The Fourth Leaflet - the White Rose

There is an ancient maxim that we repaet to our children: "He who won't listen will have to feel."  But a wise child will not burn 
his fingers the second time on a hot stove.  In the past weeks Hitler has chalked up successes in Africa and in Russia.  In 
consequence, optimism on the one hand and distress and pessimism on the other have grown within the German people with a 
rapidity quite inconsistent with traditional German apathy.  On all sides, one hears among Hitler's opponents - the better 
segments of the population - exclamations of despair, words of disappointment and discouragement, often ending with teh 
question: "Will Hitler now, after all...?"

Meanwhile, the German offensive against Egypt has ground to a halt.  Rommel has to bide his time in a dangerously exposed 
position.  But the push into the East proceeds.  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.

Neither Hitler nor Goebbels can have counted the dead.  In Russia, thousands are lost daily.  It is the time of the harvest, and 
the reaper cuts into the ripe grain with wide strokes.  Mourning takes up her abode in the country cottages, and there is no one 
to dry the tears of the mothers.  Yet Hitler feeds with lies those people whose most precious belongings he has stolen and 
whom he has 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 at bottom accursed.  True, we must consider the struggle against the National Socialist state with rational means; but 
whoever today still doubts the reality, the existence of demonic powers, has failed by a wide margin to understand the 
metaphysical background of this war.  Behind the concrete, the visible events, behind all objective, logical considerations, we 
find the irrational element: the struggle against the demon, against the servants of the Antichrist.  Everywhere and at all times 
demons have been lurking in the dark, waiting for the moment when man is weak; when of his own volition he leaves his place 
in the order of Creation as founded for him by God in freedom; 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 next and the next at a furiously 
accelerating rate.  Everywhere and at all times of greatest trial men have appeared, prophets and saints who cherished their 
freedom, who preached the One God and who with His help brought the people to a reversal of their downward course.  Man 
is free, to be sure, but without the true God he is defenseless against the principle of evil.  He is like a rudderless ship, at the 
mercy of the storm, an infant without his mother, a cloud dissolving into thin air. 

I ask you, you as a Christian wrestling for the preservation of your greatest treasure, whether you hesitate, whether you incline 
toward intrigue, calculation, or procrastination in the hope that someone else will raise his arm in your defense?  Has God not 
given you the strength, the will to fight?  We must attack evil where it is strongest, and it is strongest in the power of Hitler. 

         So I returned, and considered all the oppressions that are done under the sun: and behold the tears of such as were 
     oppressed, and they had no comforter; and on the side of their oppressors was power; but they had no comforter. 
         Wherefore I praised the dead which are already dead more than the living which are yet alive 
     -ECCLESASTES 4 

         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 approach their former alters all together, hear about the works of 
     peace, and hold a great celebration of peace with fervent tears before the smoking alters.  Only religion can reawaken 
     Europe, establish the rights of the peoples, and install Christianity in new splendor visibly on earth in its office as 
     guarantor of peace. 
     - NOVALIS

We wish exxpressly to point out that the White Rose is not in the pay of any foreign power.  Though 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 preceeded, however, by the clear recognition of all the guilt with which the German people 
have burdened themselves, and by an uncompromising battle against Hitler and his all too many minions, party members, 
Quislings, and the like.  With total brutality the chasm that seperates the better portion of the nation from everything that is 
identified with National Socialism must be opened wide.  For Hitler and his followers there is no punishment on this earth 
commensurate 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 have the slightest urge to try a similar action.  And do not forget the petty scoundrels in this 
regime; note their names, so that none will go free!  They should not find it possible, having had their part in these abominable 
crimes, at the last minute to rally to another flag and then act as if nothing has happened! 

To set you at rest, we add that the addresses of the readers of the White Rose are not recorded in writing.  They were picked 
at random from directories. 

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


[SOURCE: Scholl, Inge; "The White Rose"; trans. Arthur R. Schultz; Wesleyan University Press, second edition, 1983; 
pgs.85-88] 

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