The White Rose

1. The White Rose By Sally Butler

2. What the White Rose Was: • A German group resisting the Nazis • Began by students at Munich University • “After all, an end in terror is preferable to terror without end.” – The Second Leaflet

3. the Leaders of The White Rose: • Hans Scholl born September 22,1918 • Sophie Scholl born May 9,1921 • Christopher Probst born November 6,1919 • Professor Kurt Huber born October 24, 1893 • Alexander Schmorell born September 16, 1917 • Willi Graf born January 2, 1918

4. Hans Scholl

5. Sophie Scholl

6. Christoph Probst

7. Willi Graf

8. Professor Huber

9. Alexander Schmorell

10. Where the Name Came From Hans Scholl named the group The White Rose because he had been reading a Spanish book with the title “Rosa Blanco”

11. What The White Rose Did • The Scholls and their friends printed and distributed several leaflets that spoke out against Hitler and the Nazis • Hans Scholl also started a campaign of graffiti against the Nazis

12. The first leaflet • “Therefore every individual, conscious of his responsibility as a member of Christian and Western civilization, must defend himself as best he can at this late hour, he must work against the scourges of mankind, against fascism and any similar system of totalitarianism. Offer passive resistance – resistance - wherever you may be, forestall the spread of this atheistic war machine before it is too late, …, and before the nation’s last young man has given his blood on some battlefield for the hubris of a sub-human.”

13. The second leaflet • This leaflet called the German intellectuals to come out of hiding and fight the system. • This was the only leaflet that specifically mentions the Jews. • “… since the conquest of Poland three hundred thousand Jews have been murdered in this country in the most bestial way.” • “Why do the German people behave so apathetically in the face of all these abominable crimes, crimes so unworthy of the human race?”

14. The third leaflet • “… why do you not bestir yourselves, why do you allow these men who are in power to rob you step by step, openly and in secret, of one domain of your rights after another, until one day nothing, nothing at all will be left but a mechanized state system presided over by criminals and drunks?” • Suggests that only passive resistance is left open to them – sabotage of every thing possible

15. The fourth leaflet • “Therefore we must warn against all optimism.” • “Neither Hitler and Goebbels can have counted the dead.” • “We must attack evil where it is strongest, and it is strongest in the power of Hitler.” • “We will not be silent. We are your bad conscience. The White Rose will not leave you in peace.”

16. The fifth leaflet • “A Call to all Germans!” • “It has become a mathematical certainty that Hitler is leading the German people into the abyss. Hitler cannot win the war; he can only prolong it.” • “Germans! Do you and your children want to suffer the same fate that befell the Jews?” • “Are we to be forever the nation which is hated and rejected by all mankind? No.”

17. The sixth leaflet • “Fellow Fighters in the Resistance!” • “Three hundred and thirty thousand German men have been senselessly and irresponsibly driven to death and destruction by the inspired strategy of our World War I Private First Class. Furher, we thank you!” • “We grew up in a state in which all free expression of opinion is unscrupulously suppressed.” • “For us there is but one slogan: fight against the party!”

18. Outcomes • The spread of The White Rose • What Happened to the members of the White Rose? • There is a memorial to The White Rose • There are also streets, schools, and plazas named for the members of The White Rose

19. White Rose Memorial

20. Discussion Questions • Has anyone ever heard of any other Nazi resistance groups? • Why did more people not join the resistance efforts? • Why did these people stand against Hitler and the Nazis? Would you call them heroes or fools? • Why did they choose this method of resistance? Was it successful? • Would you have joined them? Especially, if you knew it could mean death: for you, and for any of the people close to you.

21. Works Cited • http://weisse-rose-crailsheim.de/index.php?show=hans-scholl&seite=3 (picture of Hans Scholl- military) • http://www.dkp-karlsruhe.de/geschichte/antifaschismus/hans-scholl-weisse-rose.html (Hans Scholl – civilian) • http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/fr/media_ph.php?ModuleId=65&MediaId=1230 (Christoph Probst) • whiterose.jpgadupci.jpg, image/jpeg, 450x308 (Sophie with Hans and Christoph) • http://www.holocaustresearchproject.org/revolt/images/SophieScholl.jpg (Sophie Scholl)

22. Works Cited • http://www.holocaustresearchproject.org/revolt/whiterose.html (Willi Graf) • http://www.holocaustresearchproject.org/revolt/whiterose.html (Professor Kurt Huber) • http://www.holocaustresearchproject.org/revolt/whiterose.html (Alexander Schmorell) • http://miami.indymedia.org/news/2006/05/4607.php (White Rose Memorial) • Scholl, Inge, and DorotheeSölle. The White Rose: Munich, 1942-1943. Middletown, Conn: Wesleyan University Press, 1983. Print.

23. Works Cited • Scholl, Hans, Inge Jens, and Sophie Scholl. At the Heart of the White Rose: Letters and Diaries of Hans and Sophie Scholl. New York: Harper & Row, 1987. Print.