We don’t talk a lot about people who resisted the Nazis, but they were there. The White Rose began to speak out against Hitler in 1942 – his evil regime, the sin of persecuting Jews, and the great need for Christians to join together to stop Hitler’s “atheistic war machine.” This group of only six members sent thousands of pamphlets all over Germany to rouse people of conscience to stop hiding their misgivings and deep concerns about what was going on around them; to stop ignoring things that they knew were wrong. Germany could be better than this.
When Hitler had come to power in 1933, five of the group’s members were between 12 and 16 years old. By 1942, they were in their early 20’s: college students joined by one professor. Having underground meetings with people opposed to the Nazis and reading banned books wasn’t enough for them any more. As people of faith, as people who cared about right and wrong, they felt compelled to do whatever it took to wake people up – to call them to action.
The White Rose got the attention of fellow students, community members, and Nazi zealots. Their revolutionary pamphlets were talked about everywhere – whether people loved them or hated them. After having successfully distributed six different pamphlets, the White Rose was caught by the Nazis, one by one. Their trials were quick and closed to the public. They were all executed in 1943. Often, when people talk about the White Rose these days, they end up at a sensitive place. They ask: what was the point? Was it really worth it for those young idealists to die? The Nazis still had power; the war kept going…
Why do people die? Why do we suffer? Why do wicked people sometimes win? Why don’t we see justice in our time? We want to know. It’s the duty of faithful people to keep asking why. Maybe it’s our duty to never be satisfied with any answer that silences these questions.
Sophie Scholl, one of the members of the White Rose, wrote a letter as she struggled to keep hope alive. She wrote:
“I’m still so remote from God that I don’t even sense his presence when I pray. Sometimes when I utter God’s name… I feel like sinking into a void. It’s not a frightening or dizzying sensation, it’s nothing at all – and that’s far more terrible.”
She asked why again and again, never satisfied. Yet, she held on to her conviction to keep going. She wrote: “I shall cling to the rope God has thrown me in Jesus Christ, even if my numb hands can no longer feel it.”
Sophie and her friends dreamed of what it would be like to survive the horrors of the Nazi reign. Privately, they shared essays, poems, and drawings: creating space for something new to flourish. It was a place to see a future of peace and safety for everyone with freedom to think and question. After the war, these ideas could become a magazine. They wanted to call it Windlicht, literally a light that shines in the wind. In English, we would say “hurricane lamp.” A light despite wind: in the darkest days, a single light could still shine – it could always shine. The White Rose asked why there was needless suffering, why no one stood up to stop it, why God would allow it, why it was going on so long… Asking why taught them to trust God, to act, to lay down their lives to light a fire under other German citizens like them. Some might say that they died for nothing, but – we remember them. We hear their stories. We can be inspired by their holy selflessness and go on to challenge injustice and harm in our own day.
Resources:
https://www.ncregister.com/commentaries/shrimpton-white-rose-resistance-hans-sophie-scholl
https://catholicherald.co.uk/defying-hitler-the-faith-of-the-white-rose-circle/
https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/20230109-the-kings-highway-the-road-that-reveals-jordans-history
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Sophie_Scholl
https://cne.news/article/99-sophie-scholl-a-faithful-young-woman-against-hitler
https://www.mythoselser.de/texts/scholl-gebel.htm
https://zeitzeichen.net/node/8915
https://www.nationalww2museum.org/war/articles/sophie-scholl-and-white-rose
