The white rose: An enduring symbol of Evangelical support for the Jewish people

Dateline: Munich, 1942. The year marked the height of conflict during the Second World War in the European theatre. The German war machine had marched with little resistance through Poland, Denmark, Norway, France, Yugoslavia, Greece and now was in control of most all of continental Europe. Munich was the epicenter. It was the capital of the movement being the very city were the Nazi party had been established and had deep roots. This beautiful Bavarian city with its magnificent and world known city center was now the center of German propaganda. Located just a few minutes by rail from Dachua, by the year 1942 all the Jewish synagogues in the city had been completely destroyed and mass deportations of the Jewish populous was being carted off daily to Auschwitz and other extermination camps in Germany and Poland. 

Hans Scholl was a young medical student at the University of Munich.  He had been a proud member of the Hitler Youth movement in his earlier years. But now, becoming increasingly aware and outraged by the Nazi crimes upon the Jewish people and by being burdened by the almost total silence on the part of any resistance from the German people he immersed himself in the resistance movement. Joined by his younger sister, Sophie, a handful of other students and one professor, he began to print and distribute anti-Nazi leaflets across Munich and southern Germany condemning the Nazi regime, the accelerating mass murder of Jews, and the silence and moral blindness of the German public. Moved by their deeply Christian convictions they sought to sabotage Hitler’s war machine and come to the aid of the Jewish population in any way possible. They spoke openly and boldly about the Holocaust, not in the confines of safety in its aftermath, but in the very days when it was happening all around them. Hans, Sophie, and their colleagues were discovered, captured, tried by the Nazi People’s Court and executed publicly by guillotine in Munich on February 22, 1943.

The group’s symbol was a simple white rose. It signified safe houses for Jews and was emblematic of their efforts to speak the truth boldly in the face of the most brutal and sadistic danger the world had ever witnessed. Today the white rose is honored throughout Germany and Israel as a sign of heroic resistance to any and all forms of tyranny and the new rising tide of antisemitism manifesting itself across  much of the world. The White Rose Resistance now famously acknowledges the sacrifices of these young Evangelicals and the need to speak boldly even when it might be unpopular, dangerous and costly. Hans, Sophie and their friends remind us that resistance does not always come from the powerful and prominent but ordinary people, like you and me, who are moved and motivated by conscience and a deep resolve to speak the truth.

The story of this White Rose Resistance reached the heart of a beautiful Jewish lady in Atlanta, Georgia. Linda Selig founded a world wide organization now known as the White Rose Society which has become a beacon of hope to Jewish people everywhere. Annually, they honor “non Jewish individuals who stand with the Jewish people.” In so doing they keep alive the light of those in Munich over eighty years ago who instead of cursing the darkness lit a light in the midst of it. Among recent recipients of the White Rose Award are Dr. Stuart Bell, past president of the University of Alabama, whose heroic efforts protected the Jewish students on his campus and disallowed any of the antisemitic protests that were popping up on campuses across America from taking place there. Others like Nikki Haley, former Governor of South Carolina, and U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham have also been inducted into the White Rose Society.

Recently, it was my own high honor to receive the White Rose at a ceremony hosted by President Isaac Herzog and held in the President’s home in Jerusalem. The other recipient was my long time friend and now U.S. Ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee. Grand Rabbi Y.A. Korff, spiritual leader of the Jerusalem Great Synagogue, expressed his deep appreciation for the long time support of Evangelicals for the state of Israel and the Jewish people. He related to the assembled crowd a rabbinical axiom that instructs us in Hebrew “Chashdeihu v’ Chabdeihu.” In his own words, “Chashdeihu means to suspect or to not trust. Chabdeihu means to honor and respect. On the surface this appears to be a dichotomy, seemingly a conflict. After all, how can you be suspicious of someone and trust and respect them at the same time? But the two words are not in conflict for Chashdeihu, being suspicious, comes before we know someone and Chabdeihu, honoring with respect, comes after we know someone. Many years ago when the Christian, and particularly the Evangelical, community began to come to the fore in publicly expressing their support for the Jewish people and the State of Israel, there was a lot of Chashdeihu, suspicion. We were asking ourselves, 'Who are these people? What is their agenda? Can we trust them?'  As the years have passed we have come to know Evangelicals like Ambassador Huckabee and Dr. Hawkins. You have become close friends. We now know you. And, in our close friendship the Chashdeihu has become Chabdeihu, honor and respect, and deep gratitude for your faith and support.”

US Ambassador Mike Huckabee and O.S. Hawkins, recipients of the White Rose

President Herzog, in his comments, related the story of a visit his late grandfather, Yitzhak HaLevi Herzog, the first Chief Rabbi of Israel, had with President Harry Truman, himself an Evangelical and a Southern Baptist. During the Rabbi’s visit to the Oval Office in the late 1940’s President Truman confided in him that he had only cried three times in his life.  Once, when his mother died. Once, when his best life long friend died. And, the other time was when Chief Rabbi Herzog said to him, “Mr. President, God put you in your mother’s womb to save the Jewish people.” And those who know history know how in Israel’s most critical moment of declaring their statehood and fighting their War of Independence it was an unwavering President Harry Truman who stood firmly and faithfully by their side.

O.S. Hawkins, Israeli President Isaac Herzog and his wife, Michal Herzog, US Ambassador Mike Huckabee

In receiving the White Rose, Ambassador Huckabee expressed how we Evangelicals read a Jewish book, the Bible, and how we could not love it without loving the Jewish people.  He continued, “We worship a Jewish Messiah, and we could not love Yeshua without loving the Jewish people.”  

It was my privilege to remind the President and the distinguished crowd of Jerusalemites that the most repeated command in the Torah is “to remember.” King David said, “If I forget you, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning. If I do not remember you may my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth” (Psalm 137:5). The first thing Joshua did when he led the children of Israel into the promised land was to stop at Gilgal and build an altar to which they would return repeatedly to remember what great things the Lord had done for them. During two thousand years of the diaspora, exiled from Jerusalem, Jews met with family and friends all over the world to remember their exodus from Egypt and to share their Passover meals with the hope that it would be celebrated “Next year in Jeruslaem.” Jews keep a mezuzah on their door posts which they touch each time they enter or leave their homes to remember the promises of God to them. The very existence of the modern state of Israel is because the Jews can not afford to have amnesia. They have long memories.  And, we Evangelicals do as well. We remember the words of Genesis 12:3 and the promise from God to “bless those who bless Israel and curse those who curse her.” It is for this reason that we join Isaiah, the Jewish prophet of old, in proclaiming, “For Zion’s sake we can not be silent, for Jerusalem’s sake we will not be quiet” (Isaiah 62:1).

O.S. Hawkins and President Isaac Herzog

As we left the President’s home that evening and walked out into the chill of a Jerusalem night we were greeted by a bright and beautiful full moon suspended in space flanked by a dazzling array of millions of stars twinkling against the backdrop of a dark sky. Immediately the words of Jeremiah came to mind, “If the fixed order of the sun, the moon and the stars departs from me….then Israel will cease to be a nation” (Jeremiah 31:35-38). As long as the stars and the moon are in their place running in clock like precision and as long as the sun still rises in the morning Jerusalem is safe in the arms of HaShem.

The moon over the Kotel (Western Wall) tonight.Jer31:35-Thus says the Lord,who gives the sun for light by day and the fixed order of the moon and the stars for light by night..If this fixed order departs from before me then shall Israel cease from being a nation forever.” pic.twitter.com/VielPAFJAP

— O S Hawkins (@OSHawkins) December 4, 2025

I now proudly wear a white rose pin on my coat lapel as a constant reminder of the sacrifice of my younger Evangelical brothers and sisters who “for Zion’s sake would not be silent.” The White Rose remains the enduring symbol of the unwavering Evangelical support for the Jewish people. We Bible believing Evangelicals are not going away … not now…not ever. Am Yisrael Chai! The people of Israel live!