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Exclamation! Publishers
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DEHeap Enterprises, Inc.
Exclamation! Publishers
Center for White Rose Studies Exclamation! Publishers Business Services Online Store
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January 6, 2008. FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE. For additional information, please contact Denise E. Heap or Ruth Hanna Sachs at 801-753-7175.
CENTER FOR WHITE ROSE STUDIES ANNOUNCES NEW FACEBOOK GROUP
(Lehi, Utah).—The Utah-based Holocaust education nonprofit Center for White Rose Studies is pleased to announce the creation of a Facebook group entitled “White Rose for the 21st Century”. The newly-formed online group provides a forum for high school and college students to discuss many aspects of the resistance efforts of the college students commonly known as the White Rose. “In 1942/43, these students used cutting edge methods of their time – printed leaflets protesting Hitler’s crimes against humanity, specifically against Jews and Poles – to spread the word about the necessity of acting on one’s convictions,” explains Ruth Hanna Sachs, Director of the Center. “We believe that if they had had access to such a phenomenal social-networking tool as Facebook, they’d have been all over it.” The leaflets to which Sachs refers pointed out details regarding the atrocities being committed by the students’ fellow countrymen, and called them to action. Alexander Schmorell expressly decried the murders of the Jewish population, “rare among German resistance,” notes Sachs, while Hans Scholl and Professor Kurt Huber sought to persuade readers that typical “Germanic” virtues such as loyalty and conscience demanded that true patriots take action against the current regime. “We may not live in times as dark as theirs, but that does not mean we face any less responsibility for standing up for justice, honor, and freedom.” So wrote Denise Heap, the Center’s internship director, on the Facebook page. Heap believes that high school and college students are most receptive to the legacy the White Rose left behind. “Once we land our first real job and start a family, we begin to think in terms of not rocking the boat, of creating personal security,” she says. “Most genuine social change for the better therefore comes from our youth, those who still place conscience ahead of familial duty.” The new Facebook group allows participants to ask questions of family members of those who were beheaded in 1943, with Center staff passing the questions along and posting responses. Heap also set up two initial “discussion boards,” the first of which poses the question: “What role does faith play in our politics?” The second elicits opinions regarding the accuracy of historical research while eyewitnesses are still alive – eyewitnesses whose personal relationship to historical characters can skew the otherwise-objective historical narrative. “We hope that this medium will students and professors alike to think out loud about topics that are relevant in modern-day America,” Heap says. “The White Rose has almost been marginalized because of the sugar-coated legend that has grown up around it. We’d like to see the debate become as viable and vibrant as it was when these students were alive over sixty years ago.”
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Date of last update: 18 March 2008
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