Purpose, Preparation, and Methodology

If you have read more than one or two "histories" regarding White Rose resistance, you will have noticed that the telling is almost always Scholl-centric. Even when the lens expands to include a few other friends, the telling airbrushes out the flaws. The reader sees porcelain skin, perfect hair, noble stature, clear eyes, and true hearts.

Indeed, our first drafts followed that pattern.

Following the initial 3-1/2 months in Germany, interviewing people who had not talked before, reading both known archives such as Gestapo interrogation transcripts as well as lesser-known city archives, a clearer view of the group of friends emerged. The surviving family members we talked to urged us to tell that true story. They too had grown weary of seeing brothers, sisters, husbands, wives, children painted in unrealistic tones.

So here is our detailed description of our purpose for writing these histories, the preparation we undertook, and our methodology in determining veracity of oral histories and written documents.

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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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