Traces of the White Rose
Munich, 1942. War rages across Europe. After nearly a decade of Nazi rule, Hitler is at the height of his power. Any form of opposition is unimaginably dangerous. To stand up and speak out would take incredible strength and courage.
Traces of the White Rose is a podcast produced by SANSARA and the White Rose Project telling the story of the White Rose resistance: five students and a professor who stood up to Nazism and paid with their lives. Through newly-translated letters, diaries and resistance pamphlets, hosts Tom Herring and Dr Alexandra Lloyd trace the story of the White Rose resisters in their own words, alongside powerful and moving choral music by English and German composers from SANSARA’s acclaimed album Traces.
Dr Alexandra Lloyd, author of Defying Hitler - The White Rose Pamphlets (Bodleian Library Publishing, 2022), and Fellow by Special Election in German at St Edmund Hall, Oxford, says:
“On 12 October 1943, a 25-year old medical student called Willi Graf was executed by the Nazis. He was one of a group of university students and a professor who together wrote, printed, and circulated anti-Nazi, anti-war pamphlets. All six members of the core resistance group were sentenced to death for this act of defiance against the regime.
2023 marks the 80th anniversary of the White Rose arrests and executions. This is a powerful story which deserves to be better known and which has so much to teach us today.
Traces of the White Rose introduces this courageous group of resisters through their own writings. It’s a truly collaborative effort, with music by SANSARA, and translations by students at the University of Oxford. As a lecturer and author, it’s amazing to hear this story brought to life and to hear traces of these incredible individuals who risked everything for freedom.”
Tom Herring, Artistic Director of SANSARA, says: “A key part of our mission is to give voice to powerful human stories. In this podcast, we hear remarkable voices of resistance recorded in English for the first time, allowing them to inspire and speak directly to a wider audience than ever before.
We’ve learned from Dr Alexandra Lloyd’s work on the White Rose, that music was one of the things that brought the members of the White Rose together and sustained them through dark times. The choral music in the series represents their cultural imagination and embodies their connections to each other: multiple voices working together to express their profound sense of responsibility and their collective demand to be heard.”
The series was made with support from the University of Oxford’s Public Engagement with Research Seed Fund, The Oxford Research Centre in the Humanities, the Higher Education and Innovation Fund, and the Genesis Foundation Kickstart Fund. This collaboration began life as a project supported by the HCP Fund.
LISTEN TO THE PODCAST on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and University of Oxford Podcasts.
https://podcasts.ox.ac.uk/series/traces-white-rose
SANSARA is an award-winning vocal collective making choral music that matters, giving voice to powerful human stories. Recent projects include a commission from Ukrainian composer Natalia Tsupryk and collaborations with United Strings of Europe, Basel Saleh and Fretwork. Performance highlights include Barbican, St Martin-in-the-Fields, Kings Place, St John’s Smith Square and several leading UK music festivals.
sansarachoir.com
The White Rose Project is a research and engagement initiative at the University of Oxford. It was launched on 12 October 2018 and aims to bring the story of the White Rose resistance group, ‘Die Weiße Rose’, to English-speaking audiences through research, translation, and performance.
whiteroseproject.seh.ox.ac.uk
Image credit : Artwork: Masha Krivopishina
