The following story from just before WW2 affected me so profoundly that I did a woodcut of one of the main protagonists. Shortly afterwards a poem /song almost wrote itself on the same subject.
But a little background first….
The White Rose group consisted of 5 students and 1 tutor from Munich University. Between June ’42 and February ’43 this group made and distributed 6 anti Nazi/war leaflets. The penultimate leaflet was titled To the fellow-fighters in The Resistance (written just after the German defeat at Stalingrad) and it was this that Sophie and Hans Scholl were caught throwing over the atrium at Munich University. They confessed immediately, maintaining they were the only members ( in order to protect the rest but the Gestapo eventually arrested all 5). Three of them were tortured, tried and guillotined immediately- Sophie, her brother Hans and Christopher Probst.
Hans & Sophie Scholl (left & centre) with Christopher Probst in 1943 – photo courtesy Spatacus International
This is my poem/song:The White Rose (which I performed for the first time last night!):
Such a fine sunny day and I have to go
I can’t type any more, and the guard’s at the door.
We could not stand the sounds
We could not stand the sights
So we tried telling others
About Kristallnacht
Tell the world that we tried
Fighting fascists with words
Say it soft
Pray it slow
The White Rose, The White Rose
Angel- headed students we took on
The Wolf
Tried strafe-bombing Hitler with
Paper and Truth
Now the cold Lady Guillotine
Waits in the yard
But I’d rather her kiss
Than this ghastly -charade
Tell the world that we died
Fighting fascists with words
Say it soft
Pray it slow
The White Rose, The White Rose
So how from my grave
Can I hear them again?
Are their jackboots still shiny?
Are they still spreading pain?
Well you’d better be ready and fit
For this job
Please sharpen your poems
And silence this mob.
Tell the world it must try
Fighting fascists with words
Pray it soft
Say it slow
The White Rose, The White Rose
PATRICRAFT 
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