Stand up for the Red, White and Blue: Part 2 – The German White Rose

The British Red Poppy, the German White Rose, the French Blue Cornflower….Stand by the Red, White and Blue…Eternal symbols of Resistance to the Nazis, yesterday, today and tomorrow
The White Rose (German: die Weiße Rose) was a non-violent, intellectual resistance group in Nazi Germany, consisting of students from the University of Munich and their philosophy professor. The group became known for an anonymous leaflet and graffiti campaign, lasting from June 1942 until February 1943, which called for active opposition to dictator Adolf Hitler’s regime.

The six most recognized members of the German resistance group  were arrested by the Gestapo, tried for treason and beheaded in 1943. The text of their sixth leaflet was smuggled by the jurist Helmuth James Graf von Moltke out of Germany through Scandinavia to the United Kingdom, and in July 1943, copies of it were dropped over Germany by Allied planes, retitled “The Manifesto of the Students of Munich”.

Another member, Hans Conrad Leipelt, who helped distribute Leaflet 6 in Hamburg, was executed in January 1945 for his participation. Today the members of the White Rose are honoured in Germany amongst its greatest heroes, since they opposed the Third Reich in the face of almost certain death.

White Rose survivor Jürgen Wittenstein described what it was like to live in Hitler’s Germany: “The government – or rather, the party – controlled everything: the news media, arms, police, the armed forces, the judiciary system, communications, travel, all levels of education from kindergarten to universities, all cultural and religious institutions. Political indoctrination started at a very early age, and continued by means of the Hitler Youth with the ultimate goal of complete mind control. Children were exhorted in school to denounce even their own parents for derogatory remarks about Hitler or Nazi ideology.”

So  goodbye my love till then
When the white rose blooms  again
The summer  days are ending in the  valley
And soon the time will come
When we must be  apart
Now you must  start
Your journey to the  city
And leave me  till
Another spring-time comes  around
.
CHORUS
When the white rose blooms again
You must leave me, leave me  lonely
So goodbye my love till  then
When the white rose blooms again
The autumn leaves  are falling in the  valley
And soon the  winter snow
Will lie upon the ground
But like the rose
That comes  back with the springtime
You will return to me
When springtime comes  around

CHORUS.
Good  bye  till  then
Good  bye till  then.

 

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