Roses of Remembrance for Selma
- joannaedmunds
- 7 hours ago
- 2 min read
The Ravensbrück Rose
Rosa ‘Résurrection’ Ò (Krylexis)
In June 2026, Ravensbrück roses have been planted in St Peter’s Square in memory of Selma van de Perre, Dutch resistance fighter and Ravensbrück survivor. Selma passed away on 20 October 2025 having lived in Black Lion Lane for over fifty years. Selma was one of the founder members of SPRA.
In June 1955 a “Garden of peace and friendship” was opened in the Czech village of Lidice which was brutally destroyed in an act of reprisal in 1942 on the orders of Hitler following an assassination attempt on Reinhard Heydrich.
Sir Barnett Stross, an English doctor and politician, had initiated an international campaign “Lidice shall live” to rebuild the village, and towards the later stages started an international appeal to send rose plants from 32 countries and create a memorial garden.
The "Garden of Friendship and Peace" was made up of more than 24,000 rose-bushes and 200 varieties and was an international effort to restore hope.
In April 1958, former Czech prisoners brought the first 150 roses from Lidice to Ravensbrück on the anniversary of the liberation and planted these on the mass grave. The following year a Memorial Museum was officially opened at the site.
In 1973 rose breeder Michel Kriloff, commissioned by the Amicale de Ravensbrück, and in particular Ravensbrück survivor Marcelle Dudach-Roset, created the hybrid Rosa ‘Résurrection’.
“To create a rose is to give time to time.”
Michel Kriloff, 1975
‘Résurrection’ was created so as not to forget the sacrifice women and men have made, risking their lives for a free world.”
Michel Kriloff, 1976
For the 30th anniversary of the liberation of Ravensbrück in 1975, roses were planted in Paris and other French memorial sites and since then the rose has been planted in the Czech Republic, Norway and Germany.
Je suis “Résurection”
Et tout au long des ans
Tout au long des saisons
Je resrerai le témoin de vie
Qui protègera de la barbarie
Tous les enfants du monde
Même lorsque je serai devenu églantine
Illuminant tous les chemins
Marcelle Dudach-Roset, 1975
I am “Résurrection”
And year after year
Season after season
I bear witness to life
Protecting children from barbarism
All the children of the world
Even as I became a wild rose
Illuminating every path
