1/27/23

Reason Read: alpha challenge IS
This is a work of nonfiction. It starts out by saying that Nazi politics gained power because of the fear of communism. It addresses many issues that led up to Hitler gaining power. The White Rose is a group of young people who chose to resist. ( )

FROM SYNC: Two accomplished narrators, Elizabeth Wiley and Heather Henderson, recount the chronicle of the White Rose, a cluster of German students who opposed Hitler in 1942 and 1943. The focus is on Hans and Sophie Scholl, siblings of the author. Both narrators are articulate and polished as they engage listeners in the hopeless but courageous struggle of this resistance group. Five male narrators provide documentation following the historical account. Listeners hear the exact words (in English) of the leaflets that condemned the young students, and there is postwar political commentary as well. Another narrator, Kaylee Harwood, reads the words of Elsa, Sophie’s cellmate, and in her voice can be heard the sorrow and horror of cruel injustice. ( )

This was a hard book to read. It was not long or poorly written but the subject was so sad that I picked it up and set it down a number of times since I bought my copy nearly 20 years ago. The White Rose was a very small group of German university students in Munich in 1943. They had the incredible self-sacrificing courage to oppose Hitler and his Nazi machine. There was no violence in their opposition, they didn't hurt anyone, for for their willingness to state that Hitler and Nazism was evil and wrong three of the leaders were executed by beheading. All they did was print and distribute some leaflets and paint FREEDOM and DOWN WITH HITLER on some walls. Three of the leaders, Hans and Sophie Scholl and Christoph Probst bravely accepted their death sentence in order to not reveal the identity of other members of the White Rose. Others were caught and executed later in spite of this. Hans, Sophie and Christoph were brilliant and idealistic and very young. We should give thanks for their sacrifice. The best way to do that is by standing up for the truth. ( )

This was kind of a weird book to read. From a historical perspective, the student resistance led by the Scholls is one of the most interesting events of German World War II history, due to the fact that these young people grew up indoctrinated by the ideals of Nazism, yet they still fully understood the negative ramifications of fascism and made the choice to break away from it. They were obviously not the only group of resisters during the Third Reich, but their movement seems to stand alone at a completely civilian level. What made this book a challenging read is that the that takes up most of the book is not particularly well written. The narrative seems to jump from perspective to perspective quite clumsily, and it often feels like the writer has not decided whether they are writing a pseudo/recreated-memoir, a semi-omniscient narrated biography, or a historical narrative.

What does make this book more successful is that instead of relying on the recreated narrative they also chose to include a wealth of primary source documents in the second half of the book. Reading the original (translated) texts of the Scholl’s leaflets that got the White Rose group arrested and the trial accounts provides some much needed contrast to the fictionalized account recalled by Inge Scholl. In particular I was struck by the strong rhetoric used by both sides to defend their cause, which served to strengthen my sympathies for the White Rose group and gives way to a feeling of disgust when confronted with the extremist viewpoints of the Reich lawyers and proponents. The platform of National Socialism was built on a stage of clever and powerful rhetoric, so their extreme reaction to a group of educated students writing against their Fuhrer becomes even less surprising in context - even if the pamphlets did not seem to be very successful in the goal of creating chaos against the Government (yet). ( )