The White Rose movement vs. Nazi Germany

We Will Not Be Silent: The White Rose Student Resistance Movement That Defied Adolf Hitler depicts the "strong back" of compassion--risking one's life to stand against discrimination and mistreatment in order to transform hate to support, oppression to freedom, complacency to action, and self-preservation to cosmopolitanism.

Russel Freedman's account traces the rise of Hitler; the growing resistance by the German people; and the courageous resistance of young students, a university professor, and many others.  I understand far better how the German people could let this atrocity happen.  Freedman begins his story  of a people humiliated and downtrodden after WWI who return to hope with the promises of a young man.   Then, Freedman traces how that hope becomes confusion, fear, and shock.  Sometimes, the story is sweet; other times, it is more than disturbing.  On every page, a photo accompanies the narrative, lending authenticity and personalizing the historical events.

It's a quick read but a haunting one.