As young adults in Nazi Germany in the 1930s, Hans Scholl joined the Hitler Youth, his sister Sophie the League of German Girls. They quickly became disillusioned. The White Rose Movement grew out of gatherings of Hans and a few friends in Munich in the early 1940s. As soon as Sophie knew Hans was behind the first White Rose flyer in 1942, encouraging Germans to resist fascism “before it’s too late,” she demanded to join their group. The movement’s weapons were words: flyers written and printed in secret, distributed with great planning and care. Their commitment was unwavering, right through their capture, interrogation, and brief trial. “I would do it all over again,” 21-year-old Sophie told her Gestapo interrogator. “I’m not wrong … You have the wrong world view.” Along with a third White Rose member who’d been captured (they did not reveal the names of others), Hans and Sophie were executed by guillotine in early 1943. A detailed account of intrigue and danger and heroism and heartbreak presents the Scholls’ courageous activism in the context of the terrible wrongs committed by the Nazi regime, and the greater good that the White Rose Movement sought to inspire. Ample black-and-white photos, including candid snapshots of the Scholls, and other visual materials are part of a work that ends with source notes and a bibliography. (Age 12 and older)

A "thorough and accessible" history of the German student resistance movement that took a stand against Hitler and the Nazis ( Kirkus , starred review).

"Thoroughly researched, with numerous archival photos, this well-told story of the White Rose opposition unfolds chronologically and with building suspense." — Publishers Weekly (starred review)

A Sibert Honor Book

We will not be silent.

We are your bad conscience.

The White Rose will not leave you in peace.

The White Rose was a group of students in Nazi Germany, appalled by Adolph Hitler's mass slaughter of German citizens and determined to resist his regime at any cost. Its members included Hans Scholl and his sister Sophie, who had been loyal members of Hitler Youth as children but came to doubt the humanity and integrity of their leaders. The Scholls and like-minded young people formed the White Rose to spread the message of resistance all across Germany. They wrote and distributed leaflets at the risk of their own lives.

Russell Freedman's account of the White Rose movement—its origins, its significance, and its extraordinary members, willing to sacrifice everything or freedom—illuminates the inspiring bravery of the young people who fought Germany's Nazi regime from within.

"As always, Freedman not only writes with clarity and pace but augments his text with primary-source quotes and photographs that add power and immediacy." — Horn Book Magazine

"A highly readable and well-documented overview of a fascinating aspect of World War II." — School Library Journal