In 1943 five students and a professor at the Ludwig Maximilian University in Munich were arrested, interrogated, tried, and executed. They were members of The White Rose (‘Die Weiße Rose’), a clandestine group who wrote and distributed pamphlets calling on Germans to resist Hitler. The White Rose is a household name in Germany but is little known in the UK. The White Rose Project aims to make the story of this hidden history better known here. You can find out more about the project’s work so far on our website: www.whiteroseproject.org.
To commemorate the 77th anniversary of the first White Rose trials, there will be a public performance of translated excerpts from the group’s letters and diaries in Oxford in mid-2020. The majority of these texts have never appeared in English. A publication of this material is also planned.
Credit: illustration by Isabella, student at UNC Chapel Hill, gifted to the White Rose Project
How to apply
This project is open to all students of German in the second or fourth year of undergraduate studies, and there will be twelve places available. Applications will also be considered from undergraduate students who are not studying German, but who are confident translating between German and English. Participation is based on a series of seminars (in weeks 6 and 8 of Michaelmas term, and weeks 2 and 4 of Hilary term). You will work on translations both independently and as part of the seminar group. To apply, please send a short statement (max. 75 words) outlining why you would like to participate, and a translation of the following text to Dr Alex Lloyd (alexandra.lloyd@seh.ox.ac.uk) by Friday 1st November 2019. You will be notified of the result of the application by Monday 4th November 2019.
Translate into English: ‘In 14 Tagen werde ich die Heimreise antreten. Ich habe eingesehen, dass nichts wichtiger ist, als jetzt zu Euch zu fahren. Von unserem Graben zu den Russen sind es 80m. Trotzdem lebt man hier mehr im Frieden als je. Vorausgesetzt, dass man sich aus dem Lärm nichts macht’ (letter from Hans Scholl to his family, October 1942, at the Russian front).