Editing White Rose (section)

== Actions: The leaflets and graffiti ==
After their experiences at the [[Eastern Front (World War II)|Eastern Front]], having learned about mass murder in Poland and the Soviet Union, Hans Scholl and Alexander Schmorell felt compelled to take action. With a portable Remington typewriter<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Leaflets |url=https://www.white-rose-studies.org/pages/the-leaflets |access-date=2025-02-23 |website=Center for White Rose Studies |language=en}}</ref> Schmorell borrowed from a friend,<ref>{{Cite web |last=Weiße Rose Stiftung e.V. |date=2017 |title=Manufacturing of the leaflets - Resistance Group The White Rose |url=https://youtube.com/watch?v=syX4xftU1xQ |website=YouTube |quote=The video shows how the leaflets are made with a typewriter and a duplicating machine and are posted… "all six leaflets are typed out using a typewriter which Alexander Schmorell borrows from a friend"}}</ref> from late June until mid-July 1942, they wrote the first four leaflets. Quoting extensively from the Bible, [[Aristotle]] and [[Novalis]], as well as [[Johann Wolfgang von Goethe|Goethe]] and [[Friedrich Schiller|Schiller]], the iconic poets of German bourgeoisie, they appealed to what they considered the German [[intelligentsia]], believing that these people would be easily convinced by the same arguments that also motivated the authors themselves. These leaflets were left in telephone books in public phone booths, mailed to professors and students, and taken by courier to other universities for distribution.<ref name=wittenstein/> From 23 July to 30 October 1942, Graf, Scholl and Schmorell served again at the Soviet front, and activities ceased until their return. In autumn 1942, Sophie Scholl discovered that her brother Hans was one of the authors of the pamphlets, and joined the group. Shortly after, Willi Graf, and by the end of December 1942, Kurt Huber became members of the White Rose.<ref name="Scholl"/>

In January 1943, the fifth leaflet, ''"Aufruf an alle Deutsche!"'' ("Appeal to all Germans!") was produced in 6,000–9,000 copies, using a hand-operated [[duplicating machine]]. It was carried to other German Cities between 27 and 29 January 1943 by the members and supporters of the group to many cities, and then mailed from there. Copies appeared in [[Saarbrücken]], [[Stuttgart]], [[Cologne]], Vienna, [[Freiburg]], [[Chemnitz]], Hamburg, [[Innsbruck]] and [[Berlin]]. Sophie Scholl stated during her Gestapo interrogation that from summer 1942 on, the aim of the White Rose was to address a broader range of the population. Consequently, in the fifth leaflet, the name of the group was changed from White Rose to "German Resistance Movement", and also the style of writing became more polemic and less intellectual.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.bpb.de/themen/5H3ZT3,1,0,Ausz%FCge_aus_den_Verh%F6rprotokollen_von_Sophie_Scholl.html#art1|title=''Interrogation Protocols of Sophie Scholl''}}</ref> The students had become convinced during their military service that the war was lost: "''Hitler kann den Krieg nicht gewinnen, nur noch verlängern.'' – Hitler cannot win the war, he can only prolong it." They appealed to renounce "national socialist subhumanism", imperialism and Prussian militarism "for all time". The reader was urged to "Support the resistance movement!" in the struggle for "freedom of speech, freedom of religion and protection of the individual citizen from the arbitrary action of criminal dictator-states". These were the principles that would form "the foundations of a new Europe".

By the end of January 1943, the [[Battle of Stalingrad]] ended with the capitulation and near-total loss of the Wehrmacht's Sixth Army. In [[Volgograd|Stalingrad]], World War II had taken a decisive turn, inspiring resistance movements throughout the European countries then occupied by Germany. It also had a devastating effect on German morale. On 13 January 1943, a student riot broke out at Munich University after a speech by [[Paul Giesler]], the Nazi [[Gauleiter]] of Munich and Upper [[Bavaria]], in which he had denounced male students not serving in the army as skulkers and had also made obscene remarks to female students. These events encouraged the members of the White Rose. When the defeat at Stalingrad was officially announced, they sent out their sixth—and last—leaflet. The tone of this writing, authored by Kurt Huber and revised by Hans Scholl and Alexander Schmorell, was more patriotic. Headed "Fellow students!" (the now-iconic ''Kommilitoninnen! Kommilitonen!''), it announced that the "day of reckoning" had come for "the most contemptible tyrant our people has ever endured." "The dead of Stalingrad adjure us!"<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Holocaust/rose.html|title=The White Rose – A Lesson in Dissent|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140713205627/http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Holocaust/rose.html|archive-date=13 July 2014}}</ref>

On 3, 8, and 15 February 1943, Alexander Schmorell, Hans Scholl, and Willi Graf used tin stencils to write slogans like "Down with Hitler" and "Freedom" on the walls of the university and other buildings in Munich.<ref name="Scholl"/>

{{col-start}}
{{col-2}}
{{cquote|Isn't it true that every honest German is ashamed of his government these days? Who among us has any conception of the dimensions of shame that will befall us and our children when one day the veil has fallen from our eyes and the most horrible of crimes—crimes that infinitely outdistance every human measure—reach the light of day? | author=1st leaflet of the White Rose}}
{{col-2}}
{{cquote|Since the conquest of Poland, 300,000 Jews have been murdered in this country in the most bestial way&nbsp;... The German people slumber on in dull, stupid sleep and encourage the fascist criminals. Each wants to be exonerated of guilt, each one continues on his way with the most placid, calm conscience. But he cannot be exonerated; he is guilty, guilty, guilty! | author=2nd leaflet of the White Rose.}}
{{col-end}}

{{col-start}}
{{col-2}}
{{cquote|Why do you allow these men who are in power to rob you step by step, openly and in secret, of one domain of your rights after another, until one day nothing, nothing at all will be left but a mechanised state system presided over by criminals and drunks? Is your spirit already so crushed by abuse that you forget it is your right—or rather, your ''moral duty''—to eliminate this system? | author=3rd leaflet of the White Rose}}
{{col-2}}
{{cquote|{{lang|de|Es lebe die Freiheit!}} (Let Freedom live!) | author=Hans Scholl's last words before his execution.}}
{{col-end}}Months later, a smuggled copy of the sixth leaflet caught the attention of [[Prime Minister of the United Kingdom|UK Prime Minister]] [[Winston Churchill]], who had millions of copies printed and, in summer and fall of 1943, dropped over Germany by [[Royal Air Force]] pilots.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |last=Thraves |first=Louise |title=Unsung Heroes: Sophie Scholl and the White Rose |url=https://www.londonmintoffice.org/blog/27-military/lest-we-forget/251-unsung-heroes-sophie-scholl-and-the-white-rose |access-date=2025-02-23 |website=www.londonmintoffice.org |language= |quote=A copy of their sixth and final leaflet was smuggled out of Germany and brought to the United Kingdom. Recognising its value, Prime Minister Winston Churchill ordered millions of copies to be printed, retitled ‘A German Leaflet: Manifesto of the Students of Munich’. In the summer of 1943, the Royal Air Force dropped them all over Germany, thereby ensuring a far greater readership than the members of the White Rose could ever have dreamed of. |ref=London Mint Office article}}</ref><ref name="burns22013" />