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The Reichstag Fire Decree is issued, suspending all personal freedoms given in the Constitution due to a “state of emergency.” This comes following the arson of a government building by an anarchist, and lasts throughout the Nazi reign.
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The first four leaflets are written by Hans Scholl and Alexander Schmorell and distributed.
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Several members of the group were sent into the war as physician assistants in German Field Hospitals. Here they met future member, Willi Graf, and were exposed to the atrocities faced by Polish Jews and Russian peasants at the hand of the Germans.
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The Germans suffer a devastating loss in Stalingrad. This further motivates the writing and content of the leaflets.
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After the Germans lose a significant battle in Stalingrad, three members of the White Rose (Willi Graf, Hans Scholl, and Alexander Schmorell) begin a graffiti campaign with tar in the University of Munich. They write anti-Nazi slogans like “down with Hitler!”
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The fifth leaflet is written with help from professor Kurt Hubor and with skills gained in conference with other rebels. It is subsequently distributed.
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Hans and Sophie Scholl are observed by the janitor distributing the sixth leaflet at the University of Munich and are arrested by the Gestapo.
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Trials and executions are held for Hans and Sophie Scholl and Christoph Probst.
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The second trial for the members of the White Rose in which 14 members were tried. Of those tried, only three received a death sentence, WIlli Graf, Kurt Huber, and Alexander Schmorell. The rest were sent to various prison sentences.
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Even after the court sentenced many members of the White Rose to death Helmuth James Graf von Moltke, a supporter, smuggled the final leaflet through Scandinavia into the United Kingdom. In July, 1943, Allied planes flew over Germany and dropped the final leaflet renamed "The Manifesto of the Students at Munich.”
