The Guts and Integrity of The White Rose

I have a great interest in World War 2.   Specifically the European Theater.   It may be hard to believe but  it's true - all of the insanity that took place in Europe during the war all comes back to one man. Adolf Hitler.   Yes, Mussolini was aggressive as well, but he was limited in a sense.  The Italians just weren't up for what he wanted to do (create a new Roman Empire).  Mussolini's forays into North Africa and Greece proved disastrous.  Unfortunately for Europeans of that time, there was one man who did admire what Mussolini was doing, once again Adolf Hitler.  It was Hitler who mopped up after Mussolini's military failures, while at the same time conquering Western Europe and making the fatal mistake of invading Russia.   So, to me, all of the insanity comes back to Hitler.    Even Stalin, although we'll never know if he would have invaded Germany, was not the man that instigated the battle between Russia and Germany.    The rest of Europe, well, we know of the Munich agreement.   The English, led by Neville Chamberlain at that point, wanted nothing to do with war.   Hitler broke that agreement, as well as the German-Soviet Nonagression Pact.   The result?  60 million dead.

As I had said before, I believe all of this comes back to Hitler.    And as I'm sure current Germans would not like to be reminded, an entire country followed him.  Germany had 80 million people at that point.   Could every single one of those 80 million have been on board with Hitler's deranged views???     

The answer is no.  There was a good portion that had no problem going to battle and killing others.  Another good portion didn't have a problem participating in the logistics that made The Holocaust possible.  And still others that knew what was going on and looked the other way.   There  was however a tiny fraction that did resist.  Most of that tiny fraction didn't really do much.   I'm sure people are most aware of the Valkyrie crew - but to my view, these were men that were jumping off of a sinking ship.   The one resistance group that, to me, showed the most guts and integrity was The White Rose.  Comprised mainly of young students and some professors, they secretly resisted a lot earlier than the Valkyrie crew did.   Their main weapon was leaflets.  Peaceful manifestos that they wrote and distributed all throughout Germany.   Whats most amazing is that even though they were so young,  history proved their movement to be exactly correct.  The views of The White Rose members turned out to be astoundingly ahead of their time.   It is such a great story that I'd rather not give away what ended up happening to these people.  If you have any interest in seeing young Germans of the World War 2 period who were completely against the Hitler bandwagon, Id like to suggest a film, "Sophie Scholl: The Final Days".   It's a European film released in 2005. One of my all time favorites.   100%  historically accurate.   You'd have to see the film and study up on The White Rose to have a good grasp of how amazing this movement was.  I hope some of you will.  And if you do, I'd love to hear any comments......