The White Rose (Die Weiße Rose) Rose Blanche
In response to a review, by Meg Sorenson in the Sydney Morning Herald (Sat 15 May, 2004) of a children's book called Rose Blanche, which seemed to show no awareness of the meaning of the name.

Whoever undertakes to rule the kingdom and to shape it according to his whim - I foresee that he will fail to reach his goal. That is all.

The kingdom is a living being. It cannot be constructed, in truth! He who tries to manipulate it will spoil it, he who tries to put it under his power will lose it.

-- Lao-Tsu, from the Second Leaflet of The White Rose (Die Weiße Rose) resistance group.

... it is our task to find one another again, to spread information from person to person, to keep a steady purpose, and to allow ourselves no rest until the last man is persuaded of the urgent need of his struggle against this system ...

We are not in a position to draw up a final judgment about the meaning of our history. But if this catastrophe can be used to further the public welfare, it will be only by virtue of the fact that we are cleansed by suffering; that we yearn for the light in the midst of deepest night, summon our strength, and finally help in shaking off the yoke which weighs on our world...

-- from the Second Leaflet of The White Rose (Die Weiße Rose) resistance group.

Every individual human being has a claim to a useful and just state, a state which secures freedom of the individual as well as the good of the whole.

Aristotle, (Politics) "and further, it is part [of the nature of tyranny] to strive to see to it that nothing is kept hidden of that which any subject says or does, but that everywhere he will be spied upon, ... Also it is part of these tyrannical measures, to keep the subjects poor, in order to pay the guards and soldiers, and so that they will be occupied with earning their livelihood and will have neither leisure nor opportunity to engage in conspiratorial acts ...

-- from the Third Leaflet of The White Rose.

Do not believe that Germany's welfare is linked to the victory of national Socialism for good or ill. A criminal regime cannot achieve a German victory ... The imperialist ideology of force, from whatever side it comes, must be shattered for all time ... Freedom of speech, freedom of religion, the protection of individual citizens from the abritrary will of criminal regimes of violence-these will be the bases of the New Europe.

-- from the Fifth Leaflet of The White Rose.

Freedom and honor! For ten long years Hitler and his coadjutor have manhandled, squeezed, twisted, and debased these two splendid German words to the point of nausea ...

-- from the Sixth, final, Leaflet of The White Rose.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_Rose

www.us-israel.org/jsource/Holocaust/rose.html
The White Rose: A Lesson in Dissent
... "Today, every German knows the story of The White Rose."
I'm not so sure about outside Germany. Certainly I never heard anything about them until a couple of years ago, and I'm reasonably interested in the history - particularly the political techniques of the Nazis in their rise & occupation.

Some links to information about The White Rose
www.jlrweb.com/whiterose/
www.geocities.com/Athens/Academy/1148/july8.html (in broken English)

Amazon listing of book by a relative of one of the group

www.a2zlanguages.com/Germany/Munich/munich_whiterose.htm -- a quick summary.
[permalink][comment] - posted by Mez @ 5/17/2004 01:07:00 am