HomeMy WebLinkAbout1996.-0917 WHITE ROSE DAYWHEREAS, Nazi Germany, defying all democratic principles, established a dictatorship that
affected all areas of life and instituted the persecution or annihilation, or both. of Jews. Gypsies,
the disabled, homosexuals, Jehovah's Witnesses, political dissidents, Poles. Soviet prisoners of
war, and many others; and,
WHEREAS, resistance to the Nazis and their regime of terror was difficult and dangerous. Nazis
and Nazi helpers killed more than 130,000 Germans who attempted to resist; they incarcerated
hundreds of thousands of resisters in concentration camps, high security prisons, and jails; and
they summoned more than one million people to Gestapo interrogations; and,
WHEREAS, the key members of the White Rose, including the students Willi Graf, Cristoph
Probst, Alexander Schmorell, Sophie Scholl, and Hans Scholl and Professor Kurt Huber, formed
an organized resistance movement against the Nazi's from 1942-43. Their activities included
subversive reading and discussion groups and the distribution of anti-Nazi leaflets publicly in
Munich. The group made contacts in the cities of Hamburg, SaarbrOcken, UIm, Freiburg,
Stuttgart, and Berlin; and,
WHEREAS, on Thursday, February 18, 1943, Hans and Sophie Scholl were arrested at the
University of Munich, where they had been distributing their sixth leaflet. They were immediately
tried and executed. Eventually, all six original members were executed. Many others involved in
the group received prison terms; and,
WHEREAS, the leaflets of the White Rose show an acute awareness of the Nazi persecution of
Jews, Poles, political dissidents, and others, as well as the Nazis' dictatorial and imperialistic
goals. The messages of the White Rose about peace, freedom of speech, and freedom and
equal human and civil rights for all stand as lessons for all citizens in a democratic, pluralistic
society. We should commemorate the group's courage and intellectual insights.
NOW THEREFORE, I, Catherine Golden, Mayor of the City of Ashland, hereby proclaim
September 18 to be
WHITE ROSE DAY
in Ashland and encourage all citizens to join in this observance.
Dated this 17th day of September, 1996.
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Barbara Christensen, Recorder Catherine M. Golden, Mayor