August 6, 2019 • 22 mins
Nazi Germany was oppressive, racist, and barbaric. Dissidents were arrested and killed under the Nazi regime. Still, vocal opponents of the government emerged. Some of them were involved in the White Rose, a nonviolent resistance group that distributed leaflets informing people of the Nazis’ atrocities and urging them to break their silence. Two people involved in that group were a sister and brother named Sophie and Hans Scholl.
In this episode, we trace the Scholls’ path to resistance and look back on their efforts, which were cut short when the Nazis ordered their execution. What’s the value of spreading awareness against the state when it’s so massive, powerful, and unrelenting?
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
The construction of American exceptionalism would have us believe that
America has always taken the moral high ground, and that
it has always acted flawlessly in its pursuit of liberty.
I believe in American exceptionalism with every fiber of my being.
But what makes us exceptional is not our ability to
(00:21):
flout international norms and the rule of law. It is
our willingness to affirm them through our actions. The ideals
of American greatness and superiority require us to believe in
an America that is good, just, and benevolent. That America
is unique in that it's built differently. I, an American,
(00:43):
have seen the myths of exceptionalism unraveled by the realities
of American injustices, America's similarities to other countries, American hypocrisy,
and American distortions of history. Slavery happened in the United States.
Eugenics programs in the United States inspired ones in Nazi Germany.
(01:05):
Concentration and interment camps have been sites of persecution for
Indigenous people, black people, Japanese people, immigrants, and dissidents in
US history. The exaltation of America's values, status, and rarity
does it not change the truth of the history and
present of the United States. America's redeeming qualities cannot paper
(01:28):
over the crimes and moral failings the country has been
complicit in. The U S is very good at leaving
misdeeds unacknowledged. It's perfected the art of saying we're not
as bad as them or better, yet saying what we
did was justified and we're still above everyone else. A
(01:49):
lot of Americans have no problem saying that the past
stays in the past and we can only get better
by looking forward completely ignoring causality, denialism, and revisionism keeps
folks in states of ignorance or comfort. America is so
often unexceptional. There have been many instances where people have
(02:12):
had to pressure America into being exceptional. There will never
be a time when the US or whatever country you
live in, will be perfect or above making poor decisions.
There will always be a need for dissenters, for protesters
and rebels who hold a mirror up to society and
remind us that we are capable of choosing differently. I'm
(02:42):
each deaf coote and this is unpopular A show about
people who didn't let the threat of persecution keep them
from speaking truth to power. Germany was under the oppressive
rule of Adolf Hitler and his Nazi Party from nineteen
thirty three to nineteen forty five. During this period, called
Nazi Germany or the Third Reich, the country was subject
(03:05):
to totalitarianism, propaganda, militant and racist foreign policy, suppression of
rights and opposition, and genocide. Millions of people died in
the Holocaust and many more were persecuted, displaced, and traumatized.
The scale and reach that the Holocaust had was huge.
The Nazis doled out terror and depravity in so many
(03:28):
different ways, but anti Nazi resistance was strong too, and
it came from many different angles. People protested and fought
the Nazi regime on spiritual, economic, political, or moral basis.
Some helped Jewish people hide from the Nazis and took
risks to rescue Jewish people. Some focused on raising awareness
(03:52):
about the vileness and cruelty of the regime. Others planned
to assassinate Hitler. Resistance forts were active inside Germany and beyond.
The totalitarian state was powerful, fearsome, and brutal, and survival
alone was hard enough for the many people being persecuted
in Europe at the time, but organized and disorganized action
(04:17):
against the Nazis did happen, from the efforts of individuals
like Otto and Alisa Hampel, who left postcards denouncing the
regime in public places, to the resistance of White Rose,
a non violent anti Nazi resistance group that formed in
nineteen forty two. This is where today's resistors Hans and
(04:38):
his younger sister's official come in. The brother and sister duo,
along with Christoph Props, Billy Groth, and Alexander Schmarrill, founded
the so called White Rose movement. The group disseminated leaflets
that denounced the Nazis and attempted to renew the quote
severely wounded German spirit. The some groups did aspire to
(05:01):
overthrow Hitler's regime, many others were not as revolutionary, and
we're sure only military might could topple the current order.
The Shoals have become disillusioned with the regime and recognized
the necessity of opposing it. So they did just that,
and they called on other people to do the same.
(05:25):
Here's how their awareness turned into action. Zophie and Hans
were born to Robert and Magdalena Shoal. Robert was a
mayor at the time of Zophie's birth, though he later
lost that position. Both he and Magdalena opposed Hitler, who
put the propaganda machine to work and was able to
(05:46):
get a bunch of people behind him and his image
by drawing division, taking advantage of people's vulnerabilities and prejudices,
and making people believe that he was putting Germany first
and that they could win World War Two. Beyond all
the enthusiastic support he received from adults, Hitler also strove
(06:07):
to indoctrinate young Germans with allegiance to National Socialism a
k a. Nazism, So, despite their parents encouragement of critical
thinking and opposition to the regime, Hans ended up joining
the Hitler Youth, the Nazi Party's youth organization designed to
brainwash boys and young men with Nazi ideology and send
(06:29):
them to war, and Sophie joined the League of German Girls,
the equivalent indoctrinating body for girls and young women. They
were part of the Nazi bandwagon, believing that Hitler and
his ideology would advance the nation. Hans even became a
squad leader of his young Vaulk Unit something to keep
(06:50):
in mind. Hitler was at this time espousing the idea
of a master race, its superiority and its entitlement to
expand into more territories. But their involvement in the Nazi
Party did not last long. They had grown distrustful of
the Nazis and frustrated with the forced discipline and conformity.
A book by hans favorite author Stefan Zwag was banned
(07:13):
by the Nazis. Hans even broke off from the Nazi
youth organization Informed, one of his own, which was later
banned because its activities were considered subversive. His discontent was growing. Also,
Zophie was unhappy with school curriculum, which was centered around
promoting Nazi ideology. She once wrote, sometimes school seems like
(07:37):
a film to me. I look on, but for all
intents and purposes, I'm excluded from performing. Zophie, Hans, and
their siblings Inga and Verner were all either questioned, arrested,
or jailed for taking actions that were forbidden by the Nazis,
like freely exchanging opinions, and the siblings father Robert, continued
(07:59):
to push back against Nazi policy through small acts of resistance,
like listening to outlawed radio stations that gave war reports
that nationalized stations did not. Sophie was required to serve
six months in the Reich National Labor Service, and in
nineteen forty one she began working as an attendant in
a kindergarten attached to a munitions factory. While there, she
(08:24):
had to go to ideological training sessions. Hans was also
losing faith in the regime's commitment to bettering Germany. He
built roade for the Autobahn under the National Labor Service,
and he went on to join the army in study medicine.
While a soldier on the Eastern Front, he witnessed Nazi
terrorism of Jewish people and heard of the massive deportations
(08:47):
to concentration camps. On top of this, in nineteen forty two,
his father was sentenced to four months in prison for
professing to a colleague his hatred of the Nazi regime.
By the time Hans returned from war, his disillusionment, dislike
of Nazi ideology, and consciousness of the horrors of concentration
(09:09):
camps all piled on one another to inspire his anti
Nazi resistance. The Grand Facade of Hitler's better Germany and
better world had dissolved for Zophie too. When we get
back from the break, we'll get into Hans and Zophie's
risky resistance efforts. Tons of Germans supported Hitler and wrote
(09:40):
the Nazi wave right into the Holocaust. Those were not
just extremists and power hungry politicians, but your regular townsfolk
to shop owners, doctors, teachers. Hitler gained support through indoctrination, terror, propaganda, coercion,
ideological pandering, personality, cult building, and exploiting and dismantling systems.
(10:05):
People who are already vulnerable, impressionable, polarized, or disillusioned can
be easily influenced into taking a morally questionable stance. The
status quo can change in an instant, even if it's
taken years to get to a point, say one where
gay marriage is legal or children are being forcefully separated
(10:29):
from their parents by the state. Major changes will happen
during our lifetime and will be presented with an opportunity
to either embrace the change or not. Hans and Zophie
at first joined the masses who were receptive of Nazism
and supported Hitler's vision as they dove deeper into the
(10:49):
ideology and were exposed to the horrible, brutal reality of
its extremity. They realized that it did not align with
their worldview, and they chose to rejected. And then they
went beyond rejecting the new status quo of fascism, racism
and extreme nationalism to raise others awareness and push them
(11:11):
toward resistance. The degeneration of Germany under Nazism is a
serious and drastic shift in society. It's the type of
change that seems impossible before it's happening, and then you're
in the middle of figuring out how to deal with it.
But as history has proven, these kinds of unfathomable changes
(11:35):
do happen. They happen all over the world. There is
no place that is above reproach. In early twentieth century Germany,
the status quo quickly became genocide and oppression. There were
those who welcomed or condoned the new normal, and then
there were those who chose to challenge and disrupt it.
(11:59):
Hans was studying medicine at the University of Munich. There
he linked up with other people who questioned Nazi ideology,
including Christoph Popes Alexander Schmorell and Billy Groth Court Ubert,
a professor at the university, inserted veiled criticism of the
Nazis and his lectures and his classes also became a
(12:20):
point of congregation for students who opposed the regime. The
group of students that held anti Nazi discussions and meetings
became known as the White Rose. For reasons that remain unclear,
Hans emerged as a leader of the group Tauta. The Friends,
Lela Ramdar and Jesula Schertling also soon became involved in
(12:45):
the White Rose group. But facilitating political and intellectual discussion
groups was not enough in the face of Nazi persecution
and execution of Jewish people, Pish people, gay people, people
with disabilities, and others deemed unfit or inferior to the
(13:07):
so called Master race. The Nazis were also executing communists
and people who resisted the regime. Though the group was
at first about the Friends shared interests in things like art, music, literature,
and philosophy, the oppression, crimes and atrocities perpetrated by the
government were unavoidable. The Friends could not ignore the deterioration
(13:32):
of society under Nazi rule. In favor of remaining loyal
to Germany. In n years after World War Two and
the end of the White Rose, Jurgen Wittenstein said that
it was not good enough to keep to oneself one's
beliefs and ethical standards, but that the time had come
(13:52):
to act. The group got ahold of a secondhand duplicating machine,
a typewriter, printing paper, and stencils. In June of nineteen
forty two, they began producing leaflets called Leaves of the
White Rose that called out the regime for brutality and
encourage people to resist. Here's a translation of part of
(14:12):
the first leaflet. If the German people are already so
corrupted and spiritually crushed that they do not raise a
hand frivolously trusting in a questionable faith in lawful order
of history, If they surrender man's highest principle, that which
raises him above all other God's creatures, his free will,
(14:33):
If they abandoned the will to take decisive action and
turn the wheel of history, and thus subjected to their
own rational decision, If they are so devoid of all individuality,
have already gone so far along the road towards turning
into a spiritless and cowardly mass, then yes, they deserve
(14:53):
their downfall. The leaflet also urged people to offer passive
resistance to quote forestall the spread of this atheistic war
machine before it is too late. There were literary and
historical allusions in the text. They wanted people to recognize
the catastrophe that was Nazism, to reject indifference in silence,
(15:18):
and take action against Nazi ideology and warfare. And the
text asked people to make copies of the leaflet and
distribute them. After Zophie enrolled at the University of Munich
in mid nineteen forty two, she found out about the
leaflets and White Rose and decided to join the effort.
The first four leaflets were written in June and July
(15:40):
of nineteen forty two. The White Rose mailed the leaflets
to people in Germany, put them in telephone boxes, and
took them via train two cities outside of Munich. Many
of the leaflets were turned over to the Gestapo or
the secret State police, who were becoming more concerned about
the effect the content have on Germans. The people in
(16:02):
the White Roads were also using graffiti to express their
opposition to the regime, Painting graffiti on buildings in Munich
that said things like freedom and down with Hitler. Students
in Berlin, Friburg, Hamburg and Vienna heated the call to
protest the regime and helped spread the resistance. After the break,
(16:28):
Hans and Sophie, like many others in the Nazi resistance,
are caught. The last two leaflets were labeled as leaflets
(16:51):
of the Resistance Movement of Germany and written in early
nine By this point, the Gestapo considered the leaflet a
huge problem and we're investigating involvement in the White Rose.
But at the University of Munich there was an apparent
spirit of rebellion. So on February eighth, nineteen, Hans and
(17:14):
Sophie took a big risk in deciding to distribute leaflets
throughout the university. They put stacks of the sixth leaflet
in the school's hallways and through the leftover leaflets off
the top of a staircase and into the entrance hall.
Thousands of copies of White Rose leaflets had been passed
out by this point, but this action was the one
(17:37):
that would get Hans and Sophie captured. Jacob Smid, a
janitor at the university spotted them distributing the leaflets, and
they were turned into the Gestapo. Christoph Props was also
arrested when a draft of a leaflet he wrote was
found in Hans's pocket. Hans, Sophie, and Christoph stood trial
(17:58):
at Munich's Palace of Justice on February, just four days
after they passed out the leaflets at the university. They
were all found guilty of high treason. Judge Holland Freisler
sat the following. The accused have, by means of leaflets,
(18:20):
in a time of war, called for the sabotage of
the war effort and armaments, and for the overthrow of
the national socialist way of life of our people, have
propagated defeatist ideas, and have most vulgarly to fame the
for thereby giving aid to the enemy of the Reich
and weakening the armed security of the nation. On this
(18:41):
account they are to be punished by death. Their honor
and rights as citizens are forfeited for all time. The
two show siblings and Christoph were executed by guillotine hours
after they were sentenced to death. Other people involved in
the White Rose for Existance were arrested and executed, including
(19:03):
court uber Billy Groff and Alexander Schmorell. After the sixth
White Rose Leaflet was smuggled out of Germany, Allied forces
intercepted them and dropped copies over Germany. Germany didn't surrender
in World War Two until May of nineteen Hans Zophie
and the White Rose Leaflets were a small part of
(19:25):
the larger resistance to Nazi domination. Their denouncement of the
regime and exposure of its atrocities helped create a network
of agitators who refused to stay silent while Germany descended
into depravity. The White Roses sixth leaflet proclaimed a day
of reckoning. It said this freedom and honor. For ten
(19:50):
long years, Hitler and his coadjutor have manhandled, squeezed, twisted,
and debased these two splendid German words to the point
of nausea, as only dilettants can casting the highest values
of a nation before swine. They have sufficiently demonstrated in
the ten years of destruction of all material and intellectual freedom,
(20:12):
of all moral substance among the German people what they
understand by freedom and honor. The frightful bloodbath has opened
the eyes of even the stupidest German. It is a
slaughter which they arranged in the name of freedom and
honor of the German nation throughout Europe, in which they
daily start anew. The name of Germany is dishonored for
(20:35):
all time. If German youth does not finally rise, take
revenge and a tone, smash its tormentors and set up
a new Europe of the spirit. Students, the German people
look to us, as in eighteen thirteen the people expected
us to shake off the Napoleonic yoke, so in nineteen
forty three they look to us to break the national
(20:56):
socialist terror through the power of the spirit. Berezina and
staling Grod are burning in the east. The dead of
Stalin Grod implore us to take action. Up up by people,
Let smoke and flame be our sign. It is clear
(21:20):
that beyond being motivated by the restriction of their personal freedoms,
Hans and Zophie felt responsible to help in the horror
of Nazi rule for the sake of people's futures. Society
had reached a tipping point, and they were compelled to
act and call others to action. Zophie and Hans risked
their lives to dissent and sadly died young. Though their
(21:44):
lives were cut short before their activism could incite widespread
and active opposition against the regime, they left behind a
legacy of resisting despite odds, and a model for encouraging
collective action. Hans Zophie and White rose you direct action
tactics to affect change from where they stood. The message
(22:06):
find a way to contribute to the resistance rather than
sit back and find out what the world will become
if you do nothing at all. Our producer is Andrew Howard.
Holly Fry and Christopher Hasiotis are our executive producers, and
you can subscribe to the show on Apple Podcasts, the
I Heart Radio app, or wherever you get your podcasts.
(22:29):
We'll be back next week with another episode of Unpopular
The construction of American exceptionalism would have us believe that
America has always taken the moral high ground, and that
it has always acted flawlessly in its pursuit of liberty.
I believe in American exceptionalism with every fiber of my being.
But what makes us exceptional is not our ability to
(00:21):
flout international norms and the rule of law. It is
our willingness to affirm them through our actions. The ideals
of American greatness and superiority require us to believe in
an America that is good, just, and benevolent. That America
is unique in that it's built differently. I, an American,
(00:43):
have seen the myths of exceptionalism unraveled by the realities
of American injustices, America's similarities to other countries, American hypocrisy,
and American distortions of history. Slavery happened in the United States.
Eugenics programs in the United States inspired ones in Nazi Germany.
(01:05):
Concentration and interment camps have been sites of persecution for
Indigenous people, black people, Japanese people, immigrants, and dissidents in
US history. The exaltation of America's values, status, and rarity
does it not change the truth of the history and
present of the United States. America's redeeming qualities cannot paper
(01:28):
over the crimes and moral failings the country has been
complicit in. The U S is very good at leaving
misdeeds unacknowledged. It's perfected the art of saying we're not
as bad as them or better, yet saying what we
did was justified and we're still above everyone else. A
(01:49):
lot of Americans have no problem saying that the past
stays in the past and we can only get better
by looking forward completely ignoring causality, denialism, and revisionism keeps
folks in states of ignorance or comfort. America is so
often unexceptional. There have been many instances where people have
(02:12):
had to pressure America into being exceptional. There will never
be a time when the US or whatever country you
live in, will be perfect or above making poor decisions.
There will always be a need for dissenters, for protesters
and rebels who hold a mirror up to society and
remind us that we are capable of choosing differently. I'm
(02:42):
each deaf coote and this is unpopular A show about
people who didn't let the threat of persecution keep them
from speaking truth to power. Germany was under the oppressive
rule of Adolf Hitler and his Nazi Party from nineteen
thirty three to nineteen forty five. During this period, called
Nazi Germany or the Third Reich, the country was subject
(03:05):
to totalitarianism, propaganda, militant and racist foreign policy, suppression of
rights and opposition, and genocide. Millions of people died in
the Holocaust and many more were persecuted, displaced, and traumatized.
The scale and reach that the Holocaust had was huge.
The Nazis doled out terror and depravity in so many
(03:28):
different ways, but anti Nazi resistance was strong too, and
it came from many different angles. People protested and fought
the Nazi regime on spiritual, economic, political, or moral basis.
Some helped Jewish people hide from the Nazis and took
risks to rescue Jewish people. Some focused on raising awareness
(03:52):
about the vileness and cruelty of the regime. Others planned
to assassinate Hitler. Resistance forts were active inside Germany and beyond.
The totalitarian state was powerful, fearsome, and brutal, and survival
alone was hard enough for the many people being persecuted
in Europe at the time, but organized and disorganized action
(04:17):
against the Nazis did happen, from the efforts of individuals
like Otto and Alisa Hampel, who left postcards denouncing the
regime in public places, to the resistance of White Rose,
a non violent anti Nazi resistance group that formed in
nineteen forty two. This is where today's resistors Hans and
(04:38):
his younger sister's official come in. The brother and sister duo,
along with Christoph Props, Billy Groth, and Alexander Schmarrill, founded
the so called White Rose movement. The group disseminated leaflets
that denounced the Nazis and attempted to renew the quote
severely wounded German spirit. The some groups did aspire to
(05:01):
overthrow Hitler's regime, many others were not as revolutionary, and
we're sure only military might could topple the current order.
The Shoals have become disillusioned with the regime and recognized
the necessity of opposing it. So they did just that,
and they called on other people to do the same.
(05:25):
Here's how their awareness turned into action. Zophie and Hans
were born to Robert and Magdalena Shoal. Robert was a
mayor at the time of Zophie's birth, though he later
lost that position. Both he and Magdalena opposed Hitler, who
put the propaganda machine to work and was able to
(05:46):
get a bunch of people behind him and his image
by drawing division, taking advantage of people's vulnerabilities and prejudices,
and making people believe that he was putting Germany first
and that they could win World War Two. Beyond all
the enthusiastic support he received from adults, Hitler also strove
(06:07):
to indoctrinate young Germans with allegiance to National Socialism a
k a. Nazism, So, despite their parents encouragement of critical
thinking and opposition to the regime, Hans ended up joining
the Hitler Youth, the Nazi Party's youth organization designed to
brainwash boys and young men with Nazi ideology and send
(06:29):
them to war, and Sophie joined the League of German Girls,
the equivalent indoctrinating body for girls and young women. They
were part of the Nazi bandwagon, believing that Hitler and
his ideology would advance the nation. Hans even became a
squad leader of his young Vaulk Unit something to keep
(06:50):
in mind. Hitler was at this time espousing the idea
of a master race, its superiority and its entitlement to
expand into more territories. But their involvement in the Nazi
Party did not last long. They had grown distrustful of
the Nazis and frustrated with the forced discipline and conformity.
A book by hans favorite author Stefan Zwag was banned
(07:13):
by the Nazis. Hans even broke off from the Nazi
youth organization Informed, one of his own, which was later
banned because its activities were considered subversive. His discontent was growing. Also,
Zophie was unhappy with school curriculum, which was centered around
promoting Nazi ideology. She once wrote, sometimes school seems like
(07:37):
a film to me. I look on, but for all
intents and purposes, I'm excluded from performing. Zophie, Hans, and
their siblings Inga and Verner were all either questioned, arrested,
or jailed for taking actions that were forbidden by the Nazis,
like freely exchanging opinions, and the siblings father Robert, continued
(07:59):
to push back against Nazi policy through small acts of resistance,
like listening to outlawed radio stations that gave war reports
that nationalized stations did not. Sophie was required to serve
six months in the Reich National Labor Service, and in
nineteen forty one she began working as an attendant in
a kindergarten attached to a munitions factory. While there, she
(08:24):
had to go to ideological training sessions. Hans was also
losing faith in the regime's commitment to bettering Germany. He
built roade for the Autobahn under the National Labor Service,
and he went on to join the army in study medicine.
While a soldier on the Eastern Front, he witnessed Nazi
terrorism of Jewish people and heard of the massive deportations
(08:47):
to concentration camps. On top of this, in nineteen forty two,
his father was sentenced to four months in prison for
professing to a colleague his hatred of the Nazi regime.
By the time Hans returned from war, his disillusionment, dislike
of Nazi ideology, and consciousness of the horrors of concentration
(09:09):
camps all piled on one another to inspire his anti
Nazi resistance. The Grand Facade of Hitler's better Germany and
better world had dissolved for Zophie too. When we get
back from the break, we'll get into Hans and Zophie's
risky resistance efforts. Tons of Germans supported Hitler and wrote
(09:40):
the Nazi wave right into the Holocaust. Those were not
just extremists and power hungry politicians, but your regular townsfolk
to shop owners, doctors, teachers. Hitler gained support through indoctrination, terror, propaganda, coercion,
ideological pandering, personality, cult building, and exploiting and dismantling systems.
(10:05):
People who are already vulnerable, impressionable, polarized, or disillusioned can
be easily influenced into taking a morally questionable stance. The
status quo can change in an instant, even if it's
taken years to get to a point, say one where
gay marriage is legal or children are being forcefully separated
(10:29):
from their parents by the state. Major changes will happen
during our lifetime and will be presented with an opportunity
to either embrace the change or not. Hans and Zophie
at first joined the masses who were receptive of Nazism
and supported Hitler's vision as they dove deeper into the
(10:49):
ideology and were exposed to the horrible, brutal reality of
its extremity. They realized that it did not align with
their worldview, and they chose to rejected. And then they
went beyond rejecting the new status quo of fascism, racism
and extreme nationalism to raise others awareness and push them
(11:11):
toward resistance. The degeneration of Germany under Nazism is a
serious and drastic shift in society. It's the type of
change that seems impossible before it's happening, and then you're
in the middle of figuring out how to deal with it.
But as history has proven, these kinds of unfathomable changes
(11:35):
do happen. They happen all over the world. There is
no place that is above reproach. In early twentieth century Germany,
the status quo quickly became genocide and oppression. There were
those who welcomed or condoned the new normal, and then
there were those who chose to challenge and disrupt it.
(11:59):
Hans was studying medicine at the University of Munich. There
he linked up with other people who questioned Nazi ideology,
including Christoph Popes Alexander Schmorell and Billy Groth Court Ubert,
a professor at the university, inserted veiled criticism of the
Nazis and his lectures and his classes also became a
(12:20):
point of congregation for students who opposed the regime. The
group of students that held anti Nazi discussions and meetings
became known as the White Rose. For reasons that remain unclear,
Hans emerged as a leader of the group Tauta. The Friends,
Lela Ramdar and Jesula Schertling also soon became involved in
(12:45):
the White Rose group. But facilitating political and intellectual discussion
groups was not enough in the face of Nazi persecution
and execution of Jewish people, Pish people, gay people, people
with disabilities, and others deemed unfit or inferior to the
(13:07):
so called Master race. The Nazis were also executing communists
and people who resisted the regime. Though the group was
at first about the Friends shared interests in things like art, music, literature,
and philosophy, the oppression, crimes and atrocities perpetrated by the
government were unavoidable. The Friends could not ignore the deterioration
(13:32):
of society under Nazi rule. In favor of remaining loyal
to Germany. In n years after World War Two and
the end of the White Rose, Jurgen Wittenstein said that
it was not good enough to keep to oneself one's
beliefs and ethical standards, but that the time had come
(13:52):
to act. The group got ahold of a secondhand duplicating machine,
a typewriter, printing paper, and stencils. In June of nineteen
forty two, they began producing leaflets called Leaves of the
White Rose that called out the regime for brutality and
encourage people to resist. Here's a translation of part of
(14:12):
the first leaflet. If the German people are already so
corrupted and spiritually crushed that they do not raise a
hand frivolously trusting in a questionable faith in lawful order
of history, If they surrender man's highest principle, that which
raises him above all other God's creatures, his free will,
(14:33):
If they abandoned the will to take decisive action and
turn the wheel of history, and thus subjected to their
own rational decision, If they are so devoid of all individuality,
have already gone so far along the road towards turning
into a spiritless and cowardly mass, then yes, they deserve
(14:53):
their downfall. The leaflet also urged people to offer passive
resistance to quote forestall the spread of this atheistic war
machine before it is too late. There were literary and
historical allusions in the text. They wanted people to recognize
the catastrophe that was Nazism, to reject indifference in silence,
(15:18):
and take action against Nazi ideology and warfare. And the
text asked people to make copies of the leaflet and
distribute them. After Zophie enrolled at the University of Munich
in mid nineteen forty two, she found out about the
leaflets and White Rose and decided to join the effort.
The first four leaflets were written in June and July
(15:40):
of nineteen forty two. The White Rose mailed the leaflets
to people in Germany, put them in telephone boxes, and
took them via train two cities outside of Munich. Many
of the leaflets were turned over to the Gestapo or
the secret State police, who were becoming more concerned about
the effect the content have on Germans. The people in
(16:02):
the White Roads were also using graffiti to express their
opposition to the regime, Painting graffiti on buildings in Munich
that said things like freedom and down with Hitler. Students
in Berlin, Friburg, Hamburg and Vienna heated the call to
protest the regime and helped spread the resistance. After the break,
(16:28):
Hans and Sophie, like many others in the Nazi resistance,
are caught. The last two leaflets were labeled as leaflets
(16:51):
of the Resistance Movement of Germany and written in early
nine By this point, the Gestapo considered the leaflet a
huge problem and we're investigating involvement in the White Rose.
But at the University of Munich there was an apparent
spirit of rebellion. So on February eighth, nineteen, Hans and
(17:14):
Sophie took a big risk in deciding to distribute leaflets
throughout the university. They put stacks of the sixth leaflet
in the school's hallways and through the leftover leaflets off
the top of a staircase and into the entrance hall.
Thousands of copies of White Rose leaflets had been passed
out by this point, but this action was the one
(17:37):
that would get Hans and Sophie captured. Jacob Smid, a
janitor at the university spotted them distributing the leaflets, and
they were turned into the Gestapo. Christoph Props was also
arrested when a draft of a leaflet he wrote was
found in Hans's pocket. Hans, Sophie, and Christoph stood trial
(17:58):
at Munich's Palace of Justice on February, just four days
after they passed out the leaflets at the university. They
were all found guilty of high treason. Judge Holland Freisler
sat the following. The accused have, by means of leaflets,
(18:20):
in a time of war, called for the sabotage of
the war effort and armaments, and for the overthrow of
the national socialist way of life of our people, have
propagated defeatist ideas, and have most vulgarly to fame the
for thereby giving aid to the enemy of the Reich
and weakening the armed security of the nation. On this
(18:41):
account they are to be punished by death. Their honor
and rights as citizens are forfeited for all time. The
two show siblings and Christoph were executed by guillotine hours
after they were sentenced to death. Other people involved in
the White Rose for Existance were arrested and executed, including
(19:03):
court uber Billy Groff and Alexander Schmorell. After the sixth
White Rose Leaflet was smuggled out of Germany, Allied forces
intercepted them and dropped copies over Germany. Germany didn't surrender
in World War Two until May of nineteen Hans Zophie
and the White Rose Leaflets were a small part of
(19:25):
the larger resistance to Nazi domination. Their denouncement of the
regime and exposure of its atrocities helped create a network
of agitators who refused to stay silent while Germany descended
into depravity. The White Roses sixth leaflet proclaimed a day
of reckoning. It said this freedom and honor. For ten
(19:50):
long years, Hitler and his coadjutor have manhandled, squeezed, twisted,
and debased these two splendid German words to the point
of nausea, as only dilettants can casting the highest values
of a nation before swine. They have sufficiently demonstrated in
the ten years of destruction of all material and intellectual freedom,
(20:12):
of all moral substance among the German people what they
understand by freedom and honor. The frightful bloodbath has opened
the eyes of even the stupidest German. It is a
slaughter which they arranged in the name of freedom and
honor of the German nation throughout Europe, in which they
daily start anew. The name of Germany is dishonored for
(20:35):
all time. If German youth does not finally rise, take
revenge and a tone, smash its tormentors and set up
a new Europe of the spirit. Students, the German people
look to us, as in eighteen thirteen the people expected
us to shake off the Napoleonic yoke, so in nineteen
forty three they look to us to break the national
(20:56):
socialist terror through the power of the spirit. Berezina and
staling Grod are burning in the east. The dead of
Stalin Grod implore us to take action. Up up by people,
Let smoke and flame be our sign. It is clear
(21:20):
that beyond being motivated by the restriction of their personal freedoms,
Hans and Zophie felt responsible to help in the horror
of Nazi rule for the sake of people's futures. Society
had reached a tipping point, and they were compelled to
act and call others to action. Zophie and Hans risked
their lives to dissent and sadly died young. Though their
(21:44):
lives were cut short before their activism could incite widespread
and active opposition against the regime, they left behind a
legacy of resisting despite odds, and a model for encouraging
collective action. Hans Zophie and White rose you direct action
tactics to affect change from where they stood. The message
(22:06):
find a way to contribute to the resistance rather than
sit back and find out what the world will become
if you do nothing at all. Our producer is Andrew Howard.
Holly Fry and Christopher Hasiotis are our executive producers, and
you can subscribe to the show on Apple Podcasts, the
I Heart Radio app, or wherever you get your podcasts.
(22:29):
We'll be back next week with another episode of Unpopular
Unpopular News
Host
Yves Jeffcoat
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