Very moving.
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Now and again there comes a book, that when the individual finally finishes and lays it down, a moment of serious thought is required. This is one of those books. I know little about the White Rose and this book adequately serves the purpose. I now have nothing but the utmost respect for these people and what they attempted to do. One can't but help think, 'would I do the same in a similar situation?'. Read and respect.
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"We are your bad conscience!"
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A surperbly well researched and presented account of an act of honour and bravery by conscientious young German students, who dared to stand up against the mind numbing machine of Nazism and the Nationalist Socialist movement during World War II.
In 1989, I visited an exhibition in the Reichstag, where there were a variety of uniforms for every aspect of life -- the postman, the milkman -- one for everyone! It was as if all German society was so bound up in this regimented and unforgiving mode of living.
Thus it was all the more refreshing to learn about the Scholl siblings and their quest to make Germans think. "We are your bad conscience!" they declared in one of the leaflets.
Sophie School and the White Rose could not have been a better written book. Dumback and Newborn describe not only the events in fine detail, but provide insightful background perspectives of all the characters involved.
No advanced knowledge of the war is required. This is a story of a desperate campaign for freedom during Europe's darkest days. As such, it should be required reading on every civics, philosophy, history or ethics course.
To cite the last sentence of the book, "...if people like those who formed the White Rose can exist, believe as they believed, act as they acted, maybe it means that this weary, corrupted, and extremely endangered species we belong to has the right to survive, and to keep on trying."
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Background information
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The book gives background information to the members of the White Rose, their closest friends and the times they lived in (and ideas in German thought). It explains how the family background of the Scholls and how they went from enthusiastic supporters of the Nazi regime to actively resisting it, how the group formed and recruited, and what happened after they were caught. The book tries to do that for all the members of the White Rose group but it, out of necessity, concentrates on the core members. It then explains the aftermath.
What is surprising is that they were able to operate so long, and find so many like-minded associates, in such a despotic regime.
Now my memory maybe wrong but it seems that one of the exchanges in the court, which in the film Sophie Scholl -- Die Letzten Tage was said by Sophie, turns out actually to have been said by her brother, Hans.
The book is very slow at the beginning as it goes through the background information needed to help the reader put the events into context. As the book progresses it tells us what happened.
In the middle of the book there are photographs of the members of the White Rose resistance group and a photo of their first leaflet. There are several appendices at the end (pages 186-227):
Appendix 1: A translation of all their leaflets
Appendix 2: A list of trial dates for all the members
Appendix 3: A translation of Indictment of Hans and Sophia Scholl, and Christoph Probst
Appendix 4: A translation of the transcript of the sentences for Hans and Sophia Scholl, and Christoph Probst
Appendix 5: A translation of the article in the Münchener Neuste Nachrichten (Munich Newest News) of the result of the trial of Hans and Sophie Scholl, and Christoph Probst
Appendix 6: A translation of the article in the Völkischer Beobachter (People Oberserver), Munich edition, following the trial of Alexander Schmorrell, Kurt Huber, Wilhelm Graf and others
Appendix 7: Translation of excerpt from Deutsche Hörer (German Listeners) Radio Series by Thomas Mann
Appendix 8: Translation of a leaftlet issued by the National Committee for a Free Germany after the trial of Hans and Sophie Scholl, and Christoph Probst
Appendix 9: Articles on the White Rose from The New York Times in 1943
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Excellent
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KateRG31 has said it well - this book puts the outstanding German film "Sophie Scholl, the last days" in context. From this book you see the beginnings of the White Rose and how it developed. You also read about the other members of the group and how they also met their ends. The courage and moral compass of these young people was outstanding, and you find yourself wishing that you also could be so brave in the face of an iniquitous regime that had turned all moral values upside-down, that rewarded and promoted thugs and murderers and imprisoned and executed honourable people. The sad thing was that it took so long to overturn the verdicts (it finally happened in the 1980s).
In a world where torture, murder and injustice are still practised, even by allegedly civilised countries (no names, no pack drill...), the Scholls shine out as examples of what humans and humanity can be.
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Brilliant perspective
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This book set so much in perspective for me: how did German people feel under the Nazis, how did the Nazis come to be in such a position of overwhelming power; how much did the Germans know about what their government were doing to subjugated peoples; why didn't more German people object to their tyranny; what was life like for people over there? The book's background to the White Rose group's courageous acts of rebellion helped me feel that I understood much more about it all, not least about how hard and terrifying it would be, even to criticise the Nazis, and how lonely it would be because, unlike the resistance in occupied countries, your countrymen would regard you as a traitor not a hero.
A very compelling book about an awe-inspiring group of idealistic, ultimately hopeful, young people with a great sense of atmosphere. It gives excellent background to the 2005 film ' The Last Days of Sophie Scholl' - read the book first.
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