White Rose facts for kids

Monument to the "Weiße Rose" in front of the Ludwig-Maximilian-University, Munich

The White Rose was a German group that opposed the Nazis in World War II. From June 1942 until February 1943 they distributed pamphlets denouncing Adolf Hitler's regime which was based on the idea that some races were better than others. The Nazis thought the "Aryan race" (pure Germans) were the best race of all, and that they deserved power and respect, the "inferior" races - the Jews, Roma people, Slavs, and blacks - were classified as Untermenschen (sub-humans). The Nazis sent millions of Jews, Roma and other people to concentration camps and death camps, where they were killed. These killings are now called the Holocaust.

The White Rose group consisted of students from the University of Munich along with a professor.

The members of the White Rose were caught due to an informant in 1943. They were then executed by the Nazi government. However, the Allied powers acquired one of their pamphlets. The pamphlet was copied and dropped over Germany by bombers, spreading the message of resistance. After World War II, Germany looked back on the White Rose as heroes who saw the crimes of the Nazis better than most.

Members

The core of the White Rose comprised five students: Sophie Scholl, her brother Hans Scholl, Alex Schmorell, Willi Graf, and Christoph Probst. All were slightly older than twenty years. Also members were Hans's and Sophie's sister Inge Scholl, and a professor of philosophy, Kurt Huber.

Images for kids

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  Clemens August Graf von Galen

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  Atrium of the Munich University main building, where Hans and Sophie Scholl were arrested on 18 February 1943

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  Jakob Schmid in February 1947

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  White Rose memorial at Room 253 of the Munich Court of Justice, where the first trial was held

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  A black granite memorial to the White Rose Movement in the Hofgarten in Munich with the dome of the Bavarian State Chancellery in the background

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  "Geschwister-Scholl-Platz" - Scholl Siblings Square, outside the University main building, Munich, Germany

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  Hans and Sophie Scholl on an East German postage stamp in 1961

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  Alexander Schmorell

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  Willi Graf

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  Kurt Huber

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  Lilo Ramdohr at the registry office with Carl G. Fürst in Munich, February 1944