The White Rose, a secret student resistance group, consisted of a small number of friends, most of them medical students in the University of Hamburg, who dared to speak out against the Nazi regime during WWII.
Unlike other anti-Nazi groups in Germany - and there were few of them in any case -- the White Rose denounced the persecution and killing of the Jews. Although calling for the overthrow of the Nazi regime, the group espoused a non-violent philosophy. During 1942, the members spread their views through a series of pamphlets. When the government discovered the identity of those who were involved in writing and distributing the pamphlets, it moved against them, and six were executed.