ABOUT

In 2009 I was a senior in college, majoring in History and Russian Literature at Stanford University. I was writing my honors thesis on the novel Doctor Zhivago by Boris Pasternak, and spent many afternoons pouring through folders in the Hoover Archives, where the Pasternak family papers happen to reside.

One day, I discovered a document that would change my life.

It was a manuscript of an essay written by Boris Pasternak’s younger sister Josephine in 1953 commemorating the White Rose, a spirited but short-lived resistance movement in Nazi Germany that ended with the execution of five university students and their professor in 1943. 

Along with the manuscript, I found several rejection letters from various journals and publications. That’s when I realized I had found this document for a reason - if no one else would give Josephine a platform, I would. Only, me being me, it would have to be a musical.

Becoming the person who could bring this project to life has required a dramatic overhaul of my life. I’ve taken hundreds of lessons and sought out countless mentors. I’ve grappled daily with my internal voices that said it was too late for me to become a “real artist.”

But for reasons I couldn’t understand, this project kept knocking at my door.

Josephine - and through her, the members of the White Rose - have given me the greatest gift. They emboldened me to pursue my childhood dream of becoming an artist.

Had they lived longer, our world would have been enriched by the contributions they didn’t have a chance to make. But the resonance of their brief time still rings, and I am fortunate to have heard the call. They have given so much to me…this is my gift to them.

- Jennifer Rosenfeld