Disclaimer: The following blog post is not a reflection of the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s opinion on the below topics.
By Talia Lunken
In Munich, Germany, in the summer of 1942, there was an explosion of youth resistance activities.[2] Hans Scholl, a student at the University of Munich, made friends with Alexander Schmorell, Christl Probst, and Will Graf, and the four students became a group. Hans’s sister, Sophie Scholl, was able to start at the university when she turned 21 and she soon joined the group. The students discovered Professor Huber, and he at times joined the group, carrying on discussions.
When Sophie had barely been in Munich for 6 weeks, in the summer of 1942, leaflets were being passed around at the university, with the heading, “The Leaflets of the White Rose.”[3] They read, “Nothing is so unworthy of a civilized nation as allowing itself to be ‘governed’ without opposition by an irresponsible clique that has yielded to base instinct. It is certain that today every honest German is ashamed of his government.”[4] Sophie soon found out Hans had written the leaflet. Within a few weeks, the group The White Rose, produced three more leaflets. The leaflets were found all throughout the city, outside the university, and sporadically appeared in mailboxes.[5] The timing of the leaflets “could scarcely have been worse” as there was more territory than ever before being occupied by the German troops and the greater part of the German population was inclined to accept the Nazis rather than resist.”[6]
The criticism being voiced by the group in their resistance had never in wartime Germany been articulated in such an accessible and public form. They spoke openly and in detail about Nazi atrocities. They called for the passive resistance of all sectors of public life. The leaflets on one hand contained, “extremely aggressive language and style, which lashed out against the regime with biblical wrath and apocalyptic metaphors” and “on the other the employment of classical texts on ideal political and social systems.”[7] However, only the educated middle class, a small section of the German population, was able to properly and completely understand the content of the leaflets and what the group was trying to say.[8] The initial intent of the leaflets was to provide both classical German intellectual and Christian humanist arguments against the Nazi ideology foundation. They pointed out contradictions between what was considered true German values and the Nazi ideology.[9]
The men were sent to Russia to aid in the war cause and prior to leaving they discussed expanding the group and the action of The White Rose being fully developed upon return. Once back, the group began to meet in a back lot in a sort of garden house that an artist Hans was on close terms with allowed them usage of. The group often met there, sometimes working long nights in the basement at the duplicating machine making the leaflets. The group soon realized how lonely they were as for their closest friends to just know of what was going on was a tremendous danger. They didn’t know if they were already under surveillance.
Aside from the preparation of the leaflets, the distribution of them was a very important task. They needed to have the leaflets appear in the highest possible number of cities in order for their cause to be as effective as possible. The students would pack suitcases with the leaflets and ride with the dangerous cargo to all throughout Germany. They needed to get past a variety of patrols of the army, police, and Gestapo, who checked the trains and sometimes the luggage.[10]
The final two leaflets, totaling six, were distributed in January and February of 1943. These last two leaflets called on Germans to confront the evil of the national socialist regime.[11] Not only was resistance done in the form of leaflets, but on three different nights in February 1943, Willi Graf, Alexander Schmorell, and Hans Scholl painted slogans on the walls near the university. These slogans read “Freiheit!”, translated from German to English as “Freedom!” and “Nieder mit Hitler!”, translated from German to English as “Down with Hitler!”[12]
Upon working on the last leaflet, Hans got a warning that the Gestapo, the secret police of Nazi Germany, were onto his track and he would be arrested within a few days. His energy redoubled in the following days and on February 18, 1943, Sophie and Hans packed a suitcase with leaflets prior to going to the university. Once they arrived at the university they deposited the leaflets quickly, a few minutes before the lecture rooms opened. They disposed of the remainder by letting them fall from the top of the staircase down into the entrance hall. Just as they were about to leave they were spotted by the building superintendent and were turned over to the Gestapo who brought them to prison. They were interrogated for hours and soon found out that Christl Probst was brought in a few hours later. Each of the three was determined to take the blame for everything.[13] They were formally charged on February 21, 1943, with having committed “treasonable acts likely to advance the enemy cause” and conspiring to commit “high treason and demoralization of the troops.”[14] The students did not have an opportunity to select a defense lawyer, instead, they were appointed a lawyer who was, “little more than helpless puppet.”[15] Four days after the arrests, Hans Scholl, Sophie Scholl, and Christl Probst were executed.[16]
The University made no effort to protect or defend the students and publicly dissociated from them by disbarring the imprisoned students from further studies anywhere in Germany. Professor Kurt Huber was formally stripped of his PHD title on February 22, 1943, the same day Hans, Sophie, and Christl were executed. Nazi-appointed student leaders organized a “demonstration of loyalty” on the same evening in the university auditorium. The intention was to make it clear that the members of The White Rose were “typical loners.”[18]
One arrest after the other was followed just a few months later. At the second trial on April 19, 1943, Professor Huber, Willi Graf, and Alexander Schmorell, the rest of the inner circle of the group, were sentenced to death, and an additional 11 defendants were brought to court. Alexander Schmorell and Professor Huber were executed on July 13, 1943, and Willi Graff on October 12, 1943. There was hardly a word in public print about these important trials, but the news spread like wildfire, even to Russia and it brought a wave of relief to concentration camps, prisons, and ghettos.[19]
The movement expanded beyond Munich. It moved to Berlin with a medical student of Hans forming a resistance cell and distributing copies of the leaflets. In Freiburg, many students were inspired by the Munich circle. One girl brought the leaflets to Hamburg and another small group of students took the initiative in spreading the movement. During the fall of 1942, and especially in the spring and summer of 1943, a resistance began under the name of the “Hamburg Branch of the White Rose.”[20] The expansion of the White Rose shows how impactful the Munich group’s message was.
The White Rose was a non-violent resistance group in Nazi Germany that was started by five university students and a professor. Hans Scholl and Sophie Scholl, brother and sister are remembered today for their resistance by the “Geschwister-Scholl Platz” at the University of Munich. “Geschwister-Scholl” translates to brother and sister Scholl.[21] The group represents the importance of standing up for one’s beliefs even in the face of danger.
[1]Scholl, Inge. The White Rose: Munich 1942–1943. Translated by Arthur R. Schultz. Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press, 1983.
[2]Falzone, Jacob. The White Rose and the Politics of War Remembrance in Postwar Germany (1945-1952): A Historical Literary Analysis of Inge Aicher-Scholl’s Book The White Rose and Its Contribution to the Lasting Legacy of Hans Scholl, Sophie Scholl, and The White Rose, 2019. https://jstor.org/stable/community.29484323.
[3]Scholl, Inge. The White Rose: Munich 1942–1943. Translated by Arthur R. Schultz. Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press, 1983.
[4]Ibid.
[5]Ibid.
[6]Niklas Holzberg. “Lycurgus in Leaflets and Lectures: The Weiße Rose and Classics at Munich University, 1941–45.” Arion: A Journal of Humanities and the Classics 23, no. 1 (2015): 33–52. https://doi.org/10.2307/arion.23.1.0033.
[7]Ibid.
[8]Ibid.
[9]Falzone, Jacob. The White Rose and the Politics of War Remembrance in Postwar Germany (1945-1952): A Historical Literary Analysis of Inge Aicher-Scholl’s Book The White Rose and Its Contribution to the Lasting Legacy of Hans Scholl, Sophie Scholl, and The White Rose, 2019. https://jstor.org/stable/community.29484323.
[10]Scholl, Inge. The White Rose: Munich 1942–1943. Translated by Arthur R. Schultz. Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press, 1983.
[11]Menke, Martin. “Thy Will Be Done: German Catholics and National Identity in the Twentieth Century.” The Catholic Historical Review 91, no. 2 (2005): 300–320. http://www.jstor.org/stable/25026837.
[12]Niklas Holzberg. “Lycurgus in Leaflets and Lectures: The Weiße Rose and Classics at Munich University, 1941–45.” Arion: A Journal of Humanities and the Classics 23, no. 1 (2015): 33–52. https://doi.org/10.2307/arion.23.1.0033.
[13]Scholl, Inge. The White Rose: Munich 1942–1943. Translated by Arthur R. Schultz. Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press, 1983.
[14]Niklas Holzberg. “Lycurgus in Leaflets and Lectures: The Weiße Rose and Classics at Munich University, 1941–45.” Arion: A Journal of Humanities and the Classics 23, no. 1 (2015): 33–52. https://doi.org/10.2307/arion.23.1.0033.
[15]Scholl, Inge. The White Rose: Munich 1942–1943. Translated by Arthur R. Schultz. Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press, 1983.
[16]Falzone, Jacob. The White Rose and the Politics of War Remembrance in Postwar Germany (1945-1952): A Historical Literary Analysis of Inge Aicher-Scholl’s Book The White Rose and Its Contribution to the Lasting Legacy of Hans Scholl, Sophie Scholl, and The White Rose, 2019. https://jstor.org/stable/community.29484323.
[17]Malloryk. “Sophie Scholl and the White Rose: The National WWII Museum: New Orleans.” The National WWII Museum | New Orleans, February 21, 2020. https://www.nationalww2museum.org/war/articles/sophie-scholl-and-white-rose.
[18]Niklas Holzberg. “Lycurgus in Leaflets and Lectures: The Weiße Rose and Classics at Munich University, 1941–45.” Arion: A Journal of Humanities and the Classics 23, no. 1 (2015): 33–52. https://doi.org/10.2307/arion.23.1.0033.
[19]Scholl, Inge. The White Rose: Munich 1942–1943. Translated by Arthur R. Schultz. Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press, 1983.
[20]Ibid.
[21]Scholl, Hans, and Sophie Scholl. At the Heart of the White Rose: Letters and Diaries of Hans and Sophie Scholl. Edited by Inge Jens. Translated by J. Maxwell Brownjohn. New York: Harper & Row, 1987.