Nothing is more dishonourable for a civilized people than to let itself be “governed” without resistance by an irresponsible clique of rulers devoted to dark instincts. Is it not true that every honest German today is ashamed of his government? And who among us can sense the dimensions of the dishonor that will lie upon us and our children once the veil has fallen from our eyes and the most horrid and extravagant crimes come to light? If German people are already so corrupted and spiritually crushed that they do not raise a hand, frivolously trusting in a questionable faith in the lawful order of history; if they surrender man’s highest principle, that which raises him above all other God’s creatures, his free will; if they abandon the determination to take decisive action and turn the wheel of history and thus subject it to their own rational decision; if they are so devoid of all individuality, have already gone so far along the road to turning into a spiritless and cowardly mass – then they clearly deserve their downfall.

Goethe speaks of the Germans as a tragic people, similar to the Jews or the Greeks, but today it would appear rather as a shallow, spineless herd of followers robbed of their core with the marrow sucked out of them, who are now just waiting to be hounded to their destruction. So it seems – but it is not so. Through gradual, treacherous, systematic violation, every single person has rather been put into a prison of the mind, which he only realizes after finding himself already in chains. Only a few have recognized the impending doom and their heroic warnings have been rewarded with death. The fate of these persons will be spoken of later.

If everyone waits for his neighbour to take the first step, the messengers of the vengeful nemesis will come ever closer, and the very last victim will senselessly be thrown into the throat of the insatiable demon. Therefore, every individual must be aware of his responsibility as a member of western culture and put up as fierce a fight as possible, he must work against the scourges of mankind, against fascism and any similar system of totalitarianism. Offer resistance – resistance – wherever you may be, stop this atheistic war machine from running on and on, before it is too late; before the last city, like Cologne, lies in ruins; and before the nation’s last young man has bled to death somewhere on the battlefields for the hubris of a subhuman. Don’t forget that every people deserves the regime it is willing to endure!

Excerpt from Friedrich Schiller’s The Legislation of Lycurgus and Solon:
“…Viewed in relation to its purpose, the legal code of Lycurgus is a masterpiece of political science and knowledge of human nature. He desired a powerful, indestructible state, firmly established on its own principles. His goal was to achieve political power and permanence, and he attained this goal to the fullest extent possible under the circumstances. But if one compares Lycurgus’ purpose with those of mankind, then a deep disapproval must take the place of the admiration which we felt at first glance. Anything may be sacrificed for the good of the State except that end which the State itself only serves as a means. The State is never an end in itself; it is important only as a condition under which the purpose of mankind can be attained, and this purpose is no less than the development of all human resources, progress. If a political constitution prevents the development of the capabilities which reside in man, if it interferes with the progress of the human spirit, then it is reprehensible and injurious, no matter how excellently devised, how perfect in its own way. Its very permanence in that case amounts more to a reproach than to a basis for fame; it becomes a prolonged evil, and the longer it endures, the more harmful it is.

… At the cost of all moral feeling a political merit was achieved, and the resources of the state were mobilized to that end. In Sparta there was no conjugal love, no mother love, no filial love, no friendship; all men were citizens only, and all virtue was civic.

… It was the Spartans’ duty by law to be inhumane to their slaves; with these unhappy victims of war humanity itself was insulted and mistreated. In the Spartan code of law the dangerous principle was promulgated that men were to be looked upon as means and not as ends – thus the foundation of natural law and of morality was legally demolished.

… What an admirable spectacle is given, by contrast, by the rough warrior Gaius Marcius in his camp before Rome, when he sacrifices vengeance and victory because he cannot bear the sight of a mother’s tears!”

“…The State [of Lycurgus] could endure only under one condition: if the spirit of the people became quiescent. Hence it could be maintained only if it failed to achieve the highest, the sole purpose of a State.”

From Goethe’s The Awakening of Epimenides, Act II, Scene 4:

SPIRITS
Though he who has boldly risen from the abyss
Through an iron will and cunning
May conquer half the world,
Yet to the abyss he must return.
Already a terrible fear has seized him;
In vain will he resist!
And all who still hung onto him
Must perish in his fall.

HOPE
Now I meet my good men
Who have gathered in the night,
To wait in silence, not to sleep.
And the glorious word of liberty
They lisp and stammer,
Till in unaccustomed newness,
On the steps of our temple

Once again in delight we cry:
(with conviction, loudly:)
Freedom!
(more moderately:)
Freedom!
(echo from all sides and ends:)
Freedom!

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It is impossible to deal with the subject of National Socialism in an intellectual way, since it is non-intellectual. One cannot refer to a National Socialist world view, for if there was such a thing, one would have to try to prove it or combat it with intellectual means – but reality presents a totally different picture; at its very inception this movement depended on the deception and betrayal of one’s fellow man; even then it was inwardly rotten and could save itself only through constant lies. Hitler himself, in an early edition of “his” book (one written in the worst German I have ever read; and still it has been elevated to a bible by the nation of poets and thinkers), wrote: “You would never believe how much one has to delude a people in order to rule it.” If at the start this cancerous ulcer in the nation was not particularly noticeable, it was only because there were still enough good forces to keep it under control. As it grew ever larger, however, and finally attained ruling power through an ultimate mean corruption, the tumour broke open, as it were, besmirching the whole body. Most of its former opponents went into hiding. The German intellectuals fled to their cellars, where they gradually choked to death, like plants struggling in the dark, away from light and sun. Now the end is near. Now it is our task to find one another again, to spread information from person to person, to keep a steadfast purpose, and to allow ourselves no rest until the very last man is persuaded of the urgent need for him to fight against this system. When thus a wave of rebellion goes through the land, when “it is in the air”, when many join the cause, then in a great final effort this system can be shaken off. After all, an end in terror is better than terror without end.

We are not in a position to pass final judgment on the meaning of our history. But if this catastrophe can be used to further the public welfare, it will only be by virtue of the fact that we are cleansed by suffering; that we yearn for the light in the midst of deepest night, summon our strength, and finally help in shaking off the yoke which weighs on our world.

We don’t want to write about the Jewish Question in this leaflet, we don’t want to compose a defending speech – no, we just want to mention a fact as a short example, the fact that since the conquest of Poland three hundred thousand Jews have been murdered in this country in the most bestial way. Here we see the most terrifying crime against human dignity, a crime that is unparalleled in the entire history of mankind. The Jews, too, are human beings – no matter what position one takes on the Jewish Question – and against human beings a crime of this dimension has been perpetrated. Someone might say that the Jews deserve their fate. This assertion would be a monstrous presumption; but let us assume that someone said this – what position has he then taken on the fact that the entire Polish aristocratic youth has been annihilated (May God grant that this is not yet the case!)? In what way, they would ask, did something like this happen? All male offspring of noble lineage between the ages of fifteen and twenty were transported to concentration camps in Germany and sentenced to forced labour, and all the girls of this age group were sent to Norway, into the brothels of the SS! Why tell you these things, since you are fully aware of them – or if not of these, then of other equally grave crimes committed by this frightful subhumanity? Because here we touch on a problem which involves us deeply and forces us all to take thought. Why does the German people behave so apathetically in the face of all these abominable crimes, crimes so unworthy of the human race? Hardly anyone wonders or worries about it. It is accepted as a fact and put out of mind. And once again the German people slumbers on in its dull, stupid sleep and encourages these fascist criminals, giving them the opportunity to carry on with their savageries; and of course they do so. Should this be a sign that the Germans have become brutalized in their most basic human feelings, that no chord within them cries out at the sight of such deeds, that they have sunk into a fatal coma from which they will never ever awake? So it seems, and so it will certainly be, if the German does not at last start up out of his stupor, if he does not protest wherever and whenever he can against this clique of criminals, if he shows no compassion for these hundreds of thousands of victims. He must display not only compassion; no, much more: a sense of complicity. For through his apathetic behaviour he gives these evil men the opportunity to act as they do; he tolerates this “government” which has taken upon itself such an infinitely great burden of guilt; indeed, he himself is to blame for the fact that it came about at all! Each and every man wants to exonerate himself from guilt of this kind, each one continues on his way with the calmest, the most placid of consciences. But he cannot exonerate himself; each man is guilty, guilty, guilty! It is not too late, however, to do away with this most reprehensible of all miscarriages of government, so as to avoid being burdened with even greater guilt. Now, when in recent years our eyes have been opened, when we know exactly who our adversary is, it is high time to root out this brown horde. Up until the outbreak of war the majority of the German people was blinded; the Nazis did not show themselves in their true colors. But now, now that we have recognized them for what they are, it must be the sole and prime duty, the holiest duty of every German to destroy these beasts!

“If the government is inconspicuous, the people is happy. If the government is intrusive, it is broken.
Good fortune, alas! is built upon misery. Good fortune, alas! only masks misery. What shall come of this? We cannot foresee the end. Order is upset and turns into disorder, good is transformed into evil. The people is confused. Has it not been so, day in, day out, for a very long time?
The wise man is therefore rectangular, though he does not bump into others; he has sharp corners, though he does not harm; he is upright but not gruff. He is clear-minded, but he does not strive to be brilliant.”
Lao-Tzu

“Whoever undertakes to rule the kingdom and to shape it according to his whim – I foresee that he will fail to reach his goal. That is all.
The kingdom is a living organism. It cannot be constructed, upon my word! He who tries to manipulate it will spoil it, he who tries to take possession of it will lose it.
Therefore: Some creatures go out in front, others follow, some have warm breath, others cold, some are strong, some weak, some attain abundance, others succumb.
The wise man will accordingly forswear excess, he will desist from arrogance and encroachment.”
Lao-Tzu

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“Salus publica suprema lex.”
All ideal forms of government are utopias. A State cannot be constructed on a purely theoretical basis; rather, it must grow and ripen in the way an individual human being matures. But we must not forget that at the starting point of every civilization the State was already there in rudimentary form. The family is as old as man himself, and out of this initial bond, man was endowed with reason, creating for himself a State founded on justice, whose highest law was the common good. The State should exist as a parallel to the divine order, and the highest of all utopias, the civitas dei, is the model which in the end it should approximate. We do not want to pass judgment here on the many possible forms of a State – democracy, constitutional monarchy, and so on. But one matter needs to be brought out clearly and unambiguously: every individual human being has a claim to a useful and just State, one which secures the freedom of the individual as well as the good of the whole. For, according to God’s will, man is intended to pursue his natural goal, his earthly happiness, in self-reliance and self-chosen activity, freely and independently within the community of life and work of the nation.

But our present “State” is the dictatorship of evil. “Oh, we’ve known that for a long time,” I hear you object, “and we don’t need to have it brought to our attention yet again.” But, I ask you, if you know that, why do you not bestir yourselves, why do you allow these men in power to rob you step by step, openly and in secret, of one domain of your rights after another, until one day nothing, nothing at all will be left but a mechanized State system presided over by criminals and drunkards? Is your spirit already so crushed by abuse that you forget it is your right – or rather, your moral duty – to abolish this system? But if a person no longer can summon the strength to demand his right, then it is an absolute necessity that he should fall. We would deserve to be dispersed throughout the earth like dust before the wind if we did not muster our powers at this late hour and finally find the courage which up to now we have lacked. Do not hide your cowardice under a cloak of prudence! For with each day that you hesitate, failing to oppose this monster from hell, your guilt will keep growing as in a parabolic curve.

Many, perhaps most of the readers of these leaflets are not quite sure how to offer effective resistance. They see no chance to do so. We want to try to show them that everyone is in a position to contribute to the collapse of this system. It won’t be possible through individualistic enmity, in the manner of embittered hermits, to prepare the ground for the overturn of this “government” or even bring about the revolution at the earliest possible moment. No, it can be done only through the cooperation of many convinced, energetic people – people who have agreed on the means they must use to attain their goal. We don’t have a great deal of choice. There is only one means available to us: passive resistance.

The sense and the aim of passive resistance is to topple National Socialism, and in this struggle we must not recoil from any course of action, wherever it may lie. We must attack National Socialism wherever it is open to attack. We must bring this monster of a state to an end as soon as possible. A victory of fascist Germany in this war would have immeasurable, frightful consequences. The military victory over Bolshevism must not become the primary concern of the Germans. The defeat of the Nazis must unconditionally be the absolute priority, the greater necessity of this latter demand we will demonstrate to you in one of our forthcoming leaflets.

And now every convinced opponent of National Socialism must ask himself how he can fight against the present “State” in the most effective way, how he can strike it in its most vulnerable places. Through passive resistance, without a doubt. It is obvious that we cannot provide each individual with a blueprint for his acts, we can only suggest them in general terms, and each person has to find the right way for himself to attain this end.

Sabotage in armament plants and war industries, sabotage at all gatherings, rallies, and meetings of organizations launched by the National Socialist Party. Obstruction of the smooth functioning of the war machine (a machine for a war that goes on solely to shore up and perpetuate the National Socialist Party and its dictatorship). Sabotage in all the areas of science and scholarship which further the continuation of the war – whether in universities, technical colleges, laboratories, research institutes or technical bureaus. Sabotage at all cultural events which could potentially enhance the “prestige” of the fascists among the people. Sabotage in all branches of the arts even the slightest bit connected with National Socialism or rendering it service. Sabotage in all publications, all newspapers in the pay of the “government” that defend its ideology and aid in disseminating the brown lie. Do not give a penny to street collections (even when they are conducted under the cloak of charity). For this is only a disguise. In reality the proceeds benefit neither the Red Cross nor the destitute. The government does not need this money; it is not financially dependent on these collections. After all, the printing presses run continuously to manufacture any desired amount of paper currency. But the people must constantly be kept in suspense; the pressure of the curb must not slacken! Do not contribute to the collections of metal, textiles, and the like. Seek to convince all your acquaintances, including those in the lower social classes, of the senselessness of continuing, of the hopelessness of this war; of our spiritual and economic enslavement at the hands of the National Socialists; of the destruction of all moral and religious values; and urge them to offer passive resistance!

Aristotle, Politics: “… and further, it is part [of the nature of tyranny] to strive to see to it that nothing
is kept hidden of that which any subject says or does, but that everywhere he will be spied upon, … further, to set all men against each other, friends against friends, the people against the nobility, and even the rich among themselves. Then it is part of such tyrannical measures to make the subjects poor, in order to be able to pay the bodyguards and to keep them occupied with earning their livelihood so that they will have neither leisure nor opportunity to instigate conspiratorial acts… Further, such taxes on income as were imposed in Syracuse, for under Dionysius the citizens had gladly paid out their whole fortunes in taxes within five years. The tyrant is also inclined to constantly foment wars.”

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There is an ancient maxim that we repeat to our children: “He who won’t listen will have to feel.” But a smart child will not burn his fingers on a hot stove more than once.

In the past few weeks Hitler has chalked up successes both in Africa and in Russia. Consequently, optimism on the one hand and distress and pessimism on the other have grown within the German people with rapidity quite inconsistent with traditional German apathy. From all sides one has heard among Hitler’s opponents – the better segments of the population – lamentations, words of disappointment and discouragement, often ending with the question: “Will Hitler now after all…?”

Meanwhile the German attack on Egypt has ground to a halt. Rommel has to hold out in a dangerously exposed position – but the advance in the East is still proceeding. This apparent success has been purchased at the most horrible expense of human life, and so it can no longer be counted an advantage. Therefore we must warn against all optimism.

Who has counted the dead, Hitler or Goebbels? – certainly neither of them. In Russia thousands fall daily. It is the time of the harvest, and the reaper cuts into the ripe grain with broad strokes. Mourning is moving into our country cottages, and no one is there to dry the mothers’ tears. Yet Hitler is lying to those whose most precious possession he has stolen and driven to a meaningless death.

Every word that comes from Hitler’s mouth is a lie. When he says peace, he means war, and when he blasphemously uses the name of the Almighty, he means the power of evil, the fallen angel, Satan. His mouth is the foul-smelling maw of Hell, and his might is accursed at bottom. True, we must conduct a struggle against the National Socialist terrorist state with rational means; but those who still doubt the existence of demonic powers have failed by far to understand the metaphysical background of this war. Behind the concrete, the perceptible events, behind all objective, logical considerations, we find the irrational element, i.e. the struggle against the demon, against the messenger of the Antichrist. Everywhere and at all times demons have been lurking in the dark, waiting for the moment when man is weak; when unauthorized he leaves his place in the order of creation, founded for him on freedom by God; when he yields to the force of evil, separates himself from the powers of a higher order; and after voluntarily taking the first step, he is driven on to the second and third at a furiously accelerating rate. Everywhere and at all times of greatest need, men have stood up, prophets and saints who cherished their freedom, who pointed to the One God and urged the people to a reversal of its downward course. Man is surely free, but without the true God he is defenceless against evil. He is a like rudderless ship, at the mercy of the storm, an infant without its mother, a cloud dissolving into thin air.

I ask you, you as a Christian struggling with the preservation of your greatest treasures, whether you hesitate, whether you incline toward intrigue or procrastination in the hope that someone else will take up arms in your defence? Has God not given you the strength, the courage to fight? We must attack evil where it is strongest, and it is strongest in the power of Hitler.

“So I turned and considered all the wrongs that were done under the sun: and behold there were the tears of such as were wronged, and they had no comforter; and on the side of their oppressors there was too much power, so they had no comforter. Wherefore I praised the dead who were already dead more than the living who were still alive…” (Dicta)

“True anarchy is the generative element of religion. Out of the annihilation of every positive element she lifts her gloriously radiant countenance as the founder of a new world… If Europe were about to awaken again, if a state of states, a teaching of political science were at hand! Should hierarchy then… be the principle of the union of states? Blood will stream over Europe until the nations become aware of the frightful madness which drives them in circles. And then, struck by celestial music and made gentle, they will approach their former altars together in a colourful mixture, undertake the works of peace, and hold a great celebration of peace with fervent tears on the smoking battlefields. Only religion can reawaken Europe, establish the rights of the peoples, and install Christianity in new splendour visibly on earth in its office as guarantor of peace.” Novalis

We wish emphatically to point out that the White Rose is not in the pay of any foreign power. Although we know that National Socialist power must be broken by military means, we are trying to achieve a renewal from within of the severely wounded German spirit. This rebirth must be preceded, however, by the clear recognition of all the guilt with which the German people has burdened itself, and by an uncompromising battle against Hitler and his all too many accomplices, party members, quislings, and the like. With all brutality the chasm that separates the better part of the nation from everything that has to do with National Socialism has to be opened wide. For Hitler and his followers there is no punishment on earth that commensurates with their crimes. But out of love for coming generations we must make an example after the conclusion of the war, so that no one will ever again feel the slightest urge to try out anything similar. And do not forget the petty scoundrels in this regime; remember their names, so that none will go free! They shall not succeed in rallying to another flag at the last minute, after having contributed to these abominable crimes, and act as if nothing had happened!

To set your minds at rest, we would like to add that the addresses of the readers of the White Rose are not recorded anywhere. They were picked out at random from telephone directories.

We will not be silent. We are your bad conscience. The White Rose will not leave you in peace!

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Appeal to all Germans!

The war is approaching its certain death. As in the year 1918, the German government is trying to focus attention exclusively on the growing threat of submarine warfare, while in the East the armies are constantly in retreat and invasion is expected in the West. Mobilization in the United States has not yet reached its climax, but it already exceeds anything that the world has ever seen. It has become a mathematical certainty that Hitler is leading the German people into the abyss. Hitler cannot win the war; he can only prolong it. The guilt of Hitler and his accomplices goes beyond all measure. Just retribution comes closer and closer.

But what is the German people doing? It will not see and will not hear. Blindly it follows its seducers into its own ruin. Victory at any price! is inscribed on their banner. “I will fight to the last man,” says Hitler – but in the meantime the war has already been lost.

Germans! Do you and your children want to suffer the same fate that befell the Jews? Do you want to be judged by the same standards as your seducers? Are we to be a nation which is hated and rejected by all mankind forever? No! Therefore, dissociate yourselves from National Socialist subhumanism! Prove by your deeds that you think otherwise. A new war of liberation is about to begin. The better part of the nation will fight on our side. Tear up the cloak of indifference you have wrapped around your hearts. Make your decision before it is too late!

Do not believe the National Socialist propaganda which has driven the fear of Bolshevism into your very bones. Do not believe that Germany’s welfare is linked to the victory of National Socialism for better or worse. A criminal regime cannot achieve a German victory. Separate in time from everything connected with National Socialism. In the aftermath a terrible but righteous judgment will be meted out to those who stayed in hiding, who were cowardly and hesitant.

What can we learn from the outcome of this war – this war that never was a national one?

The imperialist ideology of force, from whatever side it may come, must be shattered for all time. A one-sided Prussian militarism must never again be allowed to assume power. Only in large-scale cooperation among the nations of Europe can the ground be prepared for reconstruction. Every centralized hegemony, such as the Prussian state has tried to exercise in Germany and in Europe, must be cut down at its inception. The Germany of the future can only be a federal state. At this juncture only a sound federal system can imbue a weakened Europe with new life. The workers must be liberated from their condition of downtrodden slavery under National Socialism through a rational socialism. The illusory structure of autonomous national industry must disappear from Europe. Every nation, every man has a right to the treasures of the world!

Freedom of speech, freedom of religion, the protection of individual citizens from the arbitrary will of criminal regimes of violence – these will be the bases of the New Europe.

Support the resistance. Distribute the leaflets!

Fellow Students!

Shaken and broken, our nation is confronted with the downfall of the men of Stalingrad. Three hundred and thirty thousand German men have been senselessly and irresponsibly driven to death and destruction by the inspired strategy of our World War I Private First Class. Führer, we thank you!

The German people is in ferment. Will we continue to entrust the fate of our armies to a dilettante? Do we want to sacrifice the rest of German youth to the base ambitions of a Party clique? No, never!

The day of reckoning has come – the reckoning of German youth with the most abominable tyrant our people has ever been forced to endure. In the name of German youth we demand restitution by Adolf Hitler’s state of our personal freedom, the most precious treasure we have, out of which he has swindled us in the meanest possible way.

We have grown up in a state in which all free expression of opinion has been unscrupulously suppressed. The Hitler Youth, the SA, the SS have tried to regiment us, to revolutionize us, to drug us in the most promising young years of our lives. “Philosophical training” was the name given to the despicable method by which our budding individual reflection and evaluation have been suffocated in a fog of empty phrases. A system of selection of leaders, at once unimaginably devilish and narrow-minded, rears its future party bigwigs in the “Castles of the Knightly Order” as godless, shameless, and ruthless exploiters and assassins – blind, stupid hangers-on of the Führer. We “Intellectual Workers” would be the right ones to put obstacles in the path of this caste of overlords. Soldiers at the front are regimented like schoolboys by student leaders and trainees for the post of Gauleiter, and the lewd jokes of the Gauleiters insult the honor of the women students. German women students at the University of Munich have given a dignified reply to the besmirching of their honor, and German students have defended the women in the University and have stood firm. That is a beginning of the struggle for our free self-determination – without which intellectual and spiritual values cannot be created. We thank our brave comrades, both men and women, who have set us shining examples.

For us there is but one slogan: fight against the party! Get out of the party organizations, which want to keep our mouths sealed! Get out of the lecture rooms of the SS corporals and sergeants and the party bootlickers! What we seek is genuine learning and real freedom of opinion. No threat can frighten us, not even the shutting down of our institutions of higher learning. This is the struggle of each and every one of us for our future, our freedom, and our honor under a regime conscious of its moral responsibility.

Freedom and honor! For ten long years Hitler and his accomplices have manhandled, squeezed, twisted, and debased these two splendid German words to the point of nausea, as only dilettantes can, feeding the highest values of a nation to the pigs. They have sufficiently demonstrated, in ten years of destruction of all material and intellectual freedom, of all moral substance among the German people, what they understand by freedom and honor. The frightful bloodbath has opened the eyes of even the stupidest German – it is a slaughter they have carried out in the name of “freedom and honor of the German nation” throughout Europe, and which they continue to perpetrate every day. The name of Germany is dishonored for all time if German youth does not finally rise up, take revenge, and atone, smashing its tormentors, and setting up a new Europe of the spirit.

Students! The German nation is looking to us. As in 1813 the people expected us to shake off the Napoleonic yoke, so in 1943 they are looking to us to break the National Socialist terror through the power of the spirit.

Beresina and Stalingrad are burning in the East. The dead of Stalingrad implore us to take action!

“Rise up, my people, let smoke and flame be our sign!”

Our people stands ready to rebel against the National Socialist enslavement of Europe in a devout new breakthrough of freedom and honor!