The White Rose group primarily spread their message through leaflets, criticizing both their country and the Führer, and calling upon others to join them in challenging the boundaries of Nazi Germany.
"We will not be silent. We are your bad conscience. The White Rose will not leave you in peace!"
-Leaflet 4
They distributed a total of 6 anonymous leaflets that criticized Hitler and the Nazi Party and called upon the German people to resist with all their power.
The first leaflet appeared at the end of June 1942. At first, leaflets circulated through mail and around Munich University. The first four leaflets were published before the core members went to the Russian front. When they returned, the group recruited more friends to reproduce the leaflets and spread them to more cities.
"Is your spirit already so crushed by abuse that you forget it is your right - or rather, your moral duty - to eliminate this system?"
-Leaflet 3
"Nothing is so unworthy of a civilised nation as allowing itself to be governed without opposition by an irresponsible clique that has yielded to base instinct. It is certain that today every honest German is ashamed of his government."
-Leaflet 1
"Offer passive resistance - resistance - wherever you may be, forestall the spread of this atheistic war machine before it is too late"
-Leaflet 1
"We want to try to show them that everyone is in a position to contribute to the overthrow of this system."
-Leaflet 3
"Will all Germans be sacrificed to... him, who tortured the Jews, who eradicated half of the Poles, who desired the annihilation of Russia- to him who took away liberty, peace, happiness, hope and joy, and gave us inflationary money instead? This ought not, this must be not. Hitler and his regime must fall so that Germany can live."
-Draft of Leaflet 7
"For us there is but one slogan: fight against the party!"
-Leaflet 6
"Cast off the cloak of indifference you have wrapped around you. Make the decision before it is too late. Do not believe the National Socialist propaganda"
-Leaflet 5
"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 frightful crime against human dignity, a crime that is unparalleled in the whole of history."
-Leaflet 2
"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."
-Leaflet 4
"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.
-Leaflet 5
"Why do you allow these men who are in power to rob you step by step, openly and in secret, of one domain of your rights after another...?"
-Leaflet 3
"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 most miserable way."
-Leaflet 6
A partial copy of the first leaflet, written by Hans and Alex June 1942 [White Rose Museum]
The sixth leaflet, written by Professor Huber, 1943 (titled: "A German Leaflet [...] The Manifesto of the Students of Munich") [German Historical Museum]
As Huber wrote the sixth leaflet, Hans, Willi, and Alex graffitied slogans: "Freedom," "Down with Hitler," and "Hitler the Mass Murderer" and painted crossed-out swastikas on several buildings in Munich.
A digitally reworked photo of graffiti on Munich's university library, 1943
(translation: "Down with Hitler")
[White Rose Foundation]