Active between June 1942 to February 1943, The White Rose Movement was started in 1942 by a group of students at the University of Munich. This consisted of the siblings of Hans and Sophie Scholl, Christoph Probs, Willi Graf and Alexander Schmorell, all students in their twenties. They were guided and lead by the philosophy professor at Munich University, Kurt Huber. Hans Scholl, personally, saw firsthand Jewish forced labourers and the deportation of Jews to concentration camps; this sparked the beginning of the organization. ”[The White Rose members] had witnessed the atrocities of the war, both on the battlefield and against the civilian population in the East, and sensed that the reversal of fortune that the Wehrmacht suffered at Stalingrad would eventually lead to Germany's defeat. |
They rejected fascism and militarism and believed in a federated Europe that adhered to principles of tolerance and justice.” (The White Rose Revolt and Resistance). White Rose was the most famous civilian and passive resistance group in Nazi Germany during World War Two. Since, there was believed to be informants watching everywhere, membership of the movement was extremely small and everyone knew each other; keeping the group small allowed for each member to be convinced of each other's loyalty.
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They were known for opposing Hitler, Nazis, Nazi genocidal policies and the Second World War. According to a close friend of Alexander Schmorell, Furst-Ramdor said ”The group couldn't understand how German people had been so easily led into supporting the Nazi Party and its ideology.” (BBC News – White Rose: The Germans who tried to topple Hitler). The main action of The White Rose movement was to produce and create leaflets of anti-Nazi and anti-war content to spread the moral sin of the government's doing. However, The White Rose Movement did not end as well as they hoped and the members paid a terrible price.
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