SOPHIE SCHOLL & THE WHITE ROSE

Added: (Fri Apr 21 2006)

Pressbox (Press Release) - SOPHIE SCHOLL & THE WHITE ROSE
ANNETTE DUMBACH & JUD NEWBORN

Published 2nd March 2006 RRP $14.95/�9.99
1-85168-474-3 Paperback

�We will not be silent! We are your bad conscience! The White Rose will not leave you in peace!� �from a White Rose Leaflet, 1942

�All that is necessary for the triumph [of evil] is for good men to do nothing.� --Edmund Burke

A FAST-PACED TALE OF COURAGE and intrigue, Sophie Scholl and the White Rose is the true story of Germany�s most famous anti-Nazi heroine and the idealistic students who together set up an underground resistance movement dedicated to the downfall of Hitler. Presenting the full story behind the award-winning German film Sophie Scholl: The Last Days, (nominated in 2006 for an Academy Award for Best Foreign Film), this is an inspiring account of wartime resistance to the Third Reich.

Issuing a passionate call for freedom and personal responsibility, the White Rose urged the German people to sabotage the Nazi war machine and adopt a campaign of passive resistance, as Germany suffers a devastating defeat against Russia. To rally support for a popular uprising, they sent their leaflets all over the country, and risked all to reveal the persecution of the Jews months before news reached the outside world. Dodging night-time patrols, they painted anti-Nazi slogans, �Down with Hitler�, �Freedom� and crossed out swastikas on public buildings throughout Munich. Outraged, Hitler launched a massive manhunt.

The gripping narrative takes the reader from the early days of their crusade through to their arrest and interrogation, and sets the historical and emotional stage for their daring exploits against one of the most brutal regimes in history. Vividly conveying what it means to dissent in a country where no dissent is tolerated, and to refuse to compromise your principles even to save your life, the story of the White Rose challenges readers to re-examine their own values and resolve. Summarily executed for treason�Sophie was only 21 years old�they are now regarded as iconic figures of resistance the world over, and their lives are an inspiration to us all.

Drawing on interviews with surviving friends, family and members of the White Rose, court records, diaries and letters, as well as recently released Gestapo interrogation transcripts, Sophie Scholl and the White Rose movingly recreates the lives of the White Rose members and the dramatic events that unfolded. Included in this book are all seven of the original White Rose leaflets, detailed chronicles of the group�s capture by the Gestapo and trial before Hitler�s �Hanging Judge�, photographs of the group members, and a foreword by prize-winning author and radio personality Studs Terkel, making this an invaluable addition to World War II literature and a fascinating window into human courage and resilience.

KEY DATES:
FEBRUARY 22nd is the 63rd anniversary of the first White Rose executions (Sophie Scholl, Hans Scholl & Christoph Probst), as well as International Victims Day.

FEBRUARY 24th Sophie Scholl: The Final Days goes on general release across N. America. The authors will be giving talks and visiting bookstores in the NY, Washington, & LA/Palm Beach areas through March and April.

MARCH 5th is OSCARS� NIGHT: the film Sophie Scholl: The Final Days is a nominee in the Best Foreign Film category.

ABOUT THE AUTHORS:
ANNETTE DUMBACH is an author, journalist and university lecturer who has lived throughout the world. She has received degrees from the City College of New York, the University of Missouri, and the Sorbonne, and currently resides in Munich.

DR JUD NEWBORN, a New York-based scholar, lecturer and journalist, was educated at New York University, Cambridge, and the University of Chicago. A former Fulbright Fellow specializing in both anthropology and the history of the Third Reich, Dr Newborn was Founding Historian of New York�s Museum of Jewish Heritage�A Living Memorial to the Holocaust, and is currently Special Projects Curator and Director of Development for the Cinema Arts Centre.

ACCLAIM FOR THIS BOOK:
�This is a story that commands our attention.� �NEWSWEEK
�Superbly written.� �LIBRARY JOURNAL
�The animated narrative reads like a suspense novel.�-The New York Times
�Heart-wrenching and inspiring�a story few readers will forget.� �SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE
�A suspenseful and moving account of The White Rose, and a revelatory portrait of two young Germans in particular, brother and sister, little-known heroes of the anti-Nazi resistance. Inspiring�and could not be more timely. This is a book worth reading anytime, anywhere.� �STUDS TERKEL

TESTIMONIALS ABOUT THE WHITE ROSE BY CONTEMPORARIES:
�If [the White Rose manifesto] is genuine, and there is no reason to doubt that it is, we can see in it the beginning of the end of the nightmare period in Germany itself . . . These young Munich students�slain in Munich for a cause that is also ours.��The New York Times (Lead Editorial Eulogizing the White Rose, August 2, 1943)

�When we heard about what was happening in Munich, we embraced each other and applauded. There were, after all, still human beings in Germany.��Former Concentration Camp Inmate

�I realized that she (Sophie Scholl) was the same age as me, and I realized that she was executed the same year I started working for Hitler. At that moment, I really sensed it was no excuse to be young and that it might have been possible to find out what was going on.��Traudl Junge, Blind Spot: Hitler�s Secretary [on how her thinking changed when she learned about the White Rose after the war.]

EXTRACTS FROM THE WHITE ROSE LEAFLETS:

Don�t forget that every people gets the government it deserves!

Since the conquest of Poland, 300,000 Jews have been murdered in that country in a most bestial manner. Here we see the most terrible crime committed against the dignity of man, a crime that has no counterpart in history.

A victory for fascist Germany in this war would have inconceivable and terrible consequences. The first concern of every German is not the military victory over Bolshevism, but the defeat of National Socialism.

This struggle is for each and every one of us, for our future, our freedom, and our honor!

Everyone shrugs off this guilt, falling asleep with a clear conscience. But he cannot shrug it off; everyone is guilty, guilty, guilty!

Nothing is so unworthy of a civilized nation as allowing itself to be �governed� without opposition by an irresponsible clique that has yielded to its basest instincts.

Freedom of speech, freedom of religion, the protection of individual citizens from the arbitrary will of criminal regimes of violence�these will be the bases of the New Europe.

Imperialistic designs for power, regardless from which side they come, must be neutralized for all time. Prussian militarism must never come to power again. Only in a generous, open co-operation among the peoples of Europe can the groundwork be laid for genuine reconstruction. All centralized power, like that exercised by the Prussian state in Germany and Europe, must be eliminated. The coming Germany must be federalistic. At this juncture only a sound federal system can imbue a weakened Europe with new life.

Try to convince all your acquaintances of the senselessness, of the hopelessness of this war; of our spiritual and economic enslavement at the hands of the National Socialists; of the destruction of all moral and religious values; and urge them to adopt passive resistance!

This is the beginning of the struggle for our free self-determination, without which intellectual and spiritual values cannot be created.

An end in terror is preferable to terror without end.

We will not be silent. We are your bad conscience. The White Rose will not leave you in peace!