Do what you can. Know your heart.

The best part of what I do: Hearing from students who have decided that Disney drivel regarding White Rose is silly and nonsensical. And who set about learning the messy story. They are more than the future of White Rose scholarship. They are the future of our country, and of Germany, of the world.

One such student wrote me on Monday. They have granted permission for me to share their “stream of consciousness” thoughts, thoughts that gripped me and made me weep—weep for joy, and weep that it is even necessary to consider these things.

This is going to be a ramble.

I almost emailed you earlier in the week after the second shooting in Minneapolis. Why? Because after all these years of championing non-violence and gun reform, I suddenly found myself wishing, more than anything else, that I had a weapon and the means of using it. I felt the sudden need for the 2nd Amendment and wanted a new Green Mountain Boys, or Black Panther Party, to say “Hey, we can fight back—same way you do.”

I then wanted to plaster pictures of The Boston Massacre everywhere, and cry like a child that if that scene (where the colonists were the aggressors) of protest against unwanted occupation is what we based the whole founding of our nation on, then what the hell are we doing?!?!

Then I went to bed. I took a deep breath. I said a long prayer.

The day before I went back to school last weekend, my sibling said, “You know that girl that ICE shot. I agree with that. I think he should’ve shot her.” And I was screaming, crying, nauseated, for a long time. I still am a little. I like to think I talked some sense into my sibling—but who knows? They are surrounded by so many people saying so much bullshit. Who knows?

I looked a hot mess: sobbing and shouting.

I think it drew me back to the Scholls. I was thinking about Inge and Sophie. I wonder if they fought in the kitchen. I wonder if Sophie would break down in tears hearing her sister defend the Party. I wonder if Hans would say anything, or just agree, halfheartedly, before turning around and writing some of the most driving rallying cries for resistance that I’ve ever read. I think about Werner too. I think about him a lot.

I think about Alex, always, because he’s the little voice of reason in the back of my head, saying, “Passive resistance. Sabotage. Do what you can. Know your heart. Don’t stop smiling.”

Anyway.

All this to come to the fact that I woke up this morning to a post from the National Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM), saying, “Anne Frank was targeted and murdered solely because she was Jewish. Leaders making false equivalencies to her experience for political purposes is never acceptable. Despite tensions in Minneapolis, exploiting the Holocaust is deeply offensive, especially as antisemitism surges.”

And I looked to see who brought up Anne Frank, because the museum didn’t offer any other information. And I found it was Tim Walz saying, “We have got children in Minnesota hiding in their houses, afraid to go outside. Many of us grew up reading that story of Anne Frank. Somebody is going to write that children’s story about Minnesota and there’s one person who can end this now.”

I—like a lot of people—try to call out Holocaust Exploitation when I see it. If we use that language for every human rights injustice we see, it waters down both events—and what good does that do for anyone?

But is Walz’s statement “exploitation of the holocaust?” I wouldn’t say it’s phrased in the wisest way, but I also wouldn’t say he’s calling ICE actions ‘The Holocaust.’

And is the USHMM saying that children aren’t being targeted solely for being brown? Maybe because of having immigrant parents? We know they are. Why is there a suggestion of some further crime in their statement?

My mind is going mad. But more and more, I begin to distrust the places that have always been able to assure me they’re fighting the good fight. And I’m frightened.

Much Love and peace.

Thank you for listening. I don’t know who else to tell.

This student-scholar’s email came as I was working on a post originally intended for today, but is now delayed until tomorrow. Susanne Hirzel and Otl Aicher wrote things eerily similar to this person’s musings. They lost trust in the very institutions that had given them hope and succor.

That loss of trust caused trauma as bad if not worse than Nazi crimes.

If you are in a position of power and trust, please think about your public (and private) actions.

Your words matter. Your actions matter.

COMMENTS WORTH KEEPING

Beautifully written.

--Leslye Joy Allen, historian, January 28, 2026.

Absolutely striking and beautiful reflection. Thanks for sharing these words!

--Jennifer Rosenfeld, January 27, 2026.

Thank you. This is a sober reflection that is thought provoking.

--Gregory L. Browngoetz, January 27, 2026.

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The above information is fully footnoted in our White Rose histories. Please purchase them for access to that material! To order digital version of White Rose History, Volume I: Coming Together (January 1933-April 30, 1942), click here. To order digital version of White Rose History, Volume II, click here. WRH1 is © 2002, 2003, 2007 by Denise Elaine Heap. WRH2 is © 2002, 2007 by Denise Elaine Heap.

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