The group conducted an anonymous leaflet and graffiti campaign that called for active opposition to the Nazi regime. Their activities started in Munich on 27 June ; they ended with the arrest of the core group by the Gestapo on 18 February Hans and Sophie Scholl, as well as Christoph Probst were executed by guillotine four days after their arrest, on 22 February During the trial, Sophie interrupted the judge multiple times.
No defendants were given any opportunity to speak. The group wrote, printed and initially distributed their pamphlets in the greater Munich region. Later on, secret carriers brought copies to other cities, mostly in the southern parts of Germany. In July , Allied planes dropped their sixth and final leaflet over Germany with the headline The Manifesto of the Students of Munich. In total, the White Rose authored six leaflets, which were multiplied and spread, in a total of about 15, copies.
They denounced the Nazi regime's crimes and oppression, and called for resistance. In their second leaflet, they openly denounced the persecution and mass murder of the Jews.
Today, the White Rose is well known both within Germany and worldwide. Hans's younger sister, Sophie later came to be a core member of the White Rose. Wilhelm Geyer taught Alexander Schmorell how to make the tin templates used in the graffiti campaign. Eugen Grimminger of Stuttgart funded their operations. Grimminger was arrested on 2 March , sentenced to ten years in a penal institution for high treason by the "People's Court" on 19 April , and imprisoned in Ludwigsburg penal institution until April His wife Jenny was murdered in the Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination camp , presumably on 2 December Grimminger's secretary Tilly Hahn contributed her own funds to the cause, and acted as go-between for Grimminger and the group in Munich.
She frequently carried supplies such as envelopes, paper, and an additional duplicating machine from Stuttgart to Munich. In addition, a group of students in the city of Ulm distributed a number of the group's leaflets and were arrested and tried with the group from Munich. The governmentβor rather, the partyβcontrolled everything: the news media, arms, police, the armed forces, the judiciary system, communications, travel, all levels of education from kindergarten to universities, all cultural and religious institutions.
