The White Rose Movement: The Rhetorical Situation and Rhetorical Stances Surrounding the Six Anti-Nazi/Anti-War Leaflets
Abstract
This study focuses on the White Rose Movement’s six anti-war/anti-Nazi leaflets the Movement produced and distributed between June 1942 and February 22, 1943 in Munich, Germany. The persuasiveness of the non-violent resistance Movement was analyzed and discussed using a Bitzerean and Booth rhetorical analysis. Though numerous active and passive social protests, such as marches, music, and rallies, have been examined rhetorically in the past, the research surrounding the written form of protest is minor. In direct regards to the White Rose Movement, specifically, the Movement has yet to be examined through a rhetorical lens until now. The Movement and its leaflets are unique in that the Movement had to act in deep secrecy to avoid detection as it composed and disseminated the leaflets in Nazi Germany. This study examined the persuasive quality of the leaflets through the use of the exigence, rhetors, audience, constraints, and rhetorical stances. This study concludes that the leaflets were not immediately as effective as the White Rose Movement hoped the leaflets would be.
Subject Area
Holocaust Studies|History|Rhetoric
Recommended Citation
Cruz, Veronica, "The White Rose Movement: The Rhetorical Situation and Rhetorical Stances Surrounding the Six Anti-Nazi/Anti-War Leaflets" (2017). ETD Collection for University of Texas, El Paso. AAI10619808.
https://scholarworks.utep.edu/dissertations/AAI10619808