One of the core aims of the White Rose Project is to contribute to scholarship on the White Rose circle and on the German resistance to fascism in a broader sense. We do this through research events and publications.
Publications
Defying Hitler: The White Rose Pamphlets (Bodleian Library Publishing, 2022)
This new book outlines the story of the group and sets their resistance texts in political and historical context, including archival photographs. A series of brief biographical sketches, along with excerpts from letters and diaries, trace each member’s journey towards action against the National Socialist state. The White Rose resistance pamphlets are included in full, translated by students at the University of Oxford. These translations are the result of work by undergraduates around the same age as the original student authors, working together on texts, ideas and issues.
‘And who amongst us can foresee the extent of the infamy that will be on us, and on our children, when the veil is one day lifted from our eyes and the most horrific crimes, crimes beyond all measure, come to light?’
– First Pamphlet of the White Rose
This project reflects a crucial aspect of the White Rose: its collaborative nature. The resistance pamphlets were written collaboratively, and they could not have had the reach they did without being distributed by multiple individuals, defying Hitler through words and ideas. Today, the bravery of the White Rose lives on in film and literature and is commemorated not just in Munich but throughout Germany and beyond.
The White Rose: Reading, Writing, Resistance (2019)
Our first publication was The White Rose: Reading, Writing, Resistance (2019), edited by Alexandra Lloyd and published by the Taylor Institution Library in its new Cultural Memory series. The book includes facsimiles of the White Rose pamphlets and transcriptions of the German alongside a new English translation. While there are many versions of the pamphlets in English, the translations included here are the result of a collaborative process (as is true of the original pamphlets) and were undertaken by undergraduate student members of the very first White Rose Translation Project (2018-2019).
Events
Rethinking Resistance Graduate Conference, June 2022
With the support of The Oxford Research Centre in the Humanities (TORCH) and The Queen’s College, Oxford, and in partnership with the White Rose Project, a cross-faculty committee of graduate students at the University of Oxford organised an interdisciplinary conference on the theme ‘Rethinking Resistance’. The conference was held between 22 and 24 June 2022 at the Taylor Institution Library and the Radcliffe Humanities Building at the University of Oxford. The papers and events explored timely questions about the theory and practice of resistance across a wide range of contexts. Download and read the conference report here.
The White Rose and the Uses of Culture, May 2021
On 7 May 2021 we held a one-day colloquium on the White Rose resistance pamphlets. The event was organised by Dr Alex Lloyd and Dr Karolina Wątroba. The pamphlets were inspired by literature and philosophy, and include quotations from Goethe, Schiller, Novalis, Laozi, Aristotle, Cicero, and St Augustine. The colloquium explores these references in detail and brought fresh perspectives to bear on this remarkable set of resistance texts. The papers are in preparation for a special issue of Oxford German Studies to appear in 2023.
Digital Symposium, June 2020
We were due to hold a symposium on the White Rose Resistance on 17 and 18 March 2020 at St Edmund Hall, Oxford. Sadly we had to postpone the event. Instead, we hosted a digital symposium here on our website. Read articles by academics and students on the group.
Hildegard Kronawitter, Weiße Rose Stiftung | ‘Welcome Address’
Sarah Brady, ‘Telling the Stories of the White Rose: Bearing Witness and Building Empathy Through Oral Storytelling’
Alexandra Lloyd, ‘Sophie Scholl: Interpreting an Icon’
Daniel Lloyd, ‘Cult and Commemoration: The White Rose’
Anke Loewensprung, ‘Lighting Matches during Blackout: A Visual Narrative in Slow Motion’
Tinka Reichmann and Juliana P. Perez, ‘The White Rose in Brazil: Translation, Culture and History’
Stephani Richards-Wilson, ‘Willi Graf of the White Rose: Words, Will, and a Way to Resist’
Katie J. Sanchez, ‘Commemoration of the White Rose in East and West Germany’
Helena Tomko, ‘Love and Do as You Will: Theodor Haecker Spoke to the White Rose’