In addition to being Washington's birthday, February 22 was the anniversary of the martyrdom of the German resistance group called the White Rose. Led by Hans and Sophie Scholl, the group included five young students and a college professor, who wrote and circulated six pamphlets urging resistance to the Nazi regime.

?It is certain that today every honest German is ashamed of his government,? proclaimed their first pamphlet. ?Do not forget that every people deserves the regime it is willing to endure!?

They urged their fellow German Christians not to be deceived by the official depiction of the pagan Hitler as a providential national savior. And they appealed to those who still harbored a love of freedom:

?[W]hy do you allow these men who are in power to rob you step by step, openly and in secret, of one domain of your rights after another, until one day nothing, nothing at all will be left but a mechanized state system presided over by criminals and drunks??

Despite the fact that it cost them their mortal lives, the White Rose stood fast in the liberty wherewith Christ had made them free.