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. It is certain that today every honest German is ashamed of his government. Who among us has any conception of the dimensions of shame that will befall us and our children when one day the veil has fallen from our eyes and the most horrible of crimes - crimes that infinitely outdistance every human measure-reach the light of day? If the German people are already so corrupted and spiritually crushed that they do not raise a hand, frivolously trusting in a questionable faith in lawful order in history; if they surrender man's highest principle, that which raises him above all other God's creatures, his free will; if they abandon the will to take decisive action and turn the wheel of history and thus subject it to their own rational decision; if they are so devoid of all individuality, have already gone so far along the road toward turning into a spiritless and cowardly mass - then, yes, they deserve their downfall. Goethe speaks of the Germans as a tragic people, like the Jews and the Greeks, but today it would appear rather that they are a spineless, will-less herd of hangers-on, who now - the marrow sucked out of their bones, robbed of their center of stability - are waiting to be hounded to their destruction. So it seems - but it is not so. Rather, by means of gradual, treacherous, systematic abuse, the system has put every man into a spiritual prison. Only now, finding himself lying in fetters, has he become aware of his fate. Only a few recognized the threat of ruin, and the reward for their heroic warning was death. We will have more to say about the fate of these persons. If everyone waits until the other man makes a start, the messengers of avenging Nemesis will come steadily closer; then even the last victim will have been cast senselessly into the maw of the insatiable demon. Therefore every individual, conscious of his responsibility as a member of Christian and Western civilization, must defend himself as best he can at this late hour, he must work against the scourges of mankind, against fascism and any similar system of totalitarianism. Offer passive resistance-resistance - wherever you may be, forestall the spread of this atheistic war machine before it is too late, before the last cities, like Cologne, have been reduced to rubble, and before the nation's last young man has given his blood on some battlefield for the hubris of a sub-human. Do not forget that every people deserves the regime it is willing to endure.

We are not in a position to draw up a final judgment about the meaning of our history. But if this catastrophe can be used to further the public welfare, it will be only by virtue of the fact that we are cleansed by suffering; that we yearn for the light in the midst of deepest night, summon our strength, and finally help in shaking off the yoke which weighs on our world.

We do not want to discuss here the question of the Jews, nor do we want in this leaflet to compose a defense or apology. No, only by way of example do we want to cite the fact that since the conquest of Poland three hundred
thousand Jews have been murdered in this country in the most bestial way. Here we see the most frightful crime
against human dignity, a crime that is unparalleled in the whole of history. For Jews, too, are human beings - no
matter what position we take with respect to the Jewish question - and a crime of this dimension has been perpetrated against human beings. Someone may say that the Jews deserved their fate. This assertion would be a monstrous impertinence; but let us assume that someone said this - what position has he then taken toward the fact that the entire Polish aristocratic youth is being annihilated? (May God grant that this program has not fully achieved its aim as yet!) All male offspring of the houses of the nobility between the ages of fifteen and twenty were transported to concentration camps in Germany and sentenced to forced labor, and all girls of this age group were sent to Norway, into the bordellos of the SS! Why tell you these things, since you are fully aware of them - or if not of these, then of other equally grave crimes committed by this frightful sub-humanity? Because here we touch on a problem which involves us deeply and forces us all to take thought. Why do the German people behave so apathetically in the face of all these abominable crimes, crimes so unworthy of the human race? Hardly anyone thinks about that. It is accepted as fact and put out of mind. The German people slumber on in their dull, stupid sleep and encourage these fascist criminals; they give them the opportunity to carry on their depredations; and of course they do so. Is this a sign that the Germans are brutalized in their simplest human feelings, that no chord within them cries out at the sight of such deeds, that they have sunk into a fatal consciencelessness from which they will never, never awake? It seems to be so, and will certainly be so, if the German does not at last start up out of his stupor, if he does not protest wherever and whenever he can against this clique of criminals, if he shows no sympathy for these hundreds of thousands of victims. He must evidence not only sympathy; no, much more: a sense of complicity in guilt. For through his apathetic behavior he gives these evil men the opportunity to act as they do; he tolerates this government which has taken upon itself such an infinitely great burden of guilt; indeed, he himself is to blame for the fact that it came about at all! Each man wants to be exonerated of a guilt of this kind, each one continues on his way with the most placid, the calmest conscience. But he cannot be exonerated; he is guilty, guilty, guilty! It is not too late, however, to do away with this most reprehensible of all miscarriages of government, so as to avoid being burdened with even greater guilt. Now, when in recent years our eyes have been opened, when we know exactly who our adversary is, it is high time to root out this brown horde. Up until the outbreak of the war the larger part of the German people was blinded; the Nazis did not show themselves in their true aspect. But now, now that we have recognized them for what they are, it must be the sole and first duty, the holiest duty of every German to destroy these beasts.

The Fascist grip on Germany was complete after 1934. Leaders of other political parties were jailed or killed; state governments were replaced. It was dangerous to befriend Jews or to associate with those who spoke against the Nazis. George (Jürgen) Wittenstein, studying philosophy, psychology, and medicine at the University of Munich during those dark years, did both. At personal risk and with great loyalty to his friends, he took part in the White Rose resistance, the only German resistance group to publicly condemn the extermination of European Jews. He was one of the few White Rose members to survive and in 1947 published the first report on them: The Munich Student Movement.

A longtime Santa Barbara resident, Dr. Wittenstein died on June 14 at age 96. His mother, Elisabeth Vollmoeller, was a successful businesswoman; his father, Oskar Wittenstein, a doctor of chemistry, concert pianist, and aviation pioneer, died six months before George’s birth while testing an airplane. A philosophy of personal responsibility and justice was instilled during Wittenstein’s boyhood by the Vollmoeller family and Schule Schloss Salem, which remains one of the finest schools in Europe. Salem’s revered headmaster, Kurt Hahn, spoke openly against Hitler and fled to England in 1933.

Instead of the ubiquitous swastika, 13-year-old Jürgen’s bicycle flew the flag of the Paneuropean Union, a peaceful unification group banned by Hitler. Compulsory labor and military service preceded his military medic training in Munich, where he befriended Alexander Schmorell, and they shared their hatred of the Nazi regime. His mentor, the art historian Dr. Kurt Badt, was brutalized in 1938’s Kristallnacht attacks on Jewish citizens, and the next day Wittenstein was ordered by the Gestapo, as a German soldier, to stop associating with Jews. More ominously, the Gestapo accused him of homosexuality, a feared Nazi ploy to eliminate enemies.

He began his studies at Munich University in summer 1939, where he met Hellmut Hartert and Hans Scholl. “We had a few magical and exhilarating months,” he said, “free from uniforms, from years of regimentation; free to study, travel, attend concerts, nature; to choose our lodging - wear civilian clothes!”

Warned of his growing Gestapo file, the family made plans for him to leave Germany. In August 1939, after gaining the nearly unobtainable documents, the 20-year-old boarded the Hansa for New York, bringing along a car for his uncle Carl Vollmoeller. A U-turn in the ship’s wake meant they were returning to Germany, and he made a plan to cross the nearest border as quickly as possible. Instead, he drove two stranded and endangered Jewish teens home to Berlin and gave up his last chance to escape Germany. After an intense search by Wittenstein’s wife, the three reunited 70 years later, and Esther and Nat Berkowitz described the terrifying journey, full of flag-downs by police and searches of every car but theirs. They always wondered what kind of high Nazi official or diplomat this elegant and self-assured young man could be who was waved through checkpoints. It turned out their car carried a foreign export license plate and therefore could not be searched.

Back at Munich University, he was redrafted into a medical student company. Constant spying, mail interception, and telephone taps made it dangerous to express opinions and communicate; it wasn’t until after the war that Wittenstein learned that his company commander would mislead the Gestapo if they asked about his soldiers. When their philosophy professor Fritz-Joachim von Rintelen was dismissed, Wittenstein and a friend organized a protest, an unheard-of act in 1941. The first “Leaflet of the White Rose” appeared in spring 1942, denouncing Nazi crimes and appealing to German citizens to defy Hitler’s dictatorship. A call for active resistance followed the friends’ experiences at the Russian front in 1942. Wittenstein took more than 100 photos of the trip, including of the Warsaw Ghetto and the iconic photos that are in nearly all White Rose publications, exhibits, and films of the past 65 years on the subject.

The tragic demise of the White Rose is well-known. Triggered by the arrests of Hans Scholl and his sister Sophie as they distributed the sixth leaflet early in 1943, the Scholls and Christoph Probst were executed, only hours after their trial. Alerted to the trial by a friend, Wittenstein was able to bring the Scholls’ parents to the Palace of Justice, and they saw their children alive one last time. Professor Kurt Huber and Schmorell were executed several months later. Walking past a waiting Gestapo agent to deliver the message, Wittenstein tried to send rescue information to Schmorell via his father, and he smuggled clandestinely collected money to Huber’s destitute family. He was interrogated by the Gestapo in November and by the military court in March 1944, but he disproved their accusations. When later asked why he risked his life repeatedly, Wittenstein, always surprised at the question, would answer “Someone had to do it.”

To be safer from the Gestapo, he volunteered for the front and was posted as a medic to Italy, where he was wounded. He collected weapons from wounded soldiers for Freedom Action Bavaria, a resistance group that saved Munich from Hitler’s order for destruction as the war ended.

It was always with tears in his eyes that he recalled getting his U.S. visa. McCarthyism had made emigrating difficult, as all resistance members were assumed to be communists, but he could no longer live in a country of such horrors. He left Germany with temporary papers for England, but not before marrying Elisabeth Sophie Hartert, though it was two long years until they reunited in the U.S. He also met with students to make plans for a New Germany. In England, he spoke at universities about his disillusioned generation of Germans and about their duty to contribute to the reconstruction of Europe.

Wittenstein continued his surgical training at Harvard and the universities of Rochester and Colorado. Once Elisabeth completed her medical specialization, she became chief of anesthesiology at Denver General Hospital in 1950. George taught at the University of Colorado’s medical school, simultaneously enrolling to get his U.S. medical degree. During their residencies, they were so poor they built their own furniture, a skill George had learned at Salem. He joined the UCLA medical faculty in 1964, serving as professor and chair of the Department of Surgery at UCLA/LAC Olive View Medical Center from 1976-1991, when he retired to private practice. His work as a general, cardiovascular, and thoracic surgeon included returning to Europe to teach and perform the latest complex heart operations in 1956, as well as in China in 1973.

He and Elisabeth had four children, all born in Denver between 1952 and 1955. The family moved to Santa Barbara in 1960, where Wittenstein practiced medicine for 35 years. He loved camping and hiking with them in the backcountry. After Elisabeth’s death in 1966, he married Christel J. Bejenke, MD, an anesthesiologist who helped raise his four young children. He and Bejenke were instrumental in preparing Cottage Hospital to perform cardiac surgery and trained its first “pump-team” in extra-corporeal circulation. He served in various capacities at four Santa Barbara hospitals and UCSB Affiliates. Also a writer and a poet, he was pleased to serve on the boards of the Santa Barbara Museum of Art and Friends of the UCSB Library.

His wartime experiences were always painful to recall, and he was haunted by flashbacks and nightmares until the end of his life. For 40 or more years, he did not speak about his experiences. Only when some White Rose relatives were concerned the story was not being told in full, he felt he had to contribute what he knew and give equal voice and respect to all who had done so much and given their lives. He inspired countless students, in classroom visits to schools and colleges, through lectures about the White Rose.

In recognition of his involvement in the resistance, for contributions to German cardiac surgery, and for promoting scientific exchange between the United States and Germany, Wittenstein was awarded the Commander’s Cross of the Federal Republic of Germany and the Bavarian Service Medal, Bavaria’s highest honor.

He is survived by his wife, Christel J. Bejenke; his children Eva Munday, Nemone Wittenstein-Helmling, Andreas Wittenstein, and Catharina Wittenstein-Garrow; nine grandchildren; and five great-grandchildren. In lieu of flowers, a contribution to Planned Parenthood, Domestic Violence Solutions, Sarah House, or a homeless shelter would be appreciated.