Defying Hitler: The White Rose Resistance Group

Dr Alexandra Lloyd, Lecturer in German, Magdalen College and St Edmund Hall, University of Oxford, gives a talk on the White Rose Resistance Group. In 1943 five students and a professor at the University of Munich were arrested, tried, and executed. They were members of The White Rose (Die Weiße Rose), a clandestine group that wrote and distributed pamphlets calling on the Germans to resist Hitler. The pamphlets are fascinating texts, drawing on a range of philosophical ideas and influences. They urge readers to open their eyes to the atrocities being committed in the name of the regime, denounce the persecution of European Jews, and call for an end to the war. This talk introduces the White Rose group and examines the way they used the written word to inspire resistance.