A photo exhibit currently on display in the University of Hawaii’s Hamilton Library tells the story, little known in the U.S., of a group of German students who opposed Hitler through a campaign of leaflets and graffiti attacking the government’s crimes and urging citizen opposition.
The White Rose exhibit – a photo exhibition chronicling the brief yet intense bloom of the White Rose student nonviolent resistance direct action movement against the Nazi regime – is currently on view at the University of Hawaii at Manoa’s Hamilton LIbrary!
The White Rose exhibit is open to the public and on view from Monday, January 7 to Friday, March 22, 2013 at the Hamilton Library’s Bridge Gallery.
An opening reception for the White Rose exhibit will take place
on Sunday, January 20, 2013 at 3:00 pm.
The exhibit chronicles the White Rose movement, which was formed in 1942 by a group of students and supported by philosophy Professor Kurt Huber of the University of Munich in a bold bid to stand up to the Nazi regime.
The group was famous for its leaflet and graffiti campaign, which took place from June 1942 to February 1943. The leaflets, which they designed and printed, denounced the politics and crimes of the Nazi regime and called for active opposition to them.
Among the group’s core members were the siblings Sophie and Hans Scholl, as well as Alex Schmorell, Willi Graf, Christoph Probst, Traute Lafrenz, Katherina Schueddekopf, Lieselotte Berndl, Marie-Luise Jahn, Falk Hamack and Juergen Wittenstein.
In 1943, the six most recognizable members of the group were arrested by the Gestapo and beheaded. The group’s sixth leaflet was smuggled out of Germany by Helmuth James Graf von Moltke. In July 1943, Allies planes dropped copies of the leaflet retitled “The Manifesto of the Students of Munich” over Germany.
Today, the group’s members are admired as heroes. Schools and public places across Germany have been named in honor of the Scholl siblings.
The exhibit has previously been shown in Iowa, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts and California.
And interest to bring the exhibit out has been indicated by institutions in Toronto and Tel Aviv.