Center for White Rose Studies is expanding its work into what became of those associated with White Rose and other resistance after the war. This includes not only families and friends of those arrested for White Rose (and other) resistance activities, but also the Gestapo agents and "bad guys" who endangered their work.
We are committed to the same level of research into these individuals and their postwar lives as we have committed to White Rose.
Below are the next projects on our slate. Watch this Web site for additions, and for additional more in-depth descriptions of what we wish to accomplish. Sign up for our Substack newsletter to stay current!
All project titles below are working titles only.
We are committed to the same level of research into these individuals and their postwar lives as we have committed to White Rose.
Below are the next projects on our slate. Watch this Web site for additions, and for additional more in-depth descriptions of what we wish to accomplish. Sign up for our Substack newsletter to stay current!
All project titles below are working titles only.
- How the White Rose legend evolved. How did Inge Scholl, Jürgen Wittenstein, and Franz Josef Müller have the "power" to spread such a false version of White Rose resistance? What factors - de-Nazification, Persilscheine, funding - played a role in their ability to perpetrate and perpetuate so much disinformation?
- Survivors and refugees after the war. Herta Probst stated that she lived in Bad Heilbrunn after the war. That little town was dedicated to German displaced persons, with Jewish survivors in a DP-Lager in nearby Wolfratshausen. We know too little about this period in our (German and US) history. Not only what happened, but how our White Rose families interfaced with these postwar institutions.
- Bad Heilbrunn. The little town that breated life into our White Rose work thanks to Erich Schmorell's own love of that place? Turns out the Pfarrer at St. Kilian until 1935 was part of the resistance. The Catholic Church removed him after the Concordat. But the new priest never quite fell into line. And yet, Bad Heilbrunn was one of the first Kurorte to declare itself Judenfrei. It should serve as a case in point for the complexity of life in rural Germany from 1933-1945.
- Family History project. There are more archives "out there" - family newsletters, personal correspondence from "regular" Germans, city archives - that provide insight regarding HOW the Holocaust came about. It did not happen overnight. It happened one family at a time. To understand the 21st century better, we must understand 1930+ better.
- Any of the above. If you just want to support our work and not necessarily a specific project, please use this option.
Do you have a project you'd like us to tackle? Talk to us!
Product image photo of the Badehaus Museum, © Denise Heap, 2024. Photo of Bad Heilbrunn through window © Denise Heap, 2024. Please contact us for permission to use these photos.