GERMANY- White Rose

A small group of young medical students at the University of Munich pass out leaflets;  they did this six times as resistance to the Nazi militarism, terror and violence against people in the years of 1942-43. Inspired by Christian traditions of Germany, buddhism, Taoism, Goethe, Schiller, Rudolf Steiner, and especially by the Bishop August von Galen, these  students called on the people of the Third Reich to resist the Nazis. They did nothing public, except for some graffitti like "Down with Hitler" and "Freedom."  Some served in the war as medics, so they saw the atrocities on the battlefields in Russia  and the atrocities against civilians in Poland.

Here within the university,  "The White Rose Society"  distributed leaflets five times and were found out. Quickly arrested by the secret police, interrogated and tortured for four days; they were brought to a speedy trial, found guilty of treason and guillotined. All on the same day!

Other trials and be-headings and imprisonment for other members followed and within eight months, it was all over. Leaflets or the  "Leaves of the White Rose" was stamped-out by state terrorism.

A very big influence on these young people was the Bishop August von Galen. Starting in July 1941, he gave Sunday sermons against the Nazi atrocities. Sophie Scholl asked for his permission to print and distribute his first sermon. This was the first of six leaflets, and the beginning of "Die Weisse Rose." It did not last more than about two years. Bishop von Galen continued to speak out for the next few Sundays: calling on his Catholic parish to know what was happening and to resist. He was maybe the only Catholic priest to speak out, and probably the most visible and outspoken opponent of the Third Reich. Definitely he was the greatest inspiration on Sophie, her brother, and four others at the university. Bishop von Galen was alerting people to Gestapo euthanasia, missing persons, closing of Catholic institutions, terror, and fear. He argued, that the Gestapo was reducing everybody to a base level fear of arrest and prison. Everybody, even the most ordinary and most decent of Germans. Here at the University of Munchen is a monument to these young people of Brave Heart: flooring tiles in the form of leaflets. Please join us at this place on Saturday, August 27, at 10:00 am for an offering of "A Bowl of Tea for Peace into the Four Directions."  An offering of respect and appreciation for what these few young people did, for their trust in the basic good-ness of people, and their courage to trust their own good hearts.

There is always a scroll hanging in the tea-room, just a few "words of wisdom," handed-down from long long ago. Some words that seem like a good idea for most people, reminders that life is good. We are alive and we have this chance to practice and to rise-up from the mind of desire, seeking power, living in fear, feeling overwhelmed about the world outside. This scroll is maybe like the pamphlets these young people were distributing to the people. Reminders of what is happening, and calling on the power of good-ness that is lying asleep somewhere deep in the human heart. Just pieces of paper. Flower petals wafting on the breeze. This scroll for example is the four kanji Wa-Kei-Sei-Jaku or Harmony-Respect-Purity-Tranquility. These four words are sometimes printed on greeting cards for the New Year, at the front of books, in magazines. These four words are often the best way to explain the Way of Tea. These four words seem to sum-up the best qualities of what it means to be truly human. These four words sometimes pierce directly to the human heart.

These words "Harmony-Respect-Purity-Tranquility" on this leaflet hanging in the Langgasstrasse Tea Haus in Bern CH, are the Lion's Roar, the fearless proclamation of wisdom mind. These kanji were brushed by Okuda-roshi, one of the great teachers at Shotoku-an."

Also, look for the film Sophie Scholl:the Last Days. Nominated for Academy Award.
YouTube Franz Mueller Survivor of the White Rose