“We offer this evening’s performance of art, literature, and music as a way of commemorating this group of courageous individuals – students and their professor – who gave their lives in the pursuit of freedom.”
Dr Alexandra Lloyd
On Saturday 18 February 2023, around 65 members of the public and students gathered at the Levine Auditorium in Trinity College, Oxford, to commemorate the White Rose Resistance Circle. Dr Alexandra Lloyd began with a brief overview of the White Rose and what we might learn from them 80 years on. The performance then interspersed texts written and performed by students at the University of Oxford and inspired by the White Rose, excerpts from the resistance pamphlets, and music performed by soprano Lucinda Cox and pianist Tom Jesty. Music was a profoundly important part of the White Rose members’ lives, and the concert included songs by composers the White Rose members knew and loved. As Sophie Scholl wrote in 1942: ‘Music softens the heart; orders its confusion, relaxes its tension and creates the conditions for the work of the spirit in the soul, which before knocked in vain at its tightly sealed doors.’ There was also a small display of creative translations of the White Rose history by undergraduates, created during the 2021-2022 and 2022-2023 White Rose Translation Projects.
