We Will Not Be Silent: The White Rose Student Resistance Movement That Defied Adolf Hitler

By Russell Freedman

"Among the wealth of good Holocaust literature available, Freedman's volume stands out for its focus and concision, effectively placing the White Rose in its historical context, telling the story of Nazi Germany without losing the focus on the White Rose, and doing so in just over 100 pages." (Kirkus starred review)

In his signature eloquent prose, backed up by thorough research, Newbery medalist and nonfiction master Russell Freedman tells the story of Austrian-born Hans Scholl and his sister Sophie. They belonged to Hitler Youth as young children, but began to doubt the Nazi regime.

As older students, the Scholls and a few friends formed the White Rose, a campaign of active resistance to Hitler and the Nazis. Risking imprisonment or even execution, the White Rose members distributed leaflets urging Germans to defy the Nazi government.

Their belief that freedom was worth dying for will inspire young readers to stand up for what they believe in. Archival photographs and prints, source notes, bibliography, index.

A Sibert Honor Book

• Language: English
• Publisher: Open Road Integrated Media
• Release date: May 17, 2016
• ISBN: 9780544826588

Russell Freedman

Russell Freedman received the Newbery Medal for LINCOLN: A PHOTOBIOGRAPHY. He is also the recipient of three Newbery Honors, a National Humanities Medal, the Sibert Medal, the Orbis Pictus Award, and the Laura Ingalls Wilder Award, and was selected to give the 2006 May Hill Arbuthnot Honor Lecture. Mr. Freedman lives in New York City and travels widely to research his books.

Book preview

Hans Scholl, Sophie Scholl, and Christoph Probst, founding members of the White Rose student resistance movement in Nazi Germany. Munich, June 1942.

Clarion Books

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New York, New York 10016

Copyright © 2016 by Russell Freedman

All rights reserved. For information about permission to reproduce selections from this book, write to [e-mail] or to Permissions, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company, 3 Park Avenue, 19th Floor, New York, New York 10016.

Clarion Books is an imprint of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.

hmhbooks.com

Cover photograph © Steve Gardner

Cover design by Kerry Martin

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available.

ISBN 978-0-544-22379-0

eISBN 978-0-544-82658-8

v5.1119

Many thanks to Alfons Balthesen, who helped guide me through the collections of the White Rose Museum; Stella Calvert-Smith of akg images; Caroline Waddell of the United States Memorial Holocaust Museum; James Cross Giblin for sharing his insights concerning the Hitler regime; and Evans Chan, who photographed White Rose landmarks throughout Munich especially for this book.

TO DINAH STEVENSON

∗∗∗∗ Preface ∗∗∗∗

In 1942, when World War II was in its third year, leaflets began to appear mysteriously in mailboxes all over Nazi Germany. Someone would open an envelope, pull out a leaflet, take one look, then turn and glance around nervously to make sure no one was watching. A person could not be too careful. Anyone caught with a seditious leaflet was marked as an enemy of the state and could land in a concentration camp, or worse.

Neatly typed, run off on a mimeograph machine, these documents were headed Leaflets of the White Rose. They assailed the Nazi dictatorship of evil, denounced Adolf Hitler as a liar and blasphemer, and called on the German people to rise up and overthrow the Nazi regime.

Where were these inflammatory leaflets coming from? Who was the White Rose? Was more than one person involved? The Nazi secret police, the Gestapo, organized a special task force to hunt down those responsible. A reward was offered for information leading to their speedy arrest.

The hunt for the White Rose finally led to Munich, the cradle of the Nazi government.

∗∗∗∗ ONE ∗∗∗∗

Embraced by the Hitler Youth

Members of the Deutsches Jungvolk (German Young Folk), the boys’ junior division of the Hitler Youth, pound their drums at a Nazi Party rally in Nuremberg, Germany.

HANS Scholl held his head high and his eyes fixed straight ahead as he stepped forward smartly, marching shoulder to shoulder with his comrades in the Hitler Youth.

Against his father’s wishes, Hans had joined the Hitler Youth movement when he was fourteen. His father, Robert, was opposed to Germany’s new leader, Adolf Hitler, and his National Socialist, or Nazi, political party. Don’t believe them, he warned his children. They are wolves and deceivers, and they are misusing the German people shamefully. But Hitler had promised the nation’s young people that they would be the architects of a glorious future, and Hans wanted to be a part of that noble cause.

Hitler Youth recruiting poster. The text reads: YOUTH SERVES THE FüHRER/ALL TEN-YEAR-OLDS INTO THE HITLER YOUTH.

Robert Scholl tried to convince his children that no good could come of Hitler’s promises. But his arguments were swept away by their youthful enthusiasm, and he granted them the right to choose. Hans had been the first to join, followed in turn by his three sisters, Inge, Elisabeth, and Sophie, and finally by their younger brother, Werner. We entered into it with body and soul, Inge recalled, and we could not understand why our father did not approve.

Few youngsters growing up in Germany during the 1930s could resist the lure of the Hitler Youth movement, and the Scholl children were typical of their times. They were attracted by the uniforms that set each member apart as someone special, by the closed ranks of marching youth keeping time to drumbeat and song with flags and banners waving, by the feeling of belonging, the embracing sense of fellowship on hikes and camping trips.

We heard much oratory about the fatherland, comradeship, . . . and love of country, Inge wrote. This was impressive, and we listened closely. . . . They told us that we must dedicate our lives to a great cause. We were taken seriously . . . in a remarkable way—and that aroused our enthusiasm.

Membership was voluntary at first. Boys could enroll in the Young Folk when they were ten, then transfer to the Hitler Youth proper at fourteen. Girls joined the Young Maidens at ten, then the League of German Girls at fourteen. Later, membership became mandatory for all boys and girls of proven Aryan descent. Parents who kept their children from joining faced a heavy prison sentence.

Adolf Hitler meets with a Hitler Youth troop, 1933.

Jewish youngsters, along with others of inferior ancestry, were not allowed to join. Hitler had declared that the Aryan race, of which Germans were the supreme example, was the master race, superior to all others.

Hitler had come to power in 1933, a time of political and economic turmoil. Germany had been defeated in World War I (1914–18). The peace terms dictated by the victorious Allies—Britain, France, Italy, and the United States—held the German people responsible for starting the war. Germany was required by this Treaty of Versailles to disarm, to give up certain territories, and to pay enormous amounts of money, called reparations, as compensation for all the destruction and losses the war had caused.

Shouting Heil Hitler!

Reviews for We Will Not Be Silent

[jennybeast · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

What an incredible story of resistance and ideals. Tragic, inspiring, extremely well documented.

[amandabock-1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Compelling and horrifying. Fascinating to think of the differences in media, communication, and resistance between then and now.

[sboren-1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I purchased this book from GoReads.com to read. ✉ All opinions are my own. ????? We Will Not Be Silent by Russell Freedman. A walk through the life of a family and friends in Germany during WWII that knew what Hilter was ordering done was wrong. This family came to understand the discretion needed to carry out anything the government deemed unacceptable behavior. As time marches forward and the war becomes unbearable leaflets begin to show up slowly at first then spreading quickly through Germany to call upon the people of Germany to rise up against Hitler. However, the all powerful Nazi regime launches an investigation and making several arrests for political treason. Then the voices within will forever tell the story of The White Rose Leaflets from WWII Germany. ✉✉✉✉✉ Review also posted on Instagram @borenbooks, Goodreads/StacieBoren, Go Read, Amazon, Twitter @jason_stacie and my blog at readsbystacie.com.

[ewyatt_16 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Fascinating look at the Scholl family and the White Rose movement. I didn't know this story. There were original photographs and information about memorials today. This helped me think about everyday people in Nazi German and the ideas of upstanders and bystanders and the incredible risks those who spoke out took.