Peace in a Dark Time

Created by Will Kugeler, Kaden Ata, Ryan Mulvany, & Dylan Neumann

Introduction

Our project is about the white rose. The White Rose was a Nazi resistance organization that was created amidst WWII. They spread awareness and encouraging and informative messages in an attempt to undermine Hitler and the Nazi party.

The White Rose Revealed

1933 marked the new era for Germany. During Germany’s economic struggle, a young man, promising hope for the German citizens, had come to power. He came to power by using his skills of charisma and manipulation to convince the desperate citizens of Germany to vote for the NSDAP, or the Nazi party for short. He was later appointed chancellor by Hindenburg, and eventually when Hindenburg died Hitler took his spot, declaring himself Fuhrer and gained ultimate power over Germany.

He quickly created laws before and during the war that belittled Jews and other undesirables, such as gay men, Romas (or gypsies), and Black people. He imposed the quest for the protection of the purity of the Aryan race. As you may have guessed, this man was Adolf Hitler. In his quest for absolute power, he imposed penalties such as the treason law which penalized treason with death for those who spoke against his regime. This pushed many people or groups to give up on their desires to inform the German people about hitler’s crimes. Some examples of laws imposed during his cleanse of undesirables and legalizing the persecution of Jews were: Reich citizenship law; this law states that nobody except for pure Germans could be a citizen, and Protection of German blood law, this law restricted marriage between undesirables and pure blooded Germans.

But one group decided to carry on, no matter what. This group was called the White Rose, and it was created in the University of Munich during 1942, 3 years after the Second World War had begun, in Munich Germany. The founders of the White Rose were Hans Scholl and Alexander Schmorell, two students at the University of Munich who opposed Hitler and the Nazi regime. They would be joined in their leadership by one of their fellow students: Christopher Probst; and later in their efforts by Hans’s sister Sophie Scholl, another student, Willi Graf, and with one of their professors of philosophy and musicology, Kurt Huber. Later, many of their students from the University of Munich, and members of other schools would join their cause. After Hans and Sophie were arrested, during his interrogation, Hans Scholl had given hints about where the name had come from. One possibility is the emotional influence that Hans was under after reading a poem by the same name. Another possibility is the Cuban poet, Jose Marti’s poem “cultivo una rosa blanca”. Though the most likely origin of the name is the novel The White Rose by B. Tavern. If the last is true then Hans’s hints may have been vague to protect the identity of B. Tavern as he was an anti-nazi publisher who allowed the members of the White Rose to hide and plan for the fee of occasional payments.

The members had seen other Anti-Nazi groups rise In the past and ultimately fail. So they wanted to try a new tactic. The groups who had come before them had tried to get their ways through violence, but the White Rose would be different. They would be a group who not only did not partake in violence, but actively fought it. But the students’ distaste for the Nazis was not just inherited from their parents, but found in battle. Alexander, Hans, Will, and Christopher had been assigned to 3 months on the eastern front in 1942. Alexander, who was raised by Russian nurses and spoke perfect Russian, was able to communicate to the Russian townsfolk and he heard stories of the Nazis mistreating and abusing the Russian villagers. They also witnessed the persecution of Jews first hand and heard in graphic detail about it from their fellow soldiers. As many of the members had Jewish friends, or even family, they were outraged when they found out about what was happening to them behind the lies of the Nazi regime. When their time on the front was up, they were dedicated to the overthrow of the Nazi regime, knowing very well that it could cost them their lives. From June 27th to July 12th, they took their actions against the government. Their first main goal was to spread awareness about the cruel things Hitler and the rest of the Nazis were doing. They spread their ideas through small informational and encouraging leaflets.

They wrote and published 4 leaflets in quick succession, quoting Aristotle, Novalis, Geoff the Schiller, and the Bible hoping to convince the public through the greatest minds that Germany knew. However, on July 23rd, Hans, Alexander, and Will were sent to the frontlines once again. This ceased all action from the White rose until their return on October 30th. In late October, Hans’s sister, Sophie Scholl, found out that her brother was part of the White Rose and Joined the group. Shortly after followed Willi Graf, another student at the university and by December Kurt Hubert, a professor of philosophy and music joined, completing the core 6 members of the group. The fifth letter, Titled “Appeal to all Germans!” was produced en masse. Anywhere from 6,000 to 9,000 copies were made in a duplicating machine. The group then had to sneak the leaflets into the mail and have them sent to larger German cities to be mailed all across Europe. This letter stated that “Hitler can no longer win the war, he can only prolong it”. It denounced militarism and imperialism The fifth letter also announced the change of the name from White Rose to German Resistance Movement. At the end of January, 1943, the Battle of Stalingrad had been lost by the Germans. This prompted outrage by the military and a decrease of German morale in both soldiers and citizens. After a speech from the Nazi Gauleiter of Munich and Bavaria, Paul Geisler, who called men who had not served “skulkers” and made obscene remarks to the girls of campus, the students of the University of Munich rioted. This riot encouraged the members of the White Rose to continue their work and they began to write their, unbeknown to them, last leaflets. On February 18th, 1943, Hans and Sophie Scholl ran through the halls of the University of Munich with briefcases overflowing with their 6th leaflet. They hurriedly spread the leaflets across hallways, lockers, classrooms, and anywhere else they could find before lectures got out.

Before leaving, Sophie took the last remaining few leaflets and threw them into the atrium from the atrium balcony. An action that would be witnessed by Jakob Schmid, a janitor who then called the gestapo. The doors to the Atrium were locked, trapping the siblings inside. The Gestapo arrested them and in a search, found a draft of the seventh letter written by Christopher Probst in Hans’s pocket. Hans tried to destroy the evidence of their freind’s involevement by tearing up and swallowing the paper, but the Gestapo managed to take enough of it so that they could match it up to others of Christopher’s works. In his interrogation, Hans Scholl said: “I knew what I took upon myself and I was prepared to lose my life by so doing.” He and his fellow rebels held their beliefs until their death by execution. The dedication of the members to the dream of freedom from the Nazi regime. On February 22nd, 1943, Hans, Sophie, and Christopher were taken to trial in the Volksgerichtshof, or the People’s Court. It was Hitlers special court used against political opponents. These included Communists, leaders of Labor Unions, and in this case, those who had committed treason. The three were convicted of treason and sentenced to death by guillotine. In an attempt to defend herself during her trial, Sophie remarked to Freisler: “Somebody, after all, had to make a start. What we wrote and said is also believed by many others. They just don’t dare to express themselves as we did.” They died the same day, Sophie first, Hans next, and Christopher last. Though Sophie and Christopher were silent during their executions, when Hans was executed, his final words as the guillotine fell were: “Es lebe die Freiheit!” Let freedom live. All through February, most of the members of the White Rose were captured by the gestapo. Alexander Schmorell, and Kurt Huber were executed on July 13th, 1943, while Willi Graf was tortured by the gestapo for 7 months to try to take information about other members of the White Rose. Throughout the interrogation, he withheld all information that he may have known, even when the gestapo threatened his family. He was executed on October 12th, 1943.

Though the main members were all executed, the legacy of the White Rose lived on. After the executions of the members, a German lawyer named Helmuth James Graf von Moltke smuggled a copy of the sixth leaflet into the United Kingdom through Scandinavia for copying. The leaflet was retitled: “The Manifesto of the Students of Munich”. In July, 1943, copies of the leaflets were dropped all over Germany. Their efforts were recognized all over the world as an act of defiance and immeasurable courage. And even today, the spirit of the White Rose and the Scholls lives on in their stories. For they let the most cruel dictator in the world know that even in a field of death, there will always be a sign of life.

Bibliography & Resources

Wikipedia – White Rose
Holocaust Encyclopedia – White Rose
Britannica – White Rose
National WWII museum – White rose
At the Heart of the White Rose – book by Hans Scholl

Artifact Statement

To create our artifact we used a cardboard box as the base. We spray-painted it black to show nighttime and symbolize a dark time in history. We 3D printed Munich College as well as the delivery plane. We chose to keep the rest of the artifact white to symbolize the white rose. The pamphlets that lay on the ground and fall from the sky are small pieces of paper with small rubber bands to keep them rolled. The peace sign made of roses is wood, and the design was created with a laser cutter that burns the image into the wood. The white roses are plastic and there are small LED lights inside the bloom that put a spotlight on the delivery plane. The spotlight helps emphasize the plane because it is an important symbol in our artifact.

WHAT?

Our artifact represents the final message of the White rose. It shows the Allied planes dropping the 6th leaflet over Germany after they revived the white rose, giving hope to all people who opposed Hitler and his regime. The message of our memorial is that even in the most daunting times of darkness, light can shine through. We intended for the viewer to feel hopeful, or even powerful in the presence of a great historical event.

WHY?

The most important symbols in our artifact are the peace symbol and the spotlight. The peace symbol created out of roses symbolizes the goal of the white rose and its members, which was to undermine and overthrow the Nazi party peacefully by protesting the regime and spreading real information to German citizens. The spotlight symbolizes how the White Rose was a bright light in a dark time. And they were upstanders who showed courage and risked their lives for what they believed. What Sophie Scholl said was true “What we wrote and said is also believed by many others. They just don’t dare to express themselves as we did.” They spoke for those people too afraid to speak for themselves in a dark and evil time.

Explore our Gallery of Images

Personal Reflections

A Blank Canvas

~Dylan Neumann, Class of 2025

Put something on it

“Anyone who fights with monsters should make sure that he does not in the process become a monster himself”
-Friedrich Nietzsche

My name is Dylan Neumann and I was the writer of the script. I also took part in creating the artifact. The major theme of my experience would be patience as I had to wait after the artifact was finished and the script was written for the people who were recording and finishing the script to finish it.

When Will and Ryan were planning the artifact, I was writing the documentary with the help of Kaden’s research. I used the research sheet that Kaden had made, and some articles that I had researched myself to get facts as accurate as possible, even cross referencing when I could. After I had finished the script, I started to work on the artifact, which Will and Ryan had begun work on. I helped Kaden with the designing, the gluing, and lighting.

During this project, I was educated on things that I had not known before. I did not know who was in the white rose before I started this project, and I only knew the name of the group. I grew because I had to deal with times of difficulty, like planning the artifact, which helped me be more open minded to ideas and flexible in my designs. The appeal to talking about this subject with the possibility of someone who could have experienced this event really helped me focus and do my best to make the artifact as professional and serious as possible.

White Petals

~Ryan Mulvany, Class of 2025

“The world? The world is not interested in us. Today, everything is possible, even the crematoria…”
― Elie Wiesel, Night

My name is Ryan Mulvany and we worked on the White Rose. This project was like a mountain range ups and downs. Having Kaden in the other English class made it hard having one less person and I can’t imagine what it was like without Dylan and i. Anyway when we were all there for justice the group worked really well together. My role for the Holocaust White Rose project was to create the documentary.

Although I did not write the script, Will Kugeler and I recorded it. After recording, I get all the pieces together to make a documentary. With our ten minutes of recording, finding enough photos was a struggle. While Kaden and Will collected photos I put in the audio and the background music. Building the documentary was not my only job. I also helped Kaden put all the little leaflets in little rolls with rubber bands. On top of all the rolled up ones I hot glued little pieces of paper that I wrote on. When I finally got back to the documentary I put all the pictures together. The hard thing about the photos was lining them up with the audio. If the audio had a short snippet of text about planes we would put the same amount of pictures making the need for so many more photos. Putting all the photos together in the right spot of the audio took forever, almost four classes. The way the artifact and documentary was set up we needed two iPads so I shared it with Dylan. For the final touch on are artifact we needed lights. Because the lights would be turned off in the room we needed lights to glow up the artifact.

This project was a great experience bonding with my classmates and making the final results amazing. I was really proud of how well the group worked together and how good it turned out. Our group worked really hard to work on the artifact and the documentary. Dylan did a great job creating the script Kaden did a great job doing the things like notes and artifact statement and will did a great job helping me record and recording himself

The Heart of the White Rose

~Kaden Ata, Class of 2025

“Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much”
― Helen Keller

I’m Kaden and my role during this project was to create the artifact, write the artist’s statement, and help with the documentary script. I helped with the beginning of the script and I made the documentary storyboard. The major theme of my experience was leadership because throughout the project I think that I directed the group well and kept us all on task.

Me and Dylan collaborated very well during this project by building off of each other writing in the script and by carefully helping each other during the building of the artifact. One example of this was when he gave me an idea to create the peace sign as symbolism and we worked together in Canva to create it out of roses and Lazer cut it.

I have enjoyed this project very much and I enjoyed each and every period that I got to spend in the ilab. During this project we had much less homework which was awesome. One hard aspect of this project was trying to find something for everybody to do. One way that this helped me grow was because I learned that instead of splitting up we can work together on something to get it done much faster.

Ups & Downs

~Will Kugeler, Class of 2025

“It is important to understand that big changes, the kind that transform the way human beings handle being human, start with small changes.”
– Naomi Warren

During our project there have been some ups and downs. A few of us missed classes so it was hard to record. But when we were all together it was really efficient. The hard work and dedication that are put in to fight through the adversity was nothing like I ever seen. We thought we were going to have no time to finish due to getting the project two weeks before the due date.

Ryan Mulvany and I have been working on recording the documentary. It’s been a challenge for us but it managed to sound good after about 1 hour of working. It was a very intense project with sometimes we’d slack off. We needed to stay on task so with the help of our captain, Kaden, we were able to finish everything and especially the documentary before the crowd wanted to record. During the day of the holocaust project I was anxious, I didn’t know how it was going to go but it was awesome, the Preserving of the Holocaust Museum was a great Fenn moment. During the artifact building I thought of the idea to 3D print buildings to represent the University of Munich while Kaden thought of 3d printing the plane. Ryan and Dillion thought of the great idea of adding white roses to the corners of our artifact and Kaden also made a peace sign out of roses.

This project flew by. Finding out that I got White Rose I was sad. But then I got hooked, the artifact was going to turn out amazing, everyone put in so much effort to get it down sooner than later. The documentary was frustrating having other kids interrupting your recording but once we managed to have them leave it turned out amazing. The day of the museum was a great memory that I will never forget. Getting to talk about a subject they didn’t know was so fun being able to talk to people I’ve never met. As I reflect on the incredible work we endured on the Holocaust Museum I believe this was a top Fenn moment of mine and me and I believe me and my group worked to the fullest.

White Rose