Be Careful What You Believe To Be True

Monument to the "Weiße Rose" in front of the Ludwig-Maximilian-University, Munich

The White Rose (German: die Weiße Rose) was a non-violent resistance group in Nazi Germany, consisting of a number of students from the University of Munich and their philosophy professor. The group became known for an anonymous leaflet campaign, lasting from June 1942 until February 1943, that called for active opposition to German dictator Adolf Hitler's regime.

At the age of 21, Sophie Scholl was executed by the People's Court in Germany on Feb. 22, 1943, during the Holocaust, for her involvement in The White Rose, an organization that was secretly writing pamphlets calling for the end of the war and strongly denouncing the inhuman acts of the Nazis.

The six core members of the group were arrested by the Gestapo, convicted and executed by beheading in 1943. The text of their sixth leaflet was smuggled out of Germany through Scandinavia to England, and in July 1943 copies of it were dropped over Germany by Allied planes, retitled "The Manifesto of the Students of Munich."

Today, the members of the White Rose are honored in Germany as great heroes who opposed the Third Reich in the face of deadly danger for such resistance.  They were just college students taking a stand for freedom and who died for what they believed.  It took great courage to do what they did.  How many of us would risk our life to take a stand against the government?  Those courageous college kids lost everything.  They were barely 20 or 22 years old, they had their whole lives ahead of them.

Can you imagine dying for just having a belief?  A belief about freedom and what it should mean.

The group's members were motivated by their Christian beliefs. They had witnessed the atrocities of the war, both on the battlefield and against the civilian population in the East, and sensed that the reversal of fortune that the Wehrmacht suffered at Stalingrad would eventually lead to Germany's defeat. They rejected fascism and militarism and believed in a federated Europe that adhered to principles of tolerance and justice.

I am so moved by what these young people did, I can't help but honor them on my blog.  A tribute in honor of their memory.  Their courage and their strength was perfect.  Most people could not take such a stand.  Most people would fear for their lives and the lives of their children.

These young people stood bravely before their accusers who passed the judgement of death upon them and boldly decreed freedom and that while they may stand condemned today ... their accusers would stand accused tomorrow ... which did become a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Dark shadows around the eyes is often a sign of impending death.

Freisler, who sentenced them to death,  was conducting a Saturday session of the People's Court on February 3, 1945, when air raid sirens sounded as American bombers made a raid on Berlin. On that day, almost 1000 Flying Fortresses dropped 3000 tons of bombs on Berlin, in what was to be the heaviest air raid over Berlin ever, and led by the B-17 of the highly decorated USAAF Lt. Col. Robert Rosenthal. Government and Nazi Party buildings were hit, including the Reich Chancellery, the Gestapo headquarters, the Party Chancellery, and the People's Court.

Roland Freisler, Nazi Judge
Dark shadows around his eyes also a sign of impending death.

According to one report, Freisler hastily adjourned court and had ordered that day's prisoners to be taken to a shelter, but paused to gather that day's files. Freisler was killed when an almost direct hit on the building caused him to be struck down by a beam in his own courtroom. His body was allegedly found crushed beneath a fallen masonry column, clutching the files that he had wasted time to pick up, including that of Adjutant Fabian von Schlabrendorff, who was on trial that day and was facing execution for his role in the 1944 assassination plot against Hitler.

A foreign correspondent reported, "Apparently nobody regretted his death."  Luise Jodl, the widow of General Alfred Jodl, recounted more than 25 years later that she had been working at the Luetzow Hospital when Freisler's body was brought in, and that a worker commented, "It is God's verdict." According to Mrs. Jodl, "Not one person said a word in reply."

Under Gestapo interrogation, Hans Scholl said that the name White Rose had been taken from a Spanish novel he had read. Annette Dumbach and Jud Newborn speculate that this may have been The White Rose, a novel about peasant exploitation in Mexico published in Berlin in 1931, written by B. Traven, the German author of The Treasure of the Sierra Madre. Dumbach and Newborn say there is a chance that Hans Scholl and Alex Schmorell had read this. They write that the symbol of the white rose was intended to represent purity and innocence in the face of evil.

"Since the conquest of Poland, 300,000 Jews have been murdered in this country in the most bestial way ... The German people slumber on in their dull, stupid sleep and encourage these fascist criminals ... Each man wants to be exonerated of a guilt of this kind, each one continues on his way with the most placid, the calmest conscience.   But he cannot be exonerated.  He is guilty, guilty, guilty." -- From the second leaflet of the White Rose.

The leaflets caused a sensation, and the Gestapo initiated an intensive search for the publishers.

Imagine people trying to punish you for your beliefs.

The Scholls and Probst were the first to stand trial before the Volksgerichtshof—the People's Court that tried political offenses against the Nazi German state—on February 22, 1943. They were found guilty of treason and Roland Freisler, head judge of the court, sentenced them to death. The three were executed by guillotine. All three were noted for the courage with which they faced their deaths, particularly Sophie, who remained firm despite intense interrogation (however, reports that she arrived at the trial with a broken leg from torture are false), and said to Freisler during the trial, "You know as well as we do that the war is lost. Why are you so cowardly that you won't admit it?" (Hanser, "A Noble Treason").

Alexander Schmorell and Kurt Huber were beheaded on July 13, 1943, and Willi Graf on October 12, 1943. Friends and colleagues of the White Rose, who helped in the preparation and distribution of leaflets and in collecting money for the widow and young children of Probst, were sentenced to prison terms ranging from six months to ten years.

Prior to their deaths, several members of the White Rose believed that their execution would stir university students and other anti-war citizens into a rallying activism against Hitler and the war. Accounts suggest, however, that university students continued their studies as usual, citizens mentioned nothing, many regarding the movement as anti-national. Their actions were mostly dismissed, until after the war when their efforts were eventually praised by the German consciousness.

However, events allowed The White Rose to have the last word when their last leaflet was smuggled to The Allies. The Allied forces edited it for a propaganda leaflet and airdropped millions of copies on the German populace.

When the mass deportation of Jews began in 1942, Sophie, Hans, Alexander and Jurgen realized it was time for action. They bought a typewriter and a duplicating machine and Hans and Alex wrote the first leaflet with the heading: Leaflets of The White Rose, which said:

"Nothing is so unworthy of a nation as allowing itself to be governed without opposition by a clique that has yielded to base instinct... Western civilization must defend itself against fascism and offer passive resistance, before the nation's last young man has given his blood on some battlefield."

They write that the symbol of the white rose was intended to represent purity and innocence in the face of evil.

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.

Quotes

• Last words of Sophie Scholl: "…your heads will fall as well".  Other sources claim that some of Sophie's words were "God, you are my refuge into eternity." The film "Sofie Scholl, The Last Days" shows her last words also as being "The sun still shines".  I'm sure she said all of them at various points before her death.

• Last words of Hans Scholl: "Es lebe die Freiheit!" (Freedom Lives!).

• "We will not be silent. We are your bad conscience. The White Rose will not leave you in peace!" (Leaflet 4's concluding phrase, which became the motto of the White Rose resistance).

• "We will not be silent" has been put on t-shirts in many languages (among them Arabic, Spanish, French, Hebrew, and Persian).

• "Now my death will be easy and joyful." These were the words of Christopher Probst after a Catholic priest admitted him into the church on the eve of his death.

Evil flourishes when good people do nothing!