This Week in Germany - The Leaders of the White Rose are Arrested

This Week's Historical Theme: Germany

 

18 January 1943

 

A significant event throughout the history of Germany that occurred in February was the arrest of the White Rose resistance leaders, Hans Scholl and his sister Sophie. They had left a suitcase filled with copies of anti-Nazi leaflets in their main university building. This leaflet stated that "the day of reckoning has come, the reckoning of our German youth with the most abominable tyranny our people has ever endured." The pair were, however, spotted by a janitor, who reported them to the Gestapo. Turned over to Hitler's 'People's Court', a kangaroo court for dispatching dissidents quickly, the Scholls, along with another White Rose member, were sentenced to death, and beheaded on February 23.

 

The White Rose was composed of university students who spoke out against Adolf Hitler's regime. Hans Scholl was the founder and was a former member of the Hitler Youth who grew disenchanted with Nazi ideology once its real aims were evident. During the summer of 1942, Scholl and a friend had composed four leaflets, which exposed and denounced Nazi and SS atrocities, including the extermination of Jews and Polish nobility. The risks involved were enormous, as the lives of average civilians were monitored for any deviation from loyalty to the state. Even a casual remark critical of Hitler or the Nazis could result in arrest by the Gestapo, yet the students of the White Rose risked all.

 

Want to find out more about the White Rose? Click here for more information, or here for a film about the resistance group.