Sophie Scholl

Tucked away in a corner of Berlin is the Museum der Deutsche Widerstand, or Museum of German Resistance. The museum is actually located on the site where the Valkyrie (Walküre) conspirators, including Col. Klaus von Stauffenberg, were executed. The museum is smaller than most in Berlin, and definitely not impressive in its architecture or in the layout of the display. What is impressive, though, is walking through room after room, looking at the walls lined with pictures, names, and stories of the people who said, “No.” One room is dedicated to a group that called itself “The White Rose.” Among its founding members was a young girl by the name of Sophie Scholl.

Sophie Scholl was born in 1921, and was the fourth of six children in the Scholl family. They lived in Bavaria, in southern Germany. The Scholls were practicing Lutherans, and their childhood days were happily spent. When Adolph Hitler came to power in 1933, Sophie was twelve years old. Her initial reaction was a positive one. She was proud of her homeland and eager for this man to make Germany great again. Sophie and her siblings enthusiastically enrolled in the Nazi youth programs, along with the majority of Germany’s youth. But instead of becoming convinced of the Nazi propaganda, the Scholls began to question what they were being taught. Sophie’s father and older brothers were critical of the Nazi regime, and soon she found reason to agree with them.

Sophie did not understand why two of her Jewish friends were not allowed to join the League of German Girls (the female branch of the Hitler Youth). She did not understand why she was reprimanded for reading the poetry of Heinrich Heine, one of the greatest German authors, but a Jew. Soon all of the Scholl children left the Nazi Youth organizations and a few joined other youth movements that were not associated with the Hitler Youth. These groups had been made illegal after the Nazi’s rise to power, so two of the older Scholl boys were arrested for their participation. A few years later, Mr. Scholl was imprisoned for having called Hitler “God’s scourge.”

Sophie was very interested in philosophy and theology. Her Christian faith had a great impact on her view of the Nazi party and its policies and actions. Though she considered herself a Lutheran, she was specifically influenced by the writings of Catholic authors. She read Cardinal John Henry Newman’s sermons as well as the anti-Nazi sermons by the Bishop of Münster. These helped to convince her of the evils of the Nazi ideology, and its opposition to Christian doctrine.

The Scholls had started hearing rumors that people were being sent to concentration camps, and mentally disabled people were being euthanized. They found flyers in their mailbox describing how convents and monasteries all over Germany were being closed, and Jesuit priests were being arrested and murdered. The Scholl family began to withdraw from this new Germany, and to continue privately to live their lives as they had, reading books and singing songs as they pleased, by themselves, or with like-minded friends.

Sophie and her older brother Hans left home to attend the University of Munich where Hans was a medical student and Sophie studied biology. They soon found friends who shared their opinions about the Nazi party, as well as their interests in music, art, literature, theology and philosophy. These new friends and the discussions they had together helped to cement them all in their anti-Nazi sentiments. Soon they took action. They called themselves “The White Rose” and began writing anti-Nazi leaflets to be printed and distributed throughout Germany. They all recognized how dangerous this was, and Hans tried to prevent Sophie from becoming involved. She insisted, seeing it as her duty to her country to do everything within her power to help others see the evils of the Nazi regime. Sophie helped by buying small amounts of paper from various stores, so as not to arouse suspicion, and distributing the completed leaflets. Sometimes she and the others in the group left them in mailboxes, or in other places throughout the city where they would be found. They even traveled to other parts of Germany to distribute the flyers.

On the morning of February 18th, 1943, Hans and Sophie left their apartment with a suitcase filled with copies of their latest and last pamphlet. They went together to the University, where morning lectures were in session. They quickly put the pamphlets in piles on the ground around the main hall and the upper levels. Just as students and professors emerged from the classrooms below, they threw the last few stacks from the balcony, down into the atrium. Just as they did, the janitor, who was a Nazi party member working for the Gestapo, saw them. He stopped them before they could leave the University, and they were quickly arrested.

Hans and Sophie were interrogated, but they impressed their captors with their calm demeanor and quiet determination. Hans, Sophie, and a third member of their group, Christoph, were tried for seditious activities by the People’s Court in Munich, after a few grueling days of interrogation. Those who witnessed the trial remarked on how impressed they were by the calm demeanor of the defendants. In contrast to the judge, Roland Freisler, who was notorious for his habits of “raging” and “screaming” at those on trial, they stood firm and composed, answering questions with courage, clarity, and truth. Sophie is reported to have said, "Somebody, after all, had to make a start. What we wrote and said is also believed by many others. They just do not dare express themselves as we did." In spite of that, though, they were found guilty of “Conspiracy to Commit High Treason” and sentenced to death.

Sophie continued to show incredible bravery as she was led to her execution by guillotine. Her last words were recorded to be:“How can we expect righteousness to prevail when there is hardly anyone willing to give himself up individually to a righteous cause. Such a fine, sunny day, and I have to go, but what does my death matter, if through us, thousands of people are awakened and stirred to action?”

Though the definitive end of the war was not directly brought about by the many groups of people who risked their lives by resisting the Nazi regime, their sacrifices have not been forgotten by the German people. Sophie’s life in particular is a lesson in selflessness and patriotism despite living under tyranny.

References:
http://www.holocaustresearchproject.org/revolt/scholl.html

http://www.biographyonline.net/women/sophie-scholl.html

Jens, Inge, ed. At the Heart of the White Rose: Letters and Diaries of Hans and Sophie Scholl.
Translated by J. Maxwell Brownjohn. New York: Harper & Row, 1987.

Scholl, Inge. The White Rose: Munich 1942-1943. Translated by Arthur R. Schultz. Hanover:
Wesleyan University Press, 1970.

Scholl, Inge. Die Weiße Rose. Denmark: Sangill Grafisk, 1953.

Bullock, Alan. Hitler: A Study in Tyranny. Abridged ed. New York: Harper Perennial, 1971.

Dumbach, Annette E. and Jud Newborn. Shattering the German Night: The Story of the White
Rose. Boston: Little, Brown and Co., 1986.

Guardini, Romano. Freiheit und Verantwortung: Die Weiße Rose- Zum Widerstand im „Dritten
Reich.“ Mainz: Matthias- Grünewald- Verlag, 1997.

Siefken, Hinrich, ed. Die Weiße Rose und ihre Flugblätter: Dokumente, Texte, Lebensbilder,
Erlauterungen. New York: Manchester University Press, 1994.

Vinke, Hermann. The Short Life of Sophie Scholl. Translated by Hedwig Pachter. New York:
Harper & Row, 1980.