose

Background
On 22 February 1943, three young Germans were guillotined for having committed treason against the Fatherland. In the days that followed, several of their comrades were arrested and sentenced to death as well. Described as 'despicable criminals' in the local German newspapers of the time, these young people are now regarded as heroes, the few decent and good Germans who chose to follow their own consciences rather than an immoral Nazi philosophy.

The White Rose Group
The White Rose group came into being in 1941. It was a group of young German intellectuals and students from the University of Munich, who originally got together to socialize with like-minded people and exchange ideas, and then later organized a non-violent resistance movement against the National Socialist government of Adolf Hitler.

The main collaborators in the White Rose Group were Hans Scholl, his sisters Sophie Scholl and Inge Scholl, Alexander Schmorell, Willi Graf, Christoph Probst, Jugen Wittenstein, and Kurt Huber.

Reasons for forming the White Rose
Far from being subversive types, constantly on the lookout for trouble, the Scholls and their friends were high-achieving, medical students and, in the case of Huber, a Professor of Philosophy, and had all been patriotic Germans so far in their lives. Many of them had been members of the Hitler Youth, as was compulsory in those times, and the young men in the group had served in the German Army in the French campaign and on the Eastern Front. Their own intellects and their liberal family backgrounds, however, precluded any possibility of their swallowing the National Socialist ideology.

It was on the war-front that Hans Scholl and his comrades had the opportunity of seeing first-hand the kind of atrocities that were being carried out against Jews, Poles and other non-Germanic people by the SS. Deeply disturbed by what they had seen on the war-front, they were also influenced by Archbishop August Von Galen's courageous speech on 3 August 1941 denouncing the Nazi practice of euthanizing the mentally infirm and the physically incapacitated.

Being decent human beings, they came to the conclusion that it was their moral duty to oppose the Nazis. Somewhat naively they assumed that if the information of Nazi atrocities was made public, the German populace would rise up in protest and put an end to the Nazi rule. With this in mind, they took to writing, typing, copying, and distributing pamphlets attacking National Socialism, six in all, and also painting anti-Nazi Slogans on building walls.

Since open dissent was not possible in Hitler's Germany, the White Rose group had to engage in these activities in secret and under great personal danger. They distributed their pamphlets anonymously, leaving them in public places, on door-steps, or in mailboxes. Initially, they targeted University Lecturers and Restaurant Owners as they thought that these people with their network of contacts would be more likely to spread the word around. Later they began scouring addresses from the telephone book. They painted messages on building walls in the dead of the night. All these activities caused quite a stir.

The White Rose Pamphlets
The six White Rose pamphlets are remarkable for their high-minded content and still relevant today in their call for personal courage and for taking a principled stance against injustice and atrocity.

The fourth one famously stated - "We will not be silent. We are your bad conscience. The White Rose will not leave you in peace!"

Arrest
On 18 February 1943, as they were distributing copies of the Sixth Pamphlet on the University of Munich campus, Hans Scholl and Sophie Scholl were seen throwing the leaflets down onto the court-yard from a third floor window by a janitor, Jakob Schmidt. He was a Nazi Party member and immediately informed the Gestapo.

The Scholls were arrested and brought for interrogation to the Gestapo Headquarters in Munich. Displaying great courage and self-possession under intensive questioning, they initially denied all knowledge of the pamphlets. A search of their home, however, produced irrefutable evidence against them, and then they admitted to their roles and tried to shield the rest of the group by claiming sole responsibility. It didn't work. A letter by Christoph Probst had been found at the Scholls' place and he was arrested next. The three of them were tried in a People's Court by the notorious Roland Friesler – a farce where justice had no chance and Raving Roland plenty of opportunity to rant - and, found guilty of sedition, all three received death sentences.

Their comrades were all soon picked up shortly afterwards, their fates already decided. Only Jurgen Wittenstein, Inge Scholl, and a handful others survived.