White Rose

White Rose

I was very fortunate to spend two years with my partner Anne living in Munich, Germany, making many new friends, seeing a lot of Europe, visiting Istanbul and St. Petersburg, Stockholm and Copenhagen, having large blocks of time to write new songs, take up painting, start writing down my memories, and learning to cook German food. So I was astonished to learn about The White Rose.

I am a bit of a student of history, especially the history of those with Progressive political leanings. I majored in Community Action in college, have been very active my whole life in community issues, elective politics, and gathering and sharing vast amounts of news and facts on many subjects aka a “news junkie.” I am an avid reader, especially history and love visiting historically interesting sites. I have also written a number of political songs including “Veteran’s Day,” “Pledging Allegiance,”” In This House,” “The Sanctuary” and “Goodbye (Bush) Never Sounded So Sweet.”

I had never in all these years heard of The White Rose until I moved to Munich. Here’s an excerpt from the Wikipedia site for the group:

The White Rose (German: die Weiße Rose) was a non-violent, intellectual resistance group in Nazi Germany, consisting of students from the University of Munich and their philosophy professor. The group became known for an anonymous leaflet and graffiti campaign, lasting from June 1942 until February 1943, that called for active opposition to dictator Adolf Hitler's regime.

The six most recognized members of the German resistance group were arrested by the Gestapo, tried for treason and beheaded in 1943. The text of their sixth leaflet was smuggled by Helmuth James Graf von Moltke out of Germany through Scandinavia to the United Kingdom, and in July 1943, copies of it were dropped over Germany by Allied planes, retitled "The Manifesto of the Students of Munich".[1]

Another member, Hans Conrad Leipelt, who helped distribute Leaflet 6 in Hamburg, was executed on 29 January 1945, for his participation.

Today, the members of the White Rose are honoured in Germany amongst its greatest heroes, since they opposed the Third Reich in the face of almost certain death.

While I was wondering why we were never taught the story of The White Rose in school and why I was only finding out about it because of where I was living at the time (Munich), it also occurred to me that very little, if any, of their story has percolated into those yearly WWII stories we sift through here in the US around every major anniversary, like D-Day or Pearl Harbor. Why aren’t The White Rose treated as heroes here in the US as they are in Germany? And why isn’t their story told in the press each and every year, along with so many other “war stories” told and retold.

After spending time visiting various memorial sites in Munich, reading what I could find in English about them, and speaking with my Munich friends, I felt the inspiring White Rose story could possibly resonate with a much wider audience, like the Occupy movement, or environmental activists, or local organizers and especially young people, hopefully to find a permanent place in our collective conscientious. I believe this is one of the reasons folk music exists-to tell a story that is so valuable and relevant that it needs to be told.

Much of this song is based on direct language from their leaflets and some from their last spoken words. I am humbled and honored to have made an attempt to bring a wider recognition to their determined and courageous efforts, work that may have contributed to an earlier end to the war, and certainly raised awareness at the time to the atrocities being conducted by their government on so many in their name. Effort they paid for with their lives. That they were so effective for so long while working only a few short blocks from Gestapo Headquarters is nothing short of amazing. And finally, the Allies made sure tha