Wednesday, April 22, 2009

The White Rose



When I taught German, I liked to tell students about the German resistance to the Nazi regime. One resistance group, called "The White Rose," consisted of a small circle of friends organized around the sibling pair Hans and Sophie Scholl. The members wrote flyers urging the German people to rebel against the Nazi agenda, and they distributed the flyers throughout Munich and even in other parts of Germany. They were eventually caught by the Gestapo and executed--by guillotine. There's a German movie about this group called The White Rose that's very well done and easy to find at video stores or in libraries.

The photo above shows the main building of the university here in Munich that now has the address "Geschwister Scholl Platz" in honor of Hans and Sophie Scholl. The building is shown in the movie, and there's a memorable scene where Sophie Scholl throws thousands of the illegal flyers over the balcony inside the building, just before being apprehended. Today I stood in that spot and then took the picture below. It's remarkable to be able to see such a place where history was made.

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