Sophie Scholl and her brother,
Hans, have become heroic figures in the story of resistance in Nazi
Germany. Despite the tragic and sudden
end to their young lives, the siblings managed to leave behind a lasting legacy
of courageous resistance in the face of evil.
Their life story tells the tale of a young German girl and boy growing
up during a turbulent and confusing period of history, struggling to balance
life in Nazi Germany with their personal ideologies of morality.
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Sophie Scholl during her formative years
Image courtesy of www.madameguillotine.co.uk |
Born
during the interwar period, Sophie and Hans spent their formative years under
the guidance of their freethinking Lutheran parents, Robert Scholl, a mayor and
successful businessman, and Magdalene Müller, a nurse and lay minister. As Hitler and the Nazis began to accumulate
power and influence, the childhoods of Sophie and Hans began to follow a path
in line with other Aryan children of the time, one headed toward Nazi youth
organizations. Hans rose in the ranks of
the Hitler Youth, while Sophie participated in the Jungmädel, or Young Girls League, and eventually the Bund Deutscher Mädel, or League of
German Girls (Vargo). In the face of
rising National Socialism, however, Robert insisted that his children not
listen to Nazi ideology, but instead maintain their individual spirits and
critical minds. Initially, they
disregarded their father’s warnings, but Sophie and Hans quickly became
disillusioned by the bombardment of Nazi ideology that transcended all corners
of society (Scholl). They saw through
the Party’s façade, recognizing its underlying darker fanaticism and hatred.
By the mid-1930s, Sophie
and Hans began to take actions opposing the regime. Sophie was never enchanted by Nazi ideology,
participating in Party youth organizations for recreational and social reasons
rather than for ideological ones. In
fact, she rejected anti-Semitism entirely and continued friendships with Jewish
children at school, despite Nazi pressures to do otherwise. Hans’s discontent heightened, and he soon
resigned from the Hitler Youth, joining a forbidden organization called the Deutsche Jungenschaft, or German Boys
Federation, which provided relief from the oppressive regime of Nazism. In 1937, Hans’s opposition activities and an
alleged homosexual relationship attracted the attention of the Gestapo; the
entire Scholl family was questioned and placed under suspicion
indefinitely. This scare solidified Sophie
and Hans’s convictions of the Nazi Party’s villainy. While fulfilling her required year of work
for the National Labor Service by working on a farm, she solidified her
religious and moral beliefs (Vargo).
Before attending university, Sophie and Hans embodied opposition, performing
acts of dissent against the Third Reich (Henderson). However, once the pair became students at
Munich University, their acts of opposition evolved into full-fledged
resistance, as they organized actions intended to confront the regime
head-on.
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(Left to right): Hans Scholl, Sophie Scholl,
and Christoph Probst in Munich, 1943
Image courtesy of www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org |
By
1942, Sophie and Hans had met likeminded individuals at the University,
students and professors eager to speak out against Nazism. Among their acquaintances were Traute
LaFranz, Katharina Schüddekopf, Marie-Luise Jahn, Alex Schmorell, Christl
Probst, Willi Graf, and Kurt Huber, their philosophy professor at the
University. Members of the group –
eventually named the White Rose – shared similar socioeconomic statuses and
religious beliefs. Many came from
affluent families and had comfortable lives within German society, sheltered
from the chaotic social transformations that overwhelmed the public during
Hitler’s reign. Their resistance was an
act of choice, not one of survival. Similarly,
members held compatible religious beliefs; most followed the Catholic faith
intently, and while Sophie and Hans were Lutheran, they held Catholic teachings
in high regard (Vargo). The members’
shared religious beliefs permeated the White Rose’s central moral
messages.
The
White Rose printed and distributed its first leaflet in June 1942. Its first sentence read, “Nothing is so
unworthy of a civilized nation as to allow itself to be ‘governed’ without any
opposition by an irresponsible clique that has yielded to basic instincts. It is certainly the case today that every
honest German is ashamed of his government” (Dumbach). The messages were intended for the German
intelligentsia, who the White Rose believed held the political potential to
oppose the Nazi Party. Each leaflet
called for people to make copies and further disseminate their messages. Quoting renowned philosophers like Schiller,
Goethe, and Aristotle, and citing biblical themes, the White Rose’s leaflets initially
underscored the wrongs of fascism in Germany.
As the group’s efforts strengthened and its members grew more frustrated
with Nazism, the final leaflets began to make direct calls to resistance
(Michalczyk). Within weeks of the first
leaflet, three more were distributed under the name “Leaflets of the White
Rose.” By February 1943, the White Rose
had written two more leaflets titled, “Leaflets of the Resistance Movement in
Germany,” which encouraged Germans to liberate themselves from oppression by
asserting their inalienable democratic rights of free speech. By the time the movement neared its fatal
end, it had distributed leaflets of resistance to thousands of influential
community members – including writers, professors, doctors, and businessmen –
in cities across Germany and Austria (Henderson). Yet, due to their risky resistance campaigns
– including a scheme to graffiti public walls with the phrase “Down with
Hitler!” – Sophie and Hans soon jeopardized their own safety, growing more
reckless as the War progressed.
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The White Rose's first leaflet
Image courtesy of www.holocaustresearchproject.org |
As the two Scholls
distributed copies of the sixth leaflet around Munich University campus on
February 18, 1943, they were caught in the act by a school custodian and soon
after arrested by the Gestapo. Four days
later they were put on trial at Munich’s Palace of Justice. The trial – a formality given the fact the
siblings faced certain execution – was no small matter; Heinrich Himmler, leader
of the SS and the Gestapo, oversaw the procedure, intent on warning students
against any forms of resistance. Sophie,
Hans, and their friend Christoph Probst were indicted for treason and sentenced
to death. During the proceedings, Sophie
interrupted Roland Feisler, the notoriously cruel Nazi judge overseeing the
trial, shouting, “Somebody had to make a start…What we said and wrote are what
many people are thinking. They just don’t
dare say it out loud!” Later that afternoon,
the three friends were killed by guillotine.
Hans’s last words: “Long live freedom!” (Dumbach).
