SOPHIE SCHOLL
G'day folks,
I am always pleased to feature people with great strength and courage. Today is one of those days.
Sophia
Scholl was a German student, who was active in the White Rose - a non-violent
resistance group to Hitler and the Nazi party. In 1943, she was caught
delivering anti-war propaganda and, with her brother Hans Scholl, was executed
for high treason.
Despite the hostility, and appearing in court with a broken leg after her interrogation. Sophie replied to the court:
In a poll
to find the greatest German, Sophie and her brother were voted to be fourth.
Amongst the young generation, under 40, they were the most popular. On February
22, 2003, a bust of Sophie Scholl was unveiled by the government of Bavaria in
the Walhalla temple. In 2005, a movie about Sophie Scholl's last days were made
featuring Julia Jentsch (Sophie Scholl: The Final Days)
She has
become an important symbol of anti-Nazi resistance in Germany.
Sophie
Scholl was born in Forchtenberg on 9 May 1921. She was the fourth out of six
children.
Her father Robert was the Burgermeister (Mayor) of Forchtennerg am
Kocker.
She was
brought up as a Lutheran Christian and her childhood was relatively happy and
carefree. However, in 1933, Hitler came to power and began controlling all
aspects of German society. Initially Sophie was unaffected, but her father and
brothers were critical of the Nazi regime and this political criticism filtered
through to leave a strong impression on the young Sophie.
At the
age of twelve, she joined a pseudo Nazi organisation, the League of German
Girls. Initially Sophie enjoyed the activities of the group, and she was
promoted to Squad Leader. However, after her initial enthusiasm over the
activities of the group, Sophie became uneasy about the conflict between her
conscience and the creeping Nazi ideology of the organisation.
In 1935,
Nuremberg laws were passed which increased the discrimination against Jews,
banning them from many public places. Sophie complained when two of her young
Jewish friends were barred from joining the League of German Girls. She was
also reprimanded for reading from the 'Book of Songs' by the banned Jewish
writer Heinrich Heine. Scholl indicated her rebelliousness by replying, that
Heine was essential for understanding German literature.
But, these incidents
and the bans against Jews led to Sophie taking a much more critical attitude to
the Nazi regime. She began choosing friends more carefully - people who were
politically sympathetic to her viewpoint.
In 1937,
her brothers and some of her friends, were arrested for participating in the
German Youth Movement. This incident left a strong impression on Sophie, and
helped to crystallise her opposition to the Nazi regime. In 1942, her father
was later sent to prison for making a critical remark about Hitler. He referred
to Hitler as "God's Scourge."
Sophie
was an avid reader and developed an interest in philosophy and theology. She
developed a strong Christian faith which emphasised the basic dignity of every
human being. This religious faith proved an important cornerstone of her
opposition to the increasingly all-pervading Nazi ideology of German society.
Sophie also developed a talent for art - drawing and painting, and she became
acquainted with artistic circles which, in Nazi terms, were labelled
degenerate.
In 1940,
after the start of the Second World War, she graduated from her Secondary
School and became a kindergarten teacher at the Frobel Institute. However, in
1941, she was conscripted into the auxiliary war service working as a nursery
teacher in Blumberg. Sophie disliked the military regime of war service and
started to become involved in passive resistance to the war effort.
After six
months in the National Labour Service, in May 1942, she enrolled in the
University of Munich as a student of biology and philosophy. With her brother
Hans, she became associated with a group of friends who shared similar artistic
and cultural interests, but also developed a shared political views, which
increasingly opposed the Nazi regime they lived in. She came into contact with
philosophers such as Theodor Haecker, who posed questions of how individuals
should behave under a dictatorship.
The White Rose Movement
The White
Rose was an informal group who sought to oppose the war and Nazi regime. It was
founded in early 1942 by Hans Scholl, Willia Graf and Christoph Probst. They
wrote six anti-Nazi resistance leaflets and distributed them across Munich.
Initially Sophie was not aware of the group, but when she found out her
brother's activities, she was keen to take part. Sophie took part in
distributing leaflets and carrying messages. As a women, she was less likely to
be stopped by the SS.
The
leaflets of the White Rose contained messages, such as,
”Nothing
is so unworthy of a nation as allowing itself to be governed without opposition
by a clique that has yielded to base instinct…Western civilization must defend
itself against fascism and offer passive resistance, before the nation’s last
young man has given his blood on some battlefield.”
However,
there was a strong police state which kept a high degree of surveillance on any
resistance activity. After leaflets were found in the University of Munich, the
local Gestapo stepped up its efforts to catch the resistors. Hans, Willi and
Alex also began painting anti-Nazi slogans on buildings in Munich.
On
February 18, 1943, Sophie and other members of the White Rose were arrested for
distributing anti-war leaflets. They were seen by Jakob Schmidt, a local Nazi
party member. Sophie and Hans were interrogated by Nazi officials and despite
trying to protect each other, just four days later were sent to court. The
trial was presided over by Roland Freisler, chief justice of the People's Court
of the Greater German Reich. Freisler was an ardent Nazi and with great vigour
and a manic intensity, frequently roared denunciations at the accused.
Despite the hostility, and appearing in court with a broken leg after her interrogation. Sophie replied to the court:
"Somebody,
after all, had to make a start. What we wrote and said is also believed by many
others. They just don't dare express themselves as we did."
She also
said:
“You know
the war is lost. Why don't you have the courage to face it?”
No
defence witnesses were called and, after a very short trial, the judge passed a
guilty verdict, with a sentence of death. The sentence was to be carried out
early the next morning by guillotine.
Walter
Roemer, the chief of the Munich district court, supervised the execution, he
later described Sophie's courage in facing her execution. He reports that
Sophie's last words were:
"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?"
The
guards were impressed with the courage of the resistors, and relaxed the rules
to allow Hans, Christoph and Sophie to meet before their execution.
After the
execution of Sophie, Hans and Christoph, the Gestapo continued their relentless
investigation. Other members of the White Rose were caught and executed. Many
students from the University of Hamburg were either executed or sent to
concentration camps.
Legacy of Sophie Scholl
Motivations of Sophie Scholl
There
were several factors that inspired Sophie Scholl to take part in this highly
dangerous resistance. Firstly, her family shared a dislike of the Nazi regime.
Both her brothers and father had been arrested for making critical comments.
Her father, said to the family,
”What I
want for you is to live in uprightness and freedom of spirit, no matter how
difficult that proves to be.”
She lived
in a family environment which encouraged opposition to Hitler.
Sophie
had a strong Christian faith and was motivated after hearing speeches by
anti-Nazi pastors. She read two volumes of Cardinal John Henry Newman's sermons
which made a strong impression on Sophie, especially the 'theology of
conscience' During her interrogation she referred to this ideology as a
defence.
"I
am, now as before, of the opinion that I did the best that I could do for my
nation. I therefore do not regret my conduct and will bear the consequences
that result from my conduct."
Her
boyfriend Fritz Hartnagel was on the Eastern Front, he reported to Sophie the
awful conditions of war, the failure at Stalingrad and also he his dreadful
experience of witnessing war crimes undertaken by German and SS forces.
Reports
of mass killings of Jews were also widely shared amongst members of the White
Rose. This features in the second White Rose pamphlet.
”Since
the conquest of Poland 300,000 Jews have been murdered, a crime against human
dignity…Germans encourage fascist criminals if no chord within them cries out
at the sight of such deeds. An end in terror is preferable to terror without
end.”
Sophie
Scholl and other members of the White Rose remain a potent symbol of how people
can take a courageous action to resist, even the most brutal totalitarian
regime.
Clancy's comment: Mm ... Some people stand out from the crowd, eh?
I'm ...
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