NEXT: HISTORICAL CONTEXT
In the midst of World War II and the harsh reign of Nazi Germany, German youth were targeted by heavy Nazi propaganda. Even under these conditions, the White Rose movement emerged, a resistance group formed by students that challenged and criticized barriers of freedom set by the restricting Nazi regime as well as defying these barriers by embodying the opposite of obedient German youth. Despite the movement ending with the deaths of nearly all the White Rose group members, they demonstrated that even within an oppressive society, citizens are able to resist its boundaries and protest.
The White Rose was a student resistance movement that defied Nazi Germany and Adolf Hitler, composed of German youth who were horrified by the actions of the Nazis. Several students in Munich, the center of the Nazi movement, wrote anti-Nazi pamphlets and painted anti-Nazi graffiti on buildings. Most of these members were caught and executed by the Gestapo, the Nazi secret police.