Review of The White Rose

Harrowing and unforgettable, this film follows a group of mostly student resistors in Nazi Germany as they discover what their country's regime is doing to war prisoners and to Jews, and try to work out nonviolent ways to get the truth to their compatriots and resist a regime that massacres. The film seems as accurate as re-creations of history get. I had the honor of meeting three survivors of the White Rose once, in Berkeley, California, in 1992 or so when they accompanied a showing of panels and photos about the group. It is extraordinary that there was this resistance--one with much that those opposed to today's wars could learn from and emulate--yet nearly no one knew of this for decades. I remember in 1969 someone speaking of a thesis about "resistors in Nazi Germany," and when I laughed at such a seeming oxymoron, he told me, "Yes we laugh because we haven't heard of them--because nearly all of them died." See the film and see one form that courage can take.