The history of the White Rose, largely unknown in Greece, is now a legend of Western history: it refers to a group of students from the University of Munich, with diverse social, political, and religious beliefs, who created, during the Second World War, the most emblematic anti-Nazi organization in Germany.

The White Rose, from June 1942 until February 1943, printed and distributed six leaflets of direct opposition to Hitler, the Nazi regime, and the Nazi ideology – and consequently to the tolerance and consent of the German people to the crimes of Nazism – in the courtyard of the University of Munich. Very soon, all members of the organization were arrested and beheaded after the well-known mock trials of the Nazi regime. Among them was Sophie Scholl, who was recently voted as the most important German woman of the 20th century.

This book translates the complete text of the six leaflets of the White Rose, in an effort not only to remember the brutality of Nazism but also to consider how the phrase of the Munich students "We are all guilty, guilty, guilty" concerns us, relates to the current and forthcoming crimes of our civilization, and pertains to us and our children in the years to come.

The publication series FOR A NEW HUMANISM aims to present philosophical and political texts, as well as testimonies and documents, with the unique (but central) common point being the cultural or even moral counter-proposal to the dominant cultures of violence, revenge, hatred, and ritual murder, which in foundational cultural narratives are presented as "historical necessity." In small and user-friendly editions, we will try to focus on the stories and writings of people who, with a burning spirit and fervent heart, fought to shape love, solidarity, and moral resistance against the disastrous human History.

Thanasis Triaridis