Nothing is more dishonorable for a civilized people than to let itself be “governed” without resistance by an irresponsible clique of rulers devoted to dark instincts.
–first words of the first leaflet distributed throughout Munich by the White Rose resistance movement. 1942
What makes an ordinary person, at grave peril to their life, stand up to the diabolical plans of a seemingly all-powerful regime? What happens when they do resist? Long after their deaths, how does history remember or forget, interpret and reinterpret their legacy?
White Rose, a theatrical and streaming feature documentary, will use innovative cinematic techniques to tell a stunning historical story which addresses those very timely questions.
The White Rose Movement was a group of non-Jewish students at the University of Munich at the height of the Third Reich’s power who went from being enthusiastic members of the Hitler Youth movement to launching a clandestine campaign of truth-telling in the face of Hitler’s lies. Over the course of eight tense months starting in June 1942, the activists – led by siblings Sophie Scholl, 21, a philosophy and biology student, and Hans Scholl, 23, an aspiring physician – wrote, copied and widely distributed six anti-Nazi leaflets.
With the truth about what was happening throughout Europe heavily suppressed, the impact of White Rose’s blunt words was immeasurable. Imagine, during a time when disparaging leaders was punishable by death, receiving this message in your mailbox, or seeing it flutter down from the mezzanine in your office: “Every word that comes from Hitler’s mouth is a lie. When he says peace he means war, and when he blasphemously uses the name of the Almighty, he means the power of evil – Satan.”
The Scholls and their small band of fellow resisters – students, neighbors and even a faculty member – grew bolder as the Nazis’ atrocities made them more desperate. Using mimeograph machines squirreled away in artists’ studios and book shops, they printed their radical leaflets, and then they printed more. They boarded trains and took the leaflets to cities around Eastern Europe and then mailed them to different German cities, making their movement appear much larger than it really was. They began including instructions on how their readers could engage in acts of civil disobedience in their offices and on the streets. They painted the words “Down with Hitler” and “Freedom” on walls and monuments around Munich.
These acts were met with alarm at the highest levels of the Nazi regime, and the Gestapo became obsessed with capturing the anonymous culprits. Sophie and Hans were caught scattering hundreds of their final leaflet from the upper floor of the atrium at a university classroom building. Within four days, they had been interrogated, tried by the man dubbed “Hitler’s hanging judge,” and beheaded by guillotine.
Along with the six radically eloquent leaflets, hundreds of letters, journal entries and interrogation and trial transcripts survive – with more still being discovered. These documents will allow Sophie and Hans’ words to guide the viewer of White Rose through the narrative.
But this documentary will not simply be the telling of the Scholls’ epic story. It will also be an exploration of how we unearth and consider our history at a time when pressure is growing around the world to obfuscate or, in effect, re-bury the most sensitive historical truths.
Julie Cohen (Director & Producer)
Julie is an Academy Award-nominated director and producer and the winner of the 2024 Freedom of Expression Award from the Jewish Film Institute. RBG (2018, Magnolia Pictures/CNN Films), which she directed and produced alongside Betsy West.was nominated for two Oscars, won an Emmy, a Critics Choice Award, and aduPont-Columbia award and was one of the 25 all time highest box office documentaries. Other feature documentaries she’s directed include Every Body (2023; Focus Features) which was nominated for an Emmy, a Critics Choice Award and a GLAAD Award; the Oscar shortlisted JULIA (co-directed with West; 2021, Sony Pictures Classics) the Peabody-winning My Name is Pauli Murray (co-directed with West; 2021, Amazon Studios/Participant Media); Berlinale Official Selection The Sturgeon Queens (2014; PBS) and the New York Emmy winning Ndiphilela Ukucula: I Live to Sing (2013; PBS). Before starting her own production company, Better Than Fiction, Julie was a producer for NBC News. Julie graduated from Colgate and holds master’s degrees from Yale Law School and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.
Kelly Kendrick (Editor)
Kelly is an Emmy and A.C.E. Eddie award-winning editor. He has edited feature documentary films and television series for Focus Features, NBC Universal, HBO, Netflix, Peacock, Showtime, Vice, PBS, Hulu, and A&E. Kelly was the editor of the Emmy, GLAAD and Critics Choice nominated Every Body. Kelly also edited the six-part Netflix series Hitler and the Nazis: Evil on Trial directed by Joe Berlinger. Other recent projects include Checkpoint Zoo (Tribeca 2024) and Netflix’s This is a Robbery (2021). Kelly has extensive experience editing with World War II era and other archival footage. Before going into independent documentary editing, he was a staff editor at Vice News where he won an ACE award, an Emmy Award and awards from the New York and Los Angeles Press Clubs.
