"How can we expect righteousness to prevail when there is hardly anyone willing to give himself up individually to a righteous cause? Such a fine, sunny day, and I have to go, but what does my death matter if, through us, thousands of people are awakened and stirred to action?" - Sophie Scholl’s last words on February 22nd, 1943, before death by guillotine at the hands of the Nazi Party.
Publicly displaying the white rose is about:
It’s about acknowledging that fascism exists.
It’s about non-partisan, non-violent resistance to fascism.
It’s about beauty as a form of resistance in a world that seeks to destroy it.
It’s about reminding the world that the goal of fascism is the death of the individual.
It’s about recognizing and embracing that our time on this Earth has to mean more than surrendering our spirit to the rich and powerful.
It’s about coming together as a community to show that we will NOT give up Anne Frank’s location.
It's about looking our children in the eyes, and imagining them living through the Holocaust.
It's about preserving history, even when our history makes us ashamed of ourselves.
It's about signaling to our friends abroad that we stand united with them.
It's about not being afraid in our own neighborhoods to publicly display a viewpoint as fundamental as "I support kindness and goodness."
It’s about rising above the propaganda of the billionaire class and helping those in our community under its grip to understand the difference between truth and misinformation.
It’s about reminding the world that regardless of whether or not you think you are on the right side of history, authoritarianism only stops at complete and total control of everyone and everything - THEY WILL come for you eventually.
It’s about a symbol that we can all rally around to remind each other that we are not alone.
It’s about the demonstrably true fact that the Nazis killed people for the very type of ideas that you are reading right now.
It’s about showing the world that despite where you have been, where you come from, what you think, whatever biases you hold, whatever hatred or baggage you bring to the table, that all it takes is one simple shift in your mindset to awaken your consciousness.
It's about demanding leaders that serve people, not people that serve leaders.
It's about rising above those who lack imagination, because they cannot imagine what is lacking.
It's about Holland, 1945.
It's about the future, which will only contain what we put into it now.
The White Rose is formatted to print onto a standard sheet of 8.5x11 computer paper.
Download the image. Print it out using your home computer or head to a local FedEx/Kinkos, etc.
Hang the print in a window in your house so that it's visible from the outside. Hang one in your car. Tape one to a bus stop. Go to FedEx and make 100 prints and leave them around town. Get creative. Copy it en masse. Share it. Leave stacks at bus stops, libraries, churches, etc.
Share on social media with #projectwhiterose2025.
For safety reasons, please do not include identifying information in your photos (house numbers, street signs, mailboxes, etc).
You don't have to use this white rose. The idea with the printout is that it is a democratic, easy to print option that can be shared far and wide. By all means make your own if you are so inclined.
History of the “The White Rose”
The White Rose was a non-violent resistance group in Nazi Germany, founded in 1942 by University of Munich students Hans and Sophie Scholl, along with other young intellectuals and their professor, Kurt Huber. The group opposed Hitler’s dictatorship and the Holocaust, distributing leaflets that exposed Nazi crimes and urged Germans to resist the regime. They emphasized moral responsibility, peaceful defiance, and intellectual awakening. In February 1943, Hans and Sophie Scholl were caught distributing leaflets at their university, leading to their arrest, trial, and execution by guillotine. Despite their deaths, their courage remains a powerful symbol of resistance against tyranny.
"The real damage is done by those millions who want to 'survive.' The honest men who just want to be left in peace. Those who don't like to make waves—or make trouble. Those who, in the end, don't want to act because they don't want to lose their little bit of life. Those with no sides and no causes." - Sophie Scholl
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Please share photos of your publicly displayed White Rose images tagged with #projectwhiterose2025