The White Rose
From 1933 to 1945, Germany was under the leadership of Adolf Hitler and the Nationalist Socialist German Party, or Nazi Party. The group promoted German pride and Anti-Semitism, hate towards Jews, and expressed disgust towards the Treaty of Versailles, a peace document signed between Germany and the Allies at the end of World War 1 (History.com Staff). In order to grow his movement, Hitler recruited Germans for his armies, his factory workers, and his death camp guards. Because of this, it was easy to assume that all Germans supported the Nazi dictatorship and the ideas they preached. However, throughout this time period many Germans of different political and religious beliefs came together to protest against the regime.
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Meanwhile for Sophie, as an art lover she watched her favorite artists leave the country because they refused to create the forms of art Hitler deemed acceptable. Also, she discovered that many of her favorite books were placed under the “ banned books” list because they had been written by Jewish authors. As a result of these experiences, both Hans and Sophie realized that Hitler was not proposing to build a new world for everyone, but that his true plan was to build a utopia where blond, blue-eyed Aryans thrived and those that did not match this description were imprisoned, tortured, and killed (“Hans Scholl”).
After years of mandatory national service, both Hans and Sophie found themselves attending the University of Munich. Because Hans had started going to the school a few years before Sophie joined him, he already had a group of friends that shared the same beliefs as him and his sister, so Sophie easily befriended them as well. Together they discussed the ugliness of war and Hitler’s actions. In time they came to believe that they should do more than just talk about their ideas and actually start acting upon them. The group decided to print and hand out leaflets calling resistance to Hitler, and began calling themselves the White Rose. Some of the members were Christoph Probst, Alexander Schmorell, Willi Graf, and even a philosophy professor at the university named Kurt Huber (“Hans Scholl”).
Between June 1942 and
"A Rose for Emily” written by William Faulkner is a short story that gives most people quite a shock when it comes to the ending. The story tells about how Miss Emily Grierson changes after her father dies. Miss Emily lives in a beautiful home with an African American servant named, Tobe. After Miss Emily’s father passed away she would never leave the house. Miss Emily was in denial about her father's death. For three days Emily would tell the townspeople that her father was not dead. The townspeople began to think Miss Emily was crazy because of her behavior, “Emily’s subsequent behavior clearly shows that the death of her father was a piece of reality disavowed by her ego” (Scherting). Including, Miss Emily wouldn't pay her taxes, the eerie smell around her house and the fact she killed her lover. Emily’s life, like her decaying house, starts to suffer from attention. What else could go wrong?
In the 1920’s and early 1930’s, the Nazi party appealed to many Germans because of the solutions they offered in times of despair. Their party valued unification under one leader to resolve the German economic crisis, restoring the German military, and abrogating the Versailles treaty. The Nazis appealed to the German people because of their demands in lieu of the Versailles treaty and in response to the economic crisis. The Treaty of Versailles had many consequences for Germans including the regulation of the German army and loss of several colonies.
Sophie and her brother both start as being fans of Nazism and Hitler’s rein. “Hans was an active Hitler Youth leader- all the children had been members of the movement- the most disturbing aspect of their lives had been the conflicts this had aroused with their fathers” (Dumbach 15). They did this even against their father’s wishes and beliefs. They thought that it was the right thing to do because all of the other children around them were doing this same thing. They saw it as an exciting thing to participate in. They “felt themselves a part in the rebuildings of their deeply divided and demoralized nation”(24). Before Hitler came to power, when they listened to him speak they liked what he had to say about the youth. However they ended up changing these views. “All of the Scholl children had grown disillusioned with National Socialism, and after a few tension-filled years, the family was reconciled” (Dumbach 15). They do this because “their family stood posed against a regime that was making increasing inroads into the peace and autonomy of their lives”(15). Also Hans was appalled by the rules that the Hitler Youth had in place. “[A]n early confrontation that raised within him doubts about the organization to
People are motivated to make a difference when they believe a change must be made and each person has their own motivation to make a change. They realize that they no longer like what is happening in the world, or even in their life, and they decide it must be changed. In A Noble Treason by Richard Hanser, Hans Scholl wants to make a difference and go up against Hitler by writing leaflets under the alias White Rose. Hans Scholl grew up in a family where his parents let him make his own choices and let him believe in whatever he wanted. They never pressured him into their choices and own beliefs. His father did not support Hitler and his beliefs, even though at the time, in Hans Scholl’s life Hitler was an incredibly prominent hero. Hans Scholl joined the Hitler Youth and fought for everything he believed was right. Hans soon realized he and Hitler did not see eye to eye on many things. Hans valued his individuality and Hitler took it from him. Hitler took away all creativity he personally found ugly and forced upon everyone what he thought was beauty. The leaflets Hans Scholl had written was his way of making a difference by bringing forward what the people of Germany may not have noticed was the reality of Hitler's actions. Hans Scholl’s motivation to make a difference was the fact that Hitler put limitations on everything, the more Hans Scholl wanted to learn, the more he was unable to do so, and this caused him to feel that he no longer had his freedom to be an individual.
The beginning of the Nazi Party can be traced back to 1919, just a year after the end of World War 1. Beginning with a group of unemployed soldiers unhappy about the Treaty of Versailles, the group quickly spiraled into a mass movement. In 1921, a former army veteran by the name of Adolf Hitler joined the association and quickly became the group's leader. Hitler soon began gaining new members as he went throughout the country advocating anti-semitism ideas and the idea that Germany would continue to suffer, unless their was a total revolution of German life where Jews and communists were eliminated. His ideas caught the attention of many, especially young, economically disadvantaged Germans, as they saw this as a chance to gain more than they ever had
The White Rose was a non-violent organization standing up against Nazis and the Holocaust. The founders of the White Rose were students at the University of Munich, Hans & Sophie Scholl, Christoph Probst, Willi Graf, and Alexander Schmorell. One of the reasons that the White Rose was and is still famous is because it was one of the first all German groups to stand up against the Nazis and thier genocidal policies. The main founder, Hans Scholl, started the movement with his sister and his friends because he was a soldier in the eastern front and saw what the Nazis were doing first hand. The way they all got the word out was with leaflets they made that put down the Nazi regime and encouraged the other students to join their cause. After Germany
“In 1942 Hans Scholl, a medical student at the University of Munich, his sister Sophie, Christoph Probst, Willi Graf, and Alexander Schmorell founded the “White Rose” movement, one of the few German groups that spoke out against Nazi genocidal policies.”
Hans Scholl was born in Forthenburg on September 22nd 1918 to Robert Scholl and Magdalena Scholl . His father, Robert Scholl, was elected mayor but was voted out of office in 1930 because he was considered too progressive. He had serval brothers and sisters, most notably Sophie but Hans was the oldest sibling. He went to secondary school in Kunzelsau until his family moved to Ulm. Although his father disagreed Hans and his brother, Werner, both joined the Hitler Youth. According to the Holocaust Education and Archive Research Team the Hitler Youth was “In 1920, Adolf Hitler, authorized the formation of a Youth League of the National Socialist Workers' Party (NSDAP) based upon the principles of an earlier German youth group known as as the
Nazi Germany was big in-group created by Adolf Hitler. They felt loyalty and brotherhood towards each other. Anyone besides them was a major out-group, such as the Jews. The rivalry and hatred they had for the Jews was a usual thing by other fellow Nazi. Such a big in-group had and influence on any Nazi to believe what they were doing is right. Group cohesion strongly powered the Nazi for the loyalty and solidarity. All the members felt strongly tied to each other as family in a way. Any one else was not like them and was to be treated differently. Adolf
Germans were drawn to Hitler’s promises and his pro-German rhetoric after many Germans felt cheated by the Treaty of Versailles. The Treaty of Versailles placed all the blame of World War I onto Germany, and that lead to resentment on behalf of the Germans. That is why Hitler was able to gain so much support, because he advocated for extreme German nationalism in a time in which the Germans were feeling neglected. This lead to people either turning a blind eye to the Holocaust, or just simply not realizing the magnitude of it due to their intense levels of
Schwabing is located upon many restaurants, bars and cafes that kept the college students busy during this time. This area enabled the White Rose to take off because it was a major site for countless atrocities happening during the time of the Third Reich. Members of the White Rose heard about and also saw the lies and horrible acts going on around them starting from a very young age, during programs that sold Hitler to youth populations. The city also gave Hans and Sophie Scholl access to other like-minded people who had their own reasoning for opening their eyes to Hitler’s evils and would eventually aid the White Rose in writing, editing, distributing and transporting the illegal leaflets; risking their lives doing so. The members of the White Rose were also influenced by the atrocities they had seen during wartime, both in the city and also on the battlefield. Even though these factors enabled the White Rose to take off, many of them can also be credited for assisting Hitler with his domination over
Sophie Scholl was brought up as a Lutheran Christian and then later joined a Nazi organization, which she initially enjoyed and had received a promotion, but however, became uneasy when her conscience being Christian did not line up with the creeping Nazi philosophy of the organization. In 1935, Hitler passed the rules Nuremburg laws which discriminated Jew’s, which banned them from going to many public places and prohibited them from joining groups that Sophie was in, which made her upset and more critical to Nazi Germany. In 1937, her brothers and a few of her friends were arrested for being a part of a German Youth Movement which reinforced her hostility to the Nazis. Later in 1942 her father was sent to prison after referring to Hitler as “God’s Scourge.” In that same year a non-violent anti-Nazi resistance group was formed by her brother Hans Scholl and a few friends. They created eight anti-Nazi pamphlets and they distributed them around the city. They also painted anti-Nazi slogans on buildings in Munich. On February 18, 1943, Sophie and other members of the White Rose
The group consisted of several university students from Munich as well as a philosophy professor, and unlike the group planning the 20 July plot, they were a group of intellectuals that did not use violence. They wrote a series of five leaflets, which stated crimes committed by the Nazi regime, for example the killing of 300,000 Jews (Housden, 1996, p. 89). On 18 February 1943 Hans and Sophie Scholl, the siblings the group had formed around, were arrested, because they were seen throwing between 1,500 and 1,800 flyers down the main staircase of Munich University (Housden, 1996, p. 91). Hans and Sophie Scholl, as well as other member of the White Rose resistance group, were tried and hanged. They acted out of moral obligation they felt because they were aware of Nazi crimes, and according to Stern thought their actions would cause fellow students to start a greater resistance, or even a revolution, than just their group (1975, as cited in Housden, 1996, p. 91).
The information about Hans and Sophie’s life are unfortunately limited up until 1933, although there is certainty that Hans was a member of a Protestant youth organization prior to year 1933. According to Inge Aicher Scholl’s book, the Scholl children went into HJ with their hearts and souls. They felt the fellowship, the common community, the mutual love for their mother country, but most importantly, they felt their
In Nazi, Germany during World War II in 1942 a group including Willi Graf, Alexander Schmorell, Kurt Huber Christoph Probst, Hans Scholl and his sister Sophie Scholl formed a non-violent resistance group that made leaflets. The group was influenced by a young German youth group that Chrisoph Probst was a member of. Hans Scholl was a member of the Hitler Youth until 1936 and Sophie was a member of the Bund Deutscher Mädel. Willi Graf was a member of Neudeutschland, a young catholic youth association. and the Grauer Orden. The group they all formed was called The White Rose. The group co-authored six anti-Nazi Third Reich political resistance leaflets (Lisciotto).