The White Rose

«Gestern am späten Abend schaute ich eine weiße Rose. Man sagt, weiße Blumen seien für die Toten - aber Tod, Liebe und Jugend sind eins. (Die Toten, soweit die wirklich in uns leben, leben ja nur verklärt als Bilder leuchtender Jugend!) Deshalb auch ist gerade die weiße Rose in ihrem Duft und ihrer zarten Reinheit, Sinnbild ewiger Jugend.» English Translation -F. Rook, in einem Brief an Lilo Ramdohr, 1941

In 1942, a group of university students in Munich set out to do what few Germans had dared - defy Hitler. They knew from the start that were they to be caught, it would mean certain death, and yet they acted anyway. Calling themselves the "White Rose", they set out to try to build up some sort of popular resistance to the Nazi regime by distributing leaflets throughout Germany urging Germans to resist by any means.

The day did come when they were caught, and, in the end, Alexander Schmorell, Hans Scholl, Sophie Scholl, Christoph Probst, Willi Graf, Professor Kurt Huber, and later Hans Leipelt would be executed for high treason due to their involvement with the White Rose.

Many consider them fools for paying such a high price for the sake of a few words printed on such poor paper. However, all of them were certain that there were things much worse than death, such as living life as a slave to evil. Each was convinced that death on earth was not the end, and that by God's grace, they would merely be making the transition to life eternal.