Sophie Scholl

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Hans Scholl, Sophie Magdalena Scholl, and Christoph Probst, who were executed for participating in the White Rose resistance movement against the Nazi regime in Germany.

Sophia Magdalena Scholl (9 May 1921 – 22 February 1943) helped to write and publish leaflets under the group name of the White Rose non-violent resistance movement in Nazi Germany. As a young college student, Scholl often questioned the role of a dictator such as Adolf Hitler, and the way the public was expected to behave. After being arrested for distributing the sixth leaflet, Sophie Scholl, along with her brother Hans Scholl and Christoph Probst were convicted of treason and only a few hours later, all three were executed by guillotine.

Since the 1970's she has been celebrated[1] as one of those Germans who actively opposed the Third Reich during the Second World War.

Early life

Sophie's father was the mayor of Forchtenberg am Kocher when she was born; she was the fourth of five children. She entered grade school at the age of seven, learned easily and had a carefree childhood. In 1930, the family moved to Ludwigsburg and then two years later to Ulm where her father had a business consulting office.

In 1932, Sophie started attending a secondary school for girls. At the age of twelve, she was required to join the Bund Deutscher Mädel (League of German Girls), like most of her classmates; however, her initial enthusiasm gradually gave way to criticism. She was aware of the dissenting political views of her father, of friends, and also of some teachers. Political attitude had become an essential criterion in her choice of friends. The arrest of her brothers and friends in 1937 for illegally participating in the German Youth Movement left a strong impression on her.

She had a talent for drawing and painting and for the first time came into contact with a few so-called 'degenerate' artists. An avid reader, she developed a growing interest in philosophy and theology. This was her alternative world to fascist National Socialism.

In the spring of 1940, she graduated from secondary school. The subject of her essay was 'The Hand that Moved the Cradle, Moved the World.' Being fond of children, she became a kindergarten teacher at the Fröbel Institute in Ulm-Söflingen. She had also chosen this kindergarten job hoping that it would be recognized as an alternate service to Reichsarbeitsdienst (National Labor Service), a prerequisite to be admitted to the University. This was not the case though and in the spring of 1941, she began a six month stint in the auxiliary war service as a nursery teacher in Blumberg. The military-like regimen of the Labor Service caused her to think very hard about the political situation as well as begin to practice passive resistance.

After her six months in the National Labor Service, in May 1942, she enrolled at the University of Munich as a student of biology and philosophy. Her brother Hans, who was studying medicine there, introduced her to his friends. Although this group of friends was eventually known for their political views, they were initially drawn together by a shared love of art, music, literature, philosophy and theology. Hiking in the mountains, skiing and swimming were also of importance. They often attended concerts, plays and lectures together.

In Munich, Sophie met a number of artists, writers and philosophers, particularly Carl Muth and Theodor Haecker, who were important contacts for her. The question that they pondered the most was how the individual must act under a dictatorship.

During the summer vacation in 1942, Sophie Scholl had to do war service in a metallurgical plant in Ulm. At the same time, her father was serving time in prison for a critical remark about Hitler to an employee.

The White Rose

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Grave of Hans Scholl, Sophie Scholl, and Christoph Probst, in the Ostfriedhof, next to the Stadelheim prison in Munich.

In the early summer of 1942, Sophie participated in the production and distribution of the anti-Nazi Third Reich political resistance leaflets of the White Rose. She was arrested on February 18, 1943, while distributing the sixth leaflet at the University of Munich. In the People's Court before the notorious Judge Roland Freisler on February 21, 1943, Sophie was recorded as saying "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."

On February 22, 1943, Sophie, her brother Hans and their friend Christoph Probst were found guilty of treason and condemned to death. They were all most barbarically beheaded by executioner Johann Reichhart in Munich's Stadelheim Prison only a few hours later at 17:00. The execution was supervised by Dr. Walter Roemer who was the enforcement chief of the Munich district court. Prison officials emphasized the courage with which she walked to her execution.

Her last words were "Die Sonne scheint noch," meaning "The Sun still shines." This was a metaphor for God and her commitment to hope for the future. The film of her last days, Sophie Scholl – Die letzten Tage (Sophie Scholl: The Final Days), used the sun to point to her profound Christian belief.

Following her death a copy of the sixth leaflet was smuggled out of Germany through Scandinavia to England, where it was exploited by the Allied Forces who in mid-1943 dropped millions of propaganda copies over Germany of the tract, now retitled The Manifesto of the Students of Munich.

The White Rose's legacy has, for many commentators, an intangible quality. Playwright Lillian Garrett-Groag stated in Newsday on February 22nd, 1993 that "It is possibly the most spectacular moment of resistance that I can think of in the 20th Century... The fact that five little kids, in the mouth of the wolf, where it really counted, had the tremendous courage to do what they did, is spectacular to me. I know that the world is better for them having been there, but I don't know why."

In the same issue of Newsday, Holocaust historian Jud Newborn noted that "You can't really measure the effect of this kind of resistance in whether or not X number of bridges were blown up or a regime fell... The White Rose really has a more symbolic value, but that's a very important value."

Legacy

Honours

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Bust of Sophie Scholl, on open display in her birth house in Forchtenberg

On February 22 2003, a bust of Scholl was placed by the government of Bavaria in the Walhalla temple in her honour.

The Geschwister-Scholl-Institut at the Ludwig Maximilians University of Munich is named in honour of Sophie and her brother Hans. The institute is home to the university's political science department and is housed in the former Radio Free Europe building close to the city's Englischer Garten.

Over the last three decades many local schools in Germany have been named after Sophie Scholl and her brother.

In 2005, a ZDF Television audience survey voted Hans and Sophie the fourth greatest Germans of all time. Young viewers placed them first.

The preface to the Dumbach and Newborn book Sophie Scholl and the White Rose (2005) states that Brigitte Magazine's audience voted Scholl "The most important woman of the twentieth century" during a poll. The book states that the magazine's circulation at the time was 4,000,000 readers.

Film portrayals

In February 2005, a movie about Sophie Scholl's last days, Sophie Scholl – Die letzten Tage (Sophie Scholl: The Final Days), featuring actress Julia Jentsch as Sophie, was released.

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Actress Julia Jentsch as Sophie Scholl on trial in Sophie Scholl: The Final Days

Drawing on interviews with survivors and transcripts that had remained hidden in East German archives until 1990, it was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in January 2006. In an interview, Jentsch said that the role was "an honour" [2]. For her portrayal of Scholl, she won the best actress at the European Film Awards, best actress at the German Film Awards (Lolas), along with the Silver Bear for best actress at the Berlin Film Festival.

There were two earlier film accounts of the White Rose resistance. In 1982, Percy Adlon's Fünf letzte Tage ((The) Last Five Days) presented Lena Stolze as Sophie in her last days from the point of view of her cellmate Else Gebel. In the same year, Stolze repeated the role in Michael Verhoeven's Die Weiße Rose (The White Rose).

Psychology

One famous child psychologist, Alice Miller has stated in her book "Thou Shalt Not be Aware" (page 21 Farrar, Straus and Giroux, New York, 1984) that "the tolerant and open atmosphere of their (Sophie and Hans Scholl's) childhood had enabled them to see through Hitler's platitudes at the Nuremberg Rally, when the brother and sister were members of Nazi youth organizations. Nearly all their peers were completely won over by the Führer, whereas Hans and Sophie had other, higher expectations of human nature, not shared by their comrades, against which they could measure Hitler. Because such standards are rare, it is also very difficult for patients in therapy to see through the manipulative methods they are subjected to; the patient doesn't even notice such methods because they are inherent in a system he takes completely for granted."

See also

• White Rose
• Hans Scholl
• Christoph Probst
• German Resistance
• Johann Reichhart
• Die Weiße Rose (film)|Die Weiße Rose (1982 film)
• Sophie Scholl - The Final Days (2005 film)

External links

• "Biography", The White Rose, Retrieved May 31, 2007.
• "The White Rose", The Shoah Education Project, Retrieved May 31, 2007.
• "Film Website (in English)", Sophie Scholl- The Final Days, Retrieved May 31, 2007.
• '"Film Website (in German)", Sophie Scholl - Die letzten Tage, Retrieved May 31, 2007.
• Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times, 2006: "Movie Review of Sophie Scholl: The Final Days", rogerebert.com, Retrieved May 31, 2007.
• "The Geschwister-Scholl-Institut", LMU, Retrieved May 31, 2007.

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