Students Against Tyranny; The Resistance of the White Rose, Munich, 1942-1943.

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This incident occurred in 2016, a year marked by significant political events such as Brexit and the election of Donald Trump. Unfortunately, these events seemed to have had a significant impact on the treatment of free speech in universities. Many higher learning institutions suddenly shifted to becoming Marxist indoctrination camps where students were no longer encouraged to engage in debate but were forced into one way of thinking. Hans had assembled a collection of folk songs, and his young charges loved to listen to him singing, accompanying himself on his guitar. He knew not only the songs of Hitler Youth but also the folk songs of many peoples and many lands. How magically a Russian or Norwegian song sounded with its dark and dragging melancholy. What did it not tell us of the soul of those people and their homeland! Instead, what lies behind this thin veil of defending ‘free speech’ is the same ignorance, prejudice and divisive rhetoric as that of the groups SAT wish to distance themselves from. It will be a celebration, but also come prepared – if you’re worried about being outed, you should probably cover your face, and if you’re worried about heated interactions, you should probably stay away from the edges of the protest.” How did Hans define “loyalty”? How did other young Germans whose stories you read in this chapter define “loyalty”?

Something I also need to mention about this disciplinary in particular was that John was only in the meeting for a couple of minutes as he had to leave due to a phone call from work, of which he’d only been employed for that same week. Not wanting to let them down not long after his first ever shift he had to answer the call. The disciplinary panel refused to adjourn the meeting, which is a requirement all universities need to follow when it comes to disciplinary procedures. Varied, themed outreach based on or near the A580 East Lancashire Road (west of Manchester; east of the M6) into Salford and Manchester plus surrounding roads including the A6. The Free Speech Charter will be a tool for people in Greater Manchester to use. They’ll be able to say: ‘The Mayor of Manchester says I can say these things’.”

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I believe it can become an annual event, but currently we are just trying to get this first event underway and assess the success afterwards.”

There seems to be a cognitive dissonance between the claims of taking “responsibility” for one’s words and then denying culpability in contributing to a hostile atmosphere.James Harvey keenly wrote to me just after our interview, clarifying that SAT also does not accept any “pro-Hitler” beliefs. We think there will be some threats in that way, but we are working with the police… we’ll have dozens of people there to keep it a safe situation, we’ll have first aid and field support to offer any kind of support.

John remembers another accusation where he’d apparently said women are too stupid to do physics. A female student had asked John, “if women are not discriminated against then how come there’s less women in physics?” Before continuing, I would like to add my two cents here, equal opportunity doesn’t correlate to equality of outcome. People have free will, they decide what career they want to venture into… offering equal opportunity wont change that. Men and Women are biologically different, men tend to go into the higher paying jobs like maths, science, etc whereas women tend to go into the lesser paying jobs. John’s concerns were not well-received, and he faced another disciplinary action, once again, on false grounds. The university administration accused him of threatening to burn down the library, a claim that, as you can see, was entirely fabricated.After the phone call had concluded, John returned to the meeting but having missed most of it, didn’t know what had been said. Christian wasn’t really taking this disciplinary that seriously either, as compared to previous ones, the accusations in this one, though they were all fabricated/twisted, were completely miniscule. Harvey is also outspoken in advocating for the removal of the legal classification of a “hate-crime” or “hate-speech” from UK law because he believes it infringes on people’s freedom of expression. Christian responded to this question rationally stating, “well why are more women in nursing? Why are more men bin collectors? It’s just how society is. Different genders on average have different interests.” Unsurprisingly, this was again used against him at a disciplinary meeting to show that he was ‘discriminatory and prejudiced against women’, however, like they did previously, they had twisted what John said to fit their narrative and attempted to punish him. Once the protest wound down, I spoke to one of SAT’s guest speakers, Tom Shaw, a dentistry student at Newcastle University. He was to carry the flag of his troop to the party’s national rally at Nuremberg. He was overjoyed. But when he returned we hardly dared trust our eyes. He looked tired, and on his face lay a great disappointment. We did not expect an explanation, but gradually we learned that the youth movement which had been held up to him as an ideal image was in reality something totally different from what he had imagined the Hitler Youth to be. Their drill and uniformity had been extended into every sphere of personal life. But he had always believed that every boy should develop his own special talents. Thus through his imagination, his ingenuity, his unique personality, each member could have enriched the group. But in Nuremberg everything had been done according to the same mold. There had been talk, day and night, about loyalty. But what was the keystone of all loyalty if not to be true to oneself? My God! There was a mighty upheaval taking place in Hans.