Leaflets of the White Rose — IV

It is an old piece of wisdom, preached to children again and again: whoever will not listen must feel. But a clever child burns his fingers on the hot stove only once.

In recent weeks Hitler has recorded successes in Africa and in Russia. The result was that optimism on one side of the people, and dismay and pessimism on the other, rose at a speed foreign to German inertia. Everywhere among Hitler’s opponents — that is, among the better part of the people — one heard cries of complaint, words of disappointment and discouragement, which not seldom ended in the outcry: “Could it be that Hitler after all…?”

Meanwhile the German attack on Egypt has come to a standstill; Rommel must hold out in a dangerously exposed position — but the advance in the East still goes on. This apparent success has been bought with the most horrible sacrifices, so that it can no longer even be called an advantage. We therefore warn against every optimism.

Who has counted the dead — Hitler or Goebbels? Surely neither of them. Every day thousands fall in Russia. It is the time of harvest, and the reaper drives at full force into the ripe grain. Mourning enters the cottages of the homeland, and there is no one to dry the mothers’ tears. But Hitler lies to those whose dearest treasure he has stolen and driven into senseless death.

Every word that comes from Hitler’s mouth is a lie: when he says peace, he means war, and when he most blasphemously names the Almighty, he means the power of evil, the fallen angel, Satan. His mouth is the stinking maw of hell, and his power is at bottom reprobate. True, one must fight the National Socialist terror-state with rational means; but whoever still doubts the real existence of demonic powers has not remotely grasped the metaphysical background of this war. Behind the concrete, behind what the senses can perceive, behind all factual, logical considerations, stands the irrational — that is, the struggle against the demon, against the messenger of the Antichrist. Everywhere and in every age the demons have lurked in the dark for the hour when the human being grows weak, when he willfully leaves the place in the ordo founded for him by God upon freedom, when he yields to the pressure of evil, detaches himself from the powers of a higher order, and so — after taking the first step freely — is driven to the second and the third and ever further at a furiously increasing speed. Everywhere and in every age of highest need, people have stood up — prophets, saints — who had kept their freedom, who pointed to the one God and with His help called the people to turn back. Man is free, to be sure, but without the true God he is defenseless against evil: like a ship without a rudder, given over to the storm; like an infant without a mother; like a cloud that dissolves.

I ask you, then — you who are a Christian — in this struggle to preserve your highest goods, is there hesitation, a game of intrigues, a putting-off of the decision in the hope that someone else will take up arms to defend you? Has God Himself not given you the strength and the courage to fight? We must attack evil where it is most powerful, and it is most powerful in the power of Hitler.

“I turned and saw all the injustice that was done under the sun; and behold, there were the tears of those who suffered injustice and had no comforter; and those who did them injustice were too powerful, so that they could have no comforter.

Then I praised the dead, who had already died, more than the living, who still had life….” (Sprüche — see adversarial note: this is Ecclesiastes / Kohelet 4:1–2, not Proverbs)

Novalis: “True anarchy is the generative element of religion. Out of the annihilation of everything positive she lifts her glorious head as foundress of a new world… If Europe would awaken again, if a state of states, a political doctrine of science, stood before us! Should hierarchy, then, be the principle of the union of states?… Blood will stream over Europe until the nations become aware of the terrible madness that drives them in a circle, and, struck and soothed by holy music, approach former altars in a colorful mingling, take up the works of peace, and celebrate a great festival of peace with hot tears on the smoking battlefields. Only religion can awaken Europe again and secure the law of nations and install Christendom, with new glory, visibly on earth in its peace-making office.”

We point out emphatically that the White Rose is not in the pay of any foreign power. Although we know that National Socialist power must be broken by military means, we seek a renewal of the severely wounded German spirit from within. But this rebirth must be preceded by the clear recognition of all the guilt the German people has taken upon itself, and by a ruthless struggle against Hitler and his all-too-many helpers — party members, Quislings, and so on. With every brutality the chasm between the better part of the people and everything connected with National Socialism must be torn open. For Hitler and his followers there is no punishment on this earth that would fit their deeds. But out of love for coming generations, after the war ends an example must be made, so that no one should ever again feel the slightest desire to attempt anything similar. Do not forget the little scoundrels of this system either; mark their names, so that none escape! They must not succeed, at the last minute, after all these horrors, in changing flags and acting as if nothing had happened!

For your reassurance we would add that the addresses of the readers of the White Rose are nowhere written down. The addresses were taken at random from directories.

We will not be silent. We are your bad conscience. The White Rose gives you no rest!

Please duplicate and pass this on!

(Familiar English echo sometimes heard in secondary sources: “will not leave you in peace.” Binder text uses the closer rendering of lässt Euch keine Ruhe* above.)*