the white Rose (in German Die Weiße Pink ) is the name of a group of resistant German during the Second world war.

Historical context

During the Third Reich, the mode Nazi seeks to rejoin with its cause German youth by creating organizations reserved for this one. Among these organizations, one can quote in particular the Deutsches Jungvolk for the 10-14 years and the Jeunesses hitlériennes for the 14-18 years. Adhesion with these organizations is obligatory in Germany starting from 1936. Inge Scholl, witness of privileged resistance, because younger sister by the one of the founders of the movement, in his book the White Rose , watch the fascination which these communities could generate on the young Germans:

“Another thing allured us, which covered for us a mysterious power: youth ravelling in tightened rows, floating flags, with the sound of the drum rolls and the songs. Didn't this community have something of invincible? ”

Activity of the group

Foundation

the white Rose is founded in spring 1942 in a workshop of painting of Munich, by Hans Scholl and Alexander Schmorell. The young students refuse to accept the Totalitarisme in which Germany of Third Reich is and want to safeguard their independence vis-a-vis the threat Nazi. The majority of the students are catholic. Hans Scholl was inspired in particular by sermons of M {{gr.}} Von Galen, bishop of Münster.

They discuss the political situation with Kurt Huber, professor at the university of Munich, famous for its courses of Philosophie which influence many students. Kurt Huber, initially opposed to the idea of revolt towards a country which he likes, ends up completely supporting his pupils who founded the white Rose . Revolted by the Dictatorship hitlérienne and the sufferings caused by the war, the students decide to act during the summer 1942.

Development

Hans Scholl and Alexander Schmorell write the first four leaflets. They send them by the post office in intellectuals (writers, professors, doctors) selected in Munich, who are charged to reproduce these leaflets and to return them to the greatest possible number of people. Inspired thinkers like Goethe and Aristote, their writings contain also biblical passages .

Hans Scholl, Willi Graf and Alexander Schmorell are sent on the face of the East in July 1942 as male nurses of the Wehrmacht. On their return at the end of the year, they contact the red Orchestre.

The fifth leaflet is written during the winter 42 - 43, with the paroxysm of the Bataille of Stalingrad. It is distributed to thousands of specimens in several big cities (Munich, Augsburg, Stuttgart, Frankfurt, Salzburg and Vienna). Pacifist slogans and antifascists on the walls, and of the bread collections for the prisoners of the concentration camps are added to the actions of the group, constant as from 1943 by intellectuals of the south of Germany or Berlin.

The sixth leaflet, written by Kurt Huber after the defeat of Stalingrad, of which the militants of the white Rose thought that it would ring the knell of Third Reich, in February 1943, is diffused with more 2  000 specimens. February 18th, 1943, Hans Scholl and her sister Sophie, also very committed in the movement, and which had like his/her brother granted a blind confidence to the Hitler chancellor, before sharing its disappointment, launch hundreds of leaflets in the interior court of the university of Munich. But they are denounced by the caretaker and decrees by the Gestapo.

The lawsuit

Hans and Sophie Scholl, like another member of the network, Christoph Probst, are judged by the Volksgerichtshof (“Court of the People”) chaired by Roland Freisler, especially come from Berlin, which seeks to humiliate them deeply. They are all the three condemned to death, their action being regarded by the Nazis as a major political crime. During the lawsuit, Sophie Scholl, who had a leg broken during her “interrogation” by Gestapo and appears on crutches, faces him a courage inébranlable and declares:

“What we said and writes, much thinks it. But they do not dare to express it. ”

The lawsuit lasts hardly 3 hours. They are decapitated in the prison of Stadelheim, close to Munich, the very same day of their judgment, on February 22nd, 1943, in spite of the German legislation which imposes a 99 days deadline before the execution of one condemned. The other resistant ones, Alexander Schmorell, Willi Graf and professor Huber are decapitated a few months later. On the whole, 16 resistant of the movement pays of their life, either by execution, or by ill treatments in the camps.

Today

• the place of the university of Munich took their name ( Geschwister-Scholl-Platz ), and it is a memorial there.
• a literary prize, the Price brother and sister Scholl, was created in 1980.

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