traces of the White Rose
SANSARA + WHITE ROSE PROJECT
Traces of the White Rose is a multi-dimensional project telling the powerful story of five students and a professor who stood up to Nazism and paid with their lives.
“Wherever you may be, mount passive resistance – Remember that every people deserves the government it is prepared to tolerate.”
Traces of the White Rose is a collaboration with the White Rose Project, a research and engagement initiative led by Dr Alexandra Lloyd at the University in Oxford. Working closely with Alex and her students, we produced a programme of choral works interspersed with readings from the White Rose resistance group’s letters, diaries and pamphlets. The project exists both as a live performance and a podcast series.
“one of the most moving choral concerts I can remember: beautifully constructed, superbly sung.”
“a deeply moving combination of penetrating research and compelling spoken words with imaginatively selected, haunting and dramatic music which left the audience spellbound until long after the final chords had faded away.”
podcast
On 12 October 1943, Willi Graf was executed for defying the regime. He was the final core member of the White Rose to be silenced. On 12 October 2023, we released Traces of the White Rose as a podcast series via our partners at the University of Oxford. The series combines music from our album Traces with readings from the White Rose sources.
repertoire
Philip Moore Three Prayers of Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Max Reger Nachtlied
Ethel Smyth Komm, süßer Tod
Clara Schumann Abendfeier in Venedig
Peter Cornelius Requiem: Seele, vergiss sie nicht
Heinrich Schütz Selig sind die Toten
Piers Connor Kennedy Blessed are the peacemakers
Cecilia McDowall Standing as I do before God
Rudolf Mauersberger Herr, lehre doch mich
All of this repertoire features on our latest album Traces which was inspired by this project.
videos
From the premiere performance of Traces of the White Rose in February 2020.
University Church of St Mary the Virgin, Oxford
“the whole thing was almost unbearably moving”
the white rose
The White Rose resistance stretched far beyond Munich, but at its heart were six individuals: students Hans Scholl (1918–1943), and Sophie Scholl (1921–1943), who were brother and sister, Christoph Probst (1919–1943), Alexander Schmorell (1917–1943), and Willi Graf (1918–1943), and Professor Kurt Huber (1893–1943).
Between 1942 and 1943 the group wrote and disseminated six pamphlets calling on the German people to resist Nazism. They used a second-hand duplicating machine, and despite wartime shortages obtained paper, envelopes, and stamps. They distributed the pamphlets at great personal risk.
On 18 February 1943 Hans Scholl and Sophie Scholl took copies of the sixth pamphlet to the University of Munich and deposited them around the atrium at the entrance of the main university building. They were spotted by a university caretaker and detained. Their arrest followed, and on 22 February Hans and Sophie Scholl and Christoph Probst were sentenced to death and executed by guillotine just hours after the conclusion of their trial.
Alexander Schmorell, Kurt Huber, and Willi Graf were subsequently arrested, tried, and sentenced to death on 19 April. Schmorell and Huber were executed three months later, on 13 July, and Graf was executed on 12 October 1943.
Much has been written about the White Rose since the first post-war account of their activities was published by one of the Scholl siblings, Inge, in 1952. Their letters and diaries, available in German and in English translation, give a fascinating insight into the lives of these individuals who chose to stand up to the Nazis.
