Memories of the White Rose

[Kyt]

I don't think this has been posted before:

Memories of The White Rose - Part One

Dr. Wittenstein is one of only two survivors of the inner circle of the White Rose, a resistance group of anti-Nazi German students and their supporters that openly opposed Hitler.

And this is fascinating:

Transcripts

[Kyt]

And putting the White Rose into context:

German Resistance - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Most of the info in the article comes from Joachim Fest, Plotting Hitler’s Death: The German Resistance to Hitler 1933-1945, which is excellent.

Have a look at the links at the end of the article.

A similar thread was started on the forum before (link)

[von Poop]

The text of their leaflets is reproduced here:
The White Rose - Leaflets
The poor sods always struck me as rather a damp squib, a kind of gentle, idealistic and academic resistance without really appreciating the inevitable response of the monstrous state they were criticising.
Incredibly brave but also somewhat naïve.

[Harry Ree]

Theirs was a different courage to evaluate and they were overt rather than covert.

Additionally,there were many young men who refused to do military service and paid for it with their lives.

The fact of the matter is that the Nazi reime could have only been toppled if the Wehrmacht had provided the leadership.The sad facts are that the military leadership had been seduced by Hitler as far back as 1938 when those such as Beck who had serious reservations about Hitler failed to act.

[Kyt]

What's interesting is Britain's refusal to assist the limited resistance to Hitler before the war:

The Unnecessary War, an essay review by Brian Martin

www.wallenberg.org/arkiv/gordeler.doc

(copy and paste into a new window - you'll be prompted to open this as a word doc - I've scanned the doc for viruses and it seems safe)

[Harry Ree]

There was a cat and mouse game played between British Intelligence and the Abwehr in the late 1930s all centering around a supposed German "Generals revolt".The Abwehr led the field in this game,managed by Canaris but were soon replaced by the SD under Schellenberg.The SD's motivation came from Himmler and Heydrich who were anxious to unearth any plot against Hitler's life and to identify and crush any opposition that could be revealed as having or attempting to make contact with British Intelligence.

The upshot was that British Intelligence received a "bloody nose" in the autumn of 1939 which is recorded in history as the Venlo Incident.Two senior MI-6 officers, Major S. Payne Best and Captain R.Henry Stevens were kidnapped by the SD at Venlo on the Dutch/Grerman border crossing when they were supposingly meeting dissenting emissaries of the Wehrmacht.In fact,the two emissaries were no other than Schellenberg and a side kick,de Crinis.

After Venlo,British Intelligence became unreceptive to any German dissent with the view that any such organisation would be the work of the SD or,if genuine, would be insecure against SD penitration.From then on any German resistance to the regime, as far as British Intelligence was concerned, could be regarded as being on its own.

Payne Best and Stevens survived the war having being kept in various concentration camps and, with other notable prisoners were herded into the 'Prominente', a group whose future was supposed to be decided by Hitler,possibily as a bargaining tool in future negotiations with the Allies.As things turned out, the group was fortunate to escape with their lives as they were held by the SS in a secure travelling group "awaiting orders" as regards their fate.The killing of the regime's enemies continued throughout the dying throes of the Third Reich but luckily the group were liberated in late April 1945.