Alexander Schmorell: Saint of the German Resistance

Description

At the height of World War II, a small band of
students in Munich, Germany, formed a clandestine organization called the White
Rose, which exposed the Nazi regime’s murderous atrocities and called for its
overthrow. In its first anti-Nazi tract, the group wrote, “…Nothing is so
unworthy of a civilized nation as allowing itself to be ‘governed’ without
opposition by an irresponsible clique that has yielded to base instinct…” The
students risked everything to struggle against a world that had lost its
moorings. Early in 1943 key members of the group were discovered and
executed. 
Among those put to death was Alexander Schmorell, a young man of Russian birth
whose family came to Germany when he was a small boy. This biography eloquently
recounts the journey of an energetic and talented young man who loved life but
who, deeply inspired by his Orthodox Christian faith, was willing to sacrifice
it as a testimony to his faith in God that had taught him to love beauty and
freedom, both of which the Nazis sought to destroy. In 2012, the Russian
Orthodox Church officially recognized him as a martyr and saint. 
The story of Alexander’s life and death is made available to English readers
here for the first time, vividly illustrated with black and white
photographs.