Defying Hitler: The White Rose Pamphlets

New translations of the White Rose pamphlets, the anti-Nazi writings distributed by University of Munich students.

The White Rose (die Weiße Rose) was the name given to a resistance circle at the University of Munich in the early 1940s whose members secretly wrote and distributed anti-Nazi pamphlets. At its heart were undergraduate students, including Hans Scholl, Sophie Scholl, Christoph Probst, Alexander Schmorell, Willi Graf, and Professor Kurt Huber, all of whom were executed in 1943 by the Nazi regime. The youngest among them was just twenty-one years old.

Defying Hitler presents the White Rose resistance pamphlets in full, translated by modern-day students at the University of Oxford. These translations are the result of work by undergraduate students around the same age as the original White Rose authors. This volume outlines the story of the group’s formation and sets their resistance texts within their political and historical context. A series of brief biographical sketches, archival photographs, and excerpted letters trace each member’s journey towards action against the National Socialist state. Defying Hitler will serve as a fitting tribute to the bravery of the White Rose, which is commemorated not just in Munich but throughout Germany and beyond.

Alexandra Lloyd is a tutor and researcher in German studies at the University of Oxford.