Last night approximately 60 people gathered in the Dudley House common room to learn more about the White Rose Foundation, a group that commemorates an anti-Nazi movement from the 1940s.

During World War II, five students and their professor began distributing leaflets in protest of Hitler. After they were killed by the Gestapo in February 1943, the White Rose Foundation was created to honor their memory.

The discussion last night included a skit entitled "White Rose: Treason With Honor" by a group of eighth-graders at Kennedy Junior High School in Somerville who took first place in a national history contest.

The skit was followed by a talk by Franz Josef Muller, chair of the White Rose Foundation.

Freya von Moltke, widow of Helmuth von Moltke, who was leader of the Kreasau Circle--another anti-Hitler group stopped by the Gestapo--also spoke last night.

Muller, who was dismissed without honor from the German army in the 1940s and was a member of the White Rose movement, said the goal of the protest was to take action against the Nazis and national socialism.

"[We wanted] to inform our countrymen" of what Hitler was doing, he said.

According to Moltke, the protesters used leaflets which eventually made their way throughout Europe to convey their message.

"We had a mission of the new Europe," Muller said.

Muller read a letter by Sophie Scholl, one of the five executed students, who said "Sometimes death is not a price too high" for issues such as freedom and Christianity.

Moltke said "My friends [in the Kreisau Circle] made plans for a future democratic Germany."

She added that the movement often seemed to have been for nothing.

"So many people had to die [at the hands of the Nazis], at least some died against Nazis], at least some died against Nazi[sm]," Moltke said.

Clive Gray, a fellow at the Harvard Institute for International Development and one of the organizers of the event, said he hoped the exhibit and discussion would "inspire other students to fight tyranny."

Muller said before the speech that he was "astonished" by the world-wide interest in the White Rose movement.

Dudley House is also sponsoring an exhibit of photographs, leaflets and other documents compiled by he White Rose Foundation that is being displayed until April 27