The six most recognized members of the German resistance group  were arrested by the Gestapo, tried for treason and beheaded in 1943. The text of their sixth leaflet was smuggled by the jurist Helmuth James Graf von Moltke out of Germany through Scandinavia to the United Kingdom, and in July 1943, copies of it were dropped over Germany by Allied planes, retitled “The Manifesto of the Students of Munich”.

Another member, Hans Conrad Leipelt, who helped distribute Leaflet 6 in Hamburg, was executed in January 1945 for his participation. Today the members of the White Rose are honoured in Germany amongst its greatest heroes, since they opposed the Third Reich in the face of almost certain death.

White Rose survivor Jürgen Wittenstein described what it was like to live in Hitler’s Germany: “The government – or rather, the party – controlled everything: the news media, arms, police, the armed forces, the judiciary system, communications, travel, all levels of education from kindergarten to universities, all cultural and religious institutions. Political indoctrination started at a very early age, and continued by means of the Hitler Youth with the ultimate goal of complete mind control. Children were exhorted in school to denounce even their own parents for derogatory remarks about Hitler or Nazi ideology.”