White Rose, Black Forest Quotes

“Where they burn books, they will also, in the end, burn people.”
― Eoin Dempsey, White Rose, Black Forest

“The true patriots were the ones with a healthy suspicion of the government and every motive it acted upon.”
― Eoin Dempsey, White Rose, Black Forest

“What is an Aryan?” he would ask the group. “Blond like Hitler!”—who had dark hair. “Tall like Goebbels!” someone else would say—Goebbels was five feet five. “A perfect athletic specimen like Goering!”—who was a disgusting, fat slug.”
― Eoin Dempsey, White Rose, Black Forest

“Because I needed to be valuable again. I needed to do something useful, something good.”
― Eoin Dempsey, White Rose, Black Forest

“The Aryans were a made-up race of blond supermen, which the Nazis had convinced the German people they belonged to.”
― Eoin Dempsey, White Rose, Black Forest

“It’s never too late, not while you’ve got breath in your lungs and life within you.”
― Eoin Dempsey, White Rose, Black Forest

“Books from the school library that were deemed subversive were taken out, piled high, and burned in the yard. Franka asked the librarian what they had taken and was told that the local party members had removed any books, fact or fiction, that expressed a liberal idea, or suggested that the people themselves, rather than the führer, should control their own destinies.”
― Eoin Dempsey, White Rose, Black Forest

“Hatred, malice, vindictiveness, and spite—the emotions that formed the bedrock of Nazism”
― Eoin Dempsey, White Rose, Black Forest

“He had been too good, too pure for the sewer of prejudice and hatred this country had become. This country wasn’t for angels anymore. Only those twisted by hatred and fear could prosper here now.”
― Eoin Dempsey, White Rose, Black Forest

“Culture” became a dirty word.”
― Eoin Dempsey, White Rose, Black Forest

“Instead, the three Ks were drummed into girls from an early age: Kinder (children), Kirche (church), and Küche (kitchen).”
― Eoin Dempsey, White Rose, Black Forest

“My name is John Lynch,” he said. “I’m from Philadelphia”
― Eoin Dempsey, White Rose, Black Forest

“The German citizenry ceded absolute power to Hitler and his Nazis without so much as a whimper.”
― Eoin Dempsey, White Rose, Black Forest

“They’re steering us toward war. It’s as inevitable as the sun coming in the morning, or the dark at night. It’s going to take a lot to oust them, but they will lose in the end. And when they do, our victory will be our survival. As long as we remain true to ourselves and don’t let them scar our souls, then we will have won.”
― Eoin Dempsey, White Rose, Black Forest

“The Nazis are nothing if not meticulous, and while they may be uneducated and backward, they have an innate talent for propaganda and suppression. The system they have set up is perfect in its dysfunctional functionality”
― Eoin Dempsey, White Rose, Black Forest

“But what if it did happen? What if your loyalties were torn between government and people? Would you go against the will of your government for the good of the people they’re meant to serve?”
― Eoin Dempsey, White Rose, Black Forest

“The führer was inefficient and lazy and prone to giving vague directives, which he expected to be followed in quick order.”
― Eoin Dempsey, White Rose, Black Forest

“There was little time. Wasting time on questions would cost Werner Graf his life. She thought of his wife and daughters, innocent of the crimes he might have committed on behalf of the Reich. She wasn’t carrying much herself—just the loaded revolver. It was all she thought she’d need tonight.”
― Eoin Dempsey, White Rose, Black Forest

“Why did you rescue me?” “Because you’re a human being, and I’m a nurse. That’s what I do.” “But you risked your life for a stranger, and a Luftwaffe flier at that.” “I needed something.” “We all do,” John said,”
― Eoin Dempsey, White Rose, Black Forest

“She thought of the Allied airmen dropping the bombs, wondered if they knew what they were doing, who their bombs were killing. Were they war criminals, as most of the people in the air-raid shelter would testify? Or were things like accountability for war crimes decided by the victors? ...Those on the side that emerged victorious would likely be lauded as heroes, their crimes remembered as exemplary actions.”
― Eoin Dempsey, White Rose, Black Forest

“She thought of the Allied airmen dropping the bombs, wondered if they knew what they were doing, who their bombs were killing. Were they war criminals, as most of the people in the air-raid shelter would testify? Or were things like accountability for war crimes decided by the victors?”
― Eoin Dempsey, White Rose, Black Forest

“A man with no loyalties other than his work was a dangerous one.”
― Eoin Dempsey, White Rose, Black Forest

“she went to the local Gestapo office to report her friend.”
― Eoin Dempsey, White Rose, Black Forest

“Hitler had found his first supporters—disenfranchised soldiers, rejects, and castoffs of a society”
― Eoin Dempsey, White Rose, Black Forest

“Several girls she knew had already reported their parents.”
― Eoin Dempsey, White Rose, Black Forest

“This new man, this Hitler, was regarded as an upstart, a bad joke.”
― Eoin Dempsey, White Rose, Black Forest

“German women were forbidden to wear makeup or to color or perm their hair.”
― Eoin Dempsey, White Rose, Black Forest

“It required supernatural strength not to do the Gestapo’s bidding.”
― Eoin Dempsey, White Rose, Black Forest

“As long as we remain true to ourselves and don’t let them scar our souls, then we will have won.”
― Eoin Dempsey, White Rose, Black Forest

“College was an extension of the Nazi propaganda system that had engulfed Franka and her friends in high school. Intellectuals were on the same level as Jews and merited the same treatment. Hundreds of professors across Germany were dismissed for being too liberal, or Jewish. Among them were some of the greatest scholars in the country, and several Nobel Prize winners. “Culture” became a dirty word. The universities were transformed into vessels for the Propaganda Ministry. There were no student activities save for the Nazi-sponsored rallies and pep talks declaring the greatness of the regime.”
― Eoin Dempsey, White Rose, Black Forest