"WHITE ROSE" PEACE AND JUSTICE HEROES REMEMBERED

Early in 1942 Nazi leadership officially decided on the total annihilation of European Jews.

Three students from the University of Munich observed the murder of Jews by SS troops on the Eastern Front. Joining with other students and one professor in Munich they engaged in intentional civil disobedience against the Nazi regime by writing and distributing leaflets under the name “The White Rose” advocating passive resistance to the Nazi war effort and by painting “Freedom” and “Down with Hitler” graffiti on buildings in Munich.

The leaflets included the warning ”Do not forget that every nation deserves the government that it endures.” Allied planes dropped copies over Germany with the heading “The Manifesto of the Students of Munich.”

In 1943 a Nazi party member reported Hans Scholl and his sister Sophie throwing leaflets from a University of Munich classroom building. They were arrested and tried without any opportunity to speak. Sophie did interrupt the judge multiple times. Four days after their arrest, Hans, Sophie, and another member of their group was beheaded. Later others in their group were executed.

White Rose remains an inspiration to those who remember.