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Our Debtby
Charley Hardman "They shall continue what we have begun." Those were among the last words of Willi Graf before he was killed on 12 October 1943. Mr. Graf was the last member of The White Rose to be struck down, crushed under the accumulated weight of weak men who were not fit to breathe the air exhaled by those immortal few on their way to the guillotine. His murder was preceded by those of Sophie Scholl (22 February 1943), Christoph Probst (22 February 1943), Hans Scholl (22 February 1943), Kurt Huber (13 July 1943), and Alexander Schmorell (13 July 1943) – all of them killed, legally, by government. If you haven't heard of The White Rose, you might be thinking that it was a paramilitary group engaged in sabotage – blowing up bridges, assassinating, or the like. Nothing quite so physical. The six members of The White Rose mentioned above were slaughtered by the state for writing, printing, and distributing leaflets critical of National Socialism, Hitler, and the cowardly passivity of those who merely watched the evil unleashed in Germany during patriotic years of worshiping the state. What would you have done if you'd learned of their destruction while attempting to make your way in German society back in 1943? Many people in America these days, whose idea of bravery is to steadfastly tout the duty and right of others to kill strangers, would have done then what they are doing now: Fall in line. Excuse my language, but it takes no balls to fall in line. It takes no heart to imitate the behavior most likely to bring you comfort given your surroundings. We at LewRockwell.com, Strike The Root, and many other sites critical of government are routinely painted as cowardly trash for saying what we say about war alone. The people doing the criticizing are oblivious. We are not in the immediate danger confronted by The White Rose, but it's not easy or comfortable bucking the current, and it's preposterous to suppose that flowing with the current requires bravery. Is it conducive to short-term self-preservation? You bet it is! Beyond that, there's not much to be said for it when tough questions go unasked and previous historical mistakes are repeated, leading to the ludicrous end where our critics are even louder critics of those they now emulate blindly, furiously. What bravery is there these days in running around with an American flag? There are no British soldiers waiting to kill you. It doesn't quite have the same risk it used to. Most US flag wavers aren't confronting Israeli bulldozers about to demolish their homes. It's awfully nice to be on the proper side of a bully. For a while. The White Rose was not about falling in line. It was designed and operated to point the light of truth at pure, disguised evil. It should be alarming to any man claiming to be an American patriot that the evil of Hitler's Germany was not only allowed to proceed, but supported strenuously in the name of patriotism. From the sixth leaflet published by The White Rose: "Freedom and honor! For ten long years Hitler and his coadjutor have manhandled, squeezed, twisted, and debased these two splendid German words to the point of nausea, as only dilettantes can, casting the highest values of a nation before swine. They have sufficiently demonstrated in the ten years of destruction of all material and intellectual freedom, of all moral substance among the German people, what they understand by freedom and honor. The frightful bloodbath has opened the eyes of even the stupidest German – it is a slaughter which they arranged in the name of 'freedom and honor of the German nation' throughout Europe, and which they daily start anew. The name of Germany is dishonored for all time if German youth does not finally rise, take revenge, and atone, smash its tormentors, and set up a new Europe of the spirit." I will let the hate mail flow based upon a comparison I have not made. The sixth leaflet of The White Rose was its last. They are dead, and have been for over 60 years. Yet they are not entirely dead, because that thing for which they risked their lives and lost is still alive. It is alive in the form of a mirror thrown up against the eyes of every one of us, asking, "Are you worthy to use our words? Are you so worried about your electronic gadgets, your toys, and your palette that you will not contest the state to the point where even those shallow attachments are at risk? Have you allowed our slaughter to mean nothing in your regard? Have your actions further debased the meaning of the concepts 'freedom' and 'honor' we sought to preserve? Did we fight for you?" A man who witnessed what happened to them answered those questions in a disturbing way. He was Hans Leipelt, and he joined the battle, continuing the work of The White Rose until, on 29 January 1945, he died as they did. He had offended the state. How did things get to the point in Germany where one could be killed by the state for distributing pamphlets? You tell me. "You have returned into the light. May the Lord give you eternal rest, and may the eternal light shine upon you." ~
Else Gebel,
Copyright © 2003 LewRockwell.com
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December
20, 2003
