White Rose

The White Rose (German: Weiße Rose, pronounced [ˈvaɪsə ˈʁoːzə] ^ⓘ) was a non-violent, intellectual resistance group in Nazi Germany which was led by five students and one LMU Munich professor: Willi Graf, Kurt Huber, Christoph Probst, Alexander Schmorell, and Hans and Sophie Scholl. The group conducted an anonymous leaflet and graffiti campaign that called for active opposition to the Nazi regime, beginning in Munich on 27 June 1942. Their activities ended with the arrest of the core group by the Gestapo on 18 February 1943.

Graf, Huber, Probst, Schmorell, and the Scholl siblings, alongside other members and supporters of the group who carried on distributing the pamphlets, faced show trials by the Nazi People's Court (Volksgerichtshof); many of them were imprisoned and executed. Hans Scholl and Sophie Scholl, as well as Probst, were executed by guillotine four days after their arrest, on 22 February 1943. During the trial, Sophie interrupted the judge multiple times. No defendants were given any opportunity to speak.

The group wrote, printed, and initially distributed their pamphlets in the greater Munich region. Later on, secret carriers brought copies to other cities, mostly in the southern parts of Germany. In July 1943, Allied planes dropped their sixth and final leaflet over Germany with the headline The Manifesto of the Students of Munich. In total, the White Rose authored six leaflets, which were multiplied and spread, in a total of about 15,000 copies. They denounced the Nazi regime's crimes and oppression, and called for resistance. In their second leaflet, they denounced the persecution and mass murder of the Jews. By the time of their arrest, the members of the White Rose were just about to establish contacts with other German resistance groups like the Kreisau Circle or the Schulze-Boysen/Harnack group of the Red Orchestra. In the 21st century, the White Rose is well known both within Germany and worldwide.