Last release: Die Weisse Rose (WSD, 1997)

The catalog says that Die Weisse Rose was a female Anti-Nazi group of the 30s and 40s. If that's the case, the group "The White Rose" wasn't an all female group. It was started by Hans Scholl (and some collegues), whose sister Sophie later joined and played a central role (and was later executed). Their story is a very interesting and inspiring one, and definitely worth reading about. If that's what the CD centers around, you may have to snag a copy somewhere....

But the music is very sad and haunting, quite beautiful. Parts of it sound rather orchestral, others sound like they're performed on a church pipe organ, and a couple are just solo piano, sounding like it's being played in a vast empty hall. There's some German dialog over a couple of the tracks, and others have some eerie, atmosperic electronic effects added. The whole effect is a feeling of immense sadness, a look back into a time long past.

There's an 8 page booklet included with the CD, but it's entirely in German, includes some photos of (I presume) the women of this group. The Moon Lay Hidden Beneath the Clouds are also credited on the album.

German lyrics translation (from website called "Beauty for ashes")

Here are the translation to the liner notes of Die Weisse Rose (LJDLP). These are very beautiful poems and I took much pleasure in reading and translating them. German at the bottom (thanks to Don Gunning) I also put them on a web page together with the german original and a few annotations and biography and a picture of the Scholl siblings.

http://luna.chem.utoronto.ca/sw/rose.html

(or click on the 'Organisation:' field)

The White Rose was recorded in the winter of 1996 with the voice of Alzbeth (TMLHBC) over music from LJDLP and Regard Extreme. We pray Alzbeth to accept our thanks. Without her, this project would never have been accomplished. Our thoughts and respect goto our friends Albin Julius, Douglas P, Franck Armand (The child with the drum 3), Saphi (the flagbearer), Alan Trench for his illimited patience and finally Elena P, Euphem R, Friedrich N, Virginie S, Stephanie & Sylvie (Nuit et Brouillard 4), Eric & Audrey, Stephanie et Paul, the last born. Our comrades Kameraden Klaus Joachim (Tesco) und Salt.

To the memory of Sophie S. Holy Love, Holy Life, Holy Void

Tracks

Deep longing (to new shores) * Nature awoke to the sound of weapons * Now dawn is breaking * Which irresistably foams downwards * Youth mourns (funeral march) * White leaves * The last battle of life * The flame released (born) * White rose * Taking leave * Deep longing * Never say "Adieu"

DIE WEISSE ROSE:

Come, be our guest, give us one tenth of what you promised. Under the damned socialdemocrats we sometimes had a piece of meat but under you there's only herring, herring, herring...

We are small, the power is yours! Yours is also the power and the glory for some time ahead. Soon we will go into the battle. Be strong and sturdy, my brothers! And may no one stop half-way again as once.

We thank you from the bottom of our hearts that our empty bowels fume. Hunger keeps the anger healthy. It will once crush you and, in the name of humankind, all those who came with you.

Three stars did I see shining, three stars were shining light. Alas those stars were not the stars of home. I saw three roses in glimmering blue air, You roses of home, it was not your scent, It was not your scent; Three palm trees stand by the sea, Foreign places are so empty! Three kisses I gave to the wind, It will carry them over the sea.

There in a garden stands a green limetree

I kiss its bark at night in my dream At night in my dream, in a dream!

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The info WSD lists on their page is somewhat inaccurate; the White Rose was originally a student anti-nazi group started at the Ludwig-Maximillians-Universitaet Muenchen by a med student, Hans Scholl and a few friends - Christoph Probst and Willi Graf (Hans, Sofie, and someone else are depicted on the postcard from the box set) are the only names that immediately occur to me. Later, his younger sister, Sofie (who is on the cover of the CD booklet and on the upper left-hand corner of the first page - all the other pictures of Maedchen are, afaik, pretty random and not really members) - who studied philosophy and something else at the University later joined, along with a few other people, including the philosophy professor Kurt Huber. The group never really made much music - they were too busy printing and distributing anti-nazi flyers and dodging over-zealous Nazis. Of course, they were all executed in 1944 for high treason. They're now highly celebrated heros in Munich, with streets named after them, monuments, etc.

The German movie, _Die weisse Rose_ is a pretty accurate depiction of the group and its activities. There's also a few books out on the group; I can't remember the names of any of them right now, but one of them was written shortly after the end of the war by one of the younger Scholl siblings (Inge?), who was not involved with the group, which contains all the "Flugblaetter" (flyers), the proceedings of their trials, announcements in the newspapers of their executions (post facto, of course), etc. Very, very interesting and worthwhile read. ...and I just checked some notes I had, and one of the books is called _The White Rose: A Noble Treason_. Another is _Das Gewissen steht auf_, but I don't think this latter is available in English...

A comment about that film: you mentioned how their execution was anti-climatic. But it fits so entirely well with the film and what it's depicting...it shows how exactly how the Nazis basically tried to keep all resistence entirely hushed, in effort to build an image of "solidarity" for National Socialist Germany; according to their logic, it's better to quietly dispose of the Widerstand (resistence) and deny it was ever there, than to make a big pomp and circumstance about it, which would show that there were cracks in the regime...which might help other people to think to themselves, "well, hey, if other people aren't happy with Herr Hitler and his merry bunch, then maybe I'm not alone...." Divide and conquer.

Also, if you liked that film, I also recommend German movie, _Das schreckliche Maedchen_ (there's a subtitled version available called, _The Nasty Girl_)...it stars the same actress that played Sofie, and is about how a small town reacts when someone decides to examine what the currently "upstanding" citizens of the town were up to during the Third Reich.

So...I don't know exactly where Les Joyaux... got the music/songs for this release, and if any of it actually came from stuff the Scholls & Co. played when they weren't fighting for justice and freedom. But it's still a beautiful album and truly haunting...especially the piano pieces and the end of track 10, which crescendos up to the thunderous striking of drums and Hitler screaming, "...nur zu denken an Deutschland!" ("...only to think about Germany!"). Every time I hear that it slaps me in the face.

The song on the 7" sounds like it probably came from a 78" of the time... a traditional sort of...well, song. That people listened to and stuff. (Helpful, eh?) Um...I don't think it was sung by Sofie or anyone else involved with the group though. The lyrics, btw, are those printed in the booklet under "Heimat" ("Home"), "Drei Sterne sah ich scheinen..." ("I saw three stars shining...") and don't show any indication of having to do with anti-Nazi protest...unless, of course, I'm missing some symbolism, which is likely.

[I'm to 98% certain that this song ("Heimat", on the bonus single that comes with the 'Die Weisse Rose' box set) is sung by the Swedish diva Zarah Leander. Although she wasn't really associated with the NSDAP in any way, she became a huge favourite among the nazi elite and spent considerable time in Germany and performed a lot there during WW2. If you look closely, she is even mentioned in the liner notes of the booklet. Hardly likely that Zarah would have lent her voice to an anti-nazi protest... why bite the hand that feeds you?]

(info from WSD-list)

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