“The secret group that stood up to the Nazis”
The White Rose was a student-based group in Germany, consisting of passive means of resistance. The students from the University of Munich, who would later form the White Rose group, spent years under Adolf Hitler’s dictatorship. Most of them participated in youth organizations that were made to spread Nazi idealism and loyalty. However, they became undeceived of Nazism.
The White Rose began to read anti-nazism preaches and attended classes with Professor Kurt Huber of the University of Munich. The students and Huber started to talk about how they can resist and eventually become the White Rose. They chose the name as it was intended to “represent purity in the face of evil.” Historians can not agree on why they decided to resist. It is believed that they disagreed with the Nazi ideology, and witnessed a mass shooting of naked Jews by German soldiers. The White Rose wanted this to change, later they were responsible for dispatching anonymous leaflets and graffiti campaigns that encouraged the opposition to the Nazi tyranny. These actions began to take place on the 27th of June 1942.
The White Rose movement was said to be doomed from the beginning as the anti-nazi speech was highly monitored. They were caught throwing leaflets from a balcony. Many of the members were either imprisoned or executed. The White Rose was only active from 1942-1943 but left a deep-rooted mark on history.
The White Rose wrote 6 leaflets in the hope to protest against the Nazi regime. This source is their first leaflet. In the first leaflet, they wanted to reimagine the glorious days of Germany. This was an attempt to stir the german citizens into knowing that they were living under national socialism and dictatorship. It is quite a reliable source as it is the exact same leaflet as the one written in 1942. The translation from german to English can create some mistakes within the source, and as these letters were written from the White Rose group's perspective, it creates some bias from their point of view.
'If everyone waits until the other man makes a start, the messengers of avenging Nemesis will come steadily closer.'