The White Rose Project – Call for Translators 2020
In 1943 five students and a professor at the Ludwig Maximilian University in Munich were arrested, interrogated, tried, and executed. They were members of The White Rose (‘Die Weiße Rose’), a clandestine group who wrote and distributed pamphlets calling on Germans to resist Hitler. To mark the 100th anniversary of Sophie Scholl’s birth in May 2021, this year’s project will work on the exchange of letters between Sophie and her fiancé Fritz Hartnagel. A publication of selected letters is planned to be distributed at a special exhibition on Sophie Scholl at the Weiße Rose Stiftung in Munich. For more information on the White Rose Project, visit our website: www.whiteroseproject.org.
How to apply
This project is open to all students of German in the second or fourth year of undergraduate studies at the University of Oxford, and there will be eighteen places available. Applications will also be considered from Oxford undergraduate students who are not studying German, but who are confident translating between German and English. Participation is based on a series of seminars (in weeks 6 and 8 of Michaelmas term, and weeks 2, 4, 6, and 8 of Hilary term). You will work on translations both independently and as part of the seminar group. To apply, please complete the application form — including a short statement (max. 75 words) outlining why you would like to participate, and a translation of the following text — and email it to Dr Alex Lloyd and Ms Jenny Lemke at this address: whiteroseoxford@gmail.com. Any queries should be directed to alexandra.lloyd@seh.ox.ac.uk. The deadline is Friday 23 October 2020 (2nd week). You will be notified of the result of the application by Monday 30 October 2020.
Translate into English:
Lieber Fritz,
Dein letzter Brief liegt schon wieder so weit zurück. Ich hoffe, daß daran nichts besonderes schuld ist. Wie geht es Dir? Wahrscheinlich seid ihr inzwischen versetzt worden, hoffentlich brauchen meine Briefe zu Dir nicht so lang. Nächste Woche mache ich meine Prüfung, dann geht die Schule nimmer so lang. Wahrscheinlich muß ich im April zum Arbeitsdienst. Etwas daran wird mir gewiß gefallen. (Letter from Sophie Scholl to Fritz Hartnagel, January 1941)
