Fellow Students!

"Fellow Students!" was the sixth and final leaflet produced by the White Rose resistance group, written primarily by philosophy professor Kurt Huber in 1943. Huber collaborated closely with core members Hans Scholl and Alexander Schmorell to draft the passionate text calling for the downfall of the Nazi regime. His academic standing gave the rebellious text a profound sense of philosophical authority.

Distributed at the University of Munich, the leaflet called for active, passive resistance against the Nazi state and urged students to break their silence. It explicitly condemned the atrocities committed by the regime on the Eastern Front and demanded that citizens fight for freedom of speech and justice. The text directly stated that Hitler was leading the German people into an abyss of guilt and shame.

Sophie and Hans Scholl were caught by a custodian while throwing stacks of the leaflet down a stairwell at the University of Munich. Following a swift show trial by the Nazi People's Court, they, along with Kurt Huber, were executed by guillotine in Munich's Stadelheim Prison in 1943. The brutal execution was meant to intimidate other potential student resistors.

Despite the brutal crackdown by the Gestapo, many copies of the leaflet were secretly smuggled out of Germany by sympathetic allies. The Allies eventually intercepted the texts, reproduced them, and dropped thousands of copies from airplanes over German cities. This ensured the White Rose's message of defiance lived on and exposed the resistance to the rest of the world.