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 publish and distribute 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 Scholl has been an inspiration and celebrated by many[1] as one of those Germans who actively opposed (and encouraged others to do the same) the Third Reich during the Second World War. In the country of Germany, everyone knows and reveres the name of Sophie Scholl, a woman considered an honored martyr.

Early life

Sophie Scholl was the fourth out of five children born to Robert and Magdalena Scholl. Robert Scholl was the mayor of Forchtenberg am Kocher at the time of Sophie's birth. As a young child, Sophie caught colds and flu easier than the rest of the children, earning a special soft spot with her mother who cared for her. She was blessed with a happy and carefree childhood. Her parents, especially her father, encouraged his children to think for themselves, to form opinions, and to be educated. At age seven, Sophie started her formal education when she entered grade school. She proved to be an apt and able student, often learning the lessons quickly and applying herself to her studies. During the year of 1930, the Scholl family made the first of two moves that Sophie would have during childhood. They moved first to Ludwigsburg and then two years later to the city of Ulm. In Ulm, Robert Scholl set up his business consulting office.

Sophie developed her talent in art, she loved to draw and paint and as she pursued these passions, she met a few of the so-called 'degenerate' artists. As Sophie excelled in school, she became an avid reader, and fostered her growing interest in philosophy and theology.

In 1933, Sophie was just twelve years old. It was at this young age that Sophie was required to join the Hitler Youth group Bund Deutscher Mädel (League of German Girls). At first, joining the group was fun for Sophie and the other girls her age. But, through her experiences, Sophie became aware of the vast differences held by the Hitler youth, and with the way that she was raised. She eventually became very critical of the group and others like it. Her father was opposed to the fascist government that Adolf Hitler stood for, and Sophie's belief echoed his. Simultaneously, Sophie's brother, Hans, was also a member of the Hitler youth, but Hans and his friends were put into prison in 1937 for subversive activities with the German Youth Movement. This injustice, this inability to have an opinion and make it known, left a strong impression on Sophie. She often turned to reading and painting to create an alternative world to the fascist National Socialism that was growing ever-present in Germany.

In the spring of 1940, she graduated from secondary school and searched after employment. As her studies and essays in school reflected, Sophie was fond of children. One of her most impressive essays was titled, 'The Hand that Moved the Cradle, Moved the World.' Sophie's biggest dream was to continue on at the university level, but there were several prerequisites required at the time. One of these being service in the Reichsarbeitsdienst (National Labor Service). Sophie had no desire to serve in another Hitler sponsored group, thus she took a job as a kindergarten teacher at the Fröbel Institute in Ulm-Söflingen. Her hope was that her employment at the kindergarten could be used as an alternate to the required service, however, this was not the case. In the spring of 1941, Sophie began a six month term of service in the auxiliary war service as a nursery teacher in Blumberg. During this time, her brother, Hans, was drafted by the Labor Service, he was sent to the front lines against Russia and became convinced that Germany had already lost the war. He began his resistance. Sophie's job, although with children, was very much a military-like regimen. The six months were hard for her, but more mental hardships than physical. She realized that she too, needed to practice passive resistance against the Nazi Reich.

In May 1942, Sophie completed her six months of service for the National Labor Service and was able to enroll at the University of Munich as a student of biology and philosophy. Hans had also returned from service and was studying medicine at the University. It was here that Sophie met her brother's friends, and the members of the soon to be White Rose movement. Before the politics came into play, the young group of people enjoyed hiking, skiing, and swimming, as well as sharing their thoughts and ideas about art, music, literature, and philosophy. They were like any other group of college-age students at the time, attending parties and plays, as well as lectures and classes. As Sophie met others who shared her passions in art, writing, and philosophy, she was able to meet Carl Muth and Theodor Haecker, who were important friends for her. The trio questioned everything from the existence of God, to the pressing question that Sophie had thought about for years: how the individual must act under a dictatorship.

As a final incident that spurred Sophie and Hans into action, Robert Scholl, their father, was imprisoned for making a critical comment about Adolf Hitler to one of his employees. The employee reported that Robert Scholl had said: "this Hitler is God's scourge on mankind, and if this war doesn't end soon the Russians will be sitting in Berlin." Sophie was able to visit her father in Ulm, as she was required to do war service in a metallurgical plant in Ulm. The year was 1942.

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 1943, the White Rose took formal formation. The group adopted the passive resistance strategy being used by students across the United States. The resistance consisted of publishing and distributing leaflets that called for a restoration of democracy and justice. In their own words, the group explained why that had formed the White Rose group: "We want to try and show that everyone is in a position to contribute to the overthrow of the system. It can be done only by the cooperation of many convinced, energetic people - people who are agreed as to the means they must use. We have no great number of choices as to the means. The meaning and goal of passive resistance is to topple National Socialism, and in this struggle we must not recoil from our course, any action, whatever its nature. A victory of fascist Germany in this war would have immeasurable, frightful consequences."

The leaflets were mailed to people in Germany by picking names and addresses from telephone directories. After that, they left piles of the leaflets in public places, including the University. The leaflets echoed the belief that the young people of Germany had the potential to restore democracy and rid Germany of Adolf Hitler's tyrannical rule. They wrote: "The name of Germany is dishonored for all time if German youth does not finally rise, take revenge, smash its tormentors. Students! The German people look to us."

On 18th February, 1942, Sophie and Hans went to the University of Munich to distribute the sixth leaflet published by the White Rose. A member of the Nazi Party, Jakob Schmidt, said that he saw the two throwing leaflets off the third floor of a building, into the courtyard below. Schmidt called out for the Gestapo on campus immediately and the two were arrested. He immediately told the Gestapo and they were both arrested. They were searched and the police found a handwritten draft of another leaflet in Hans' pocket. The writing on this letter matched the writing of a letter the Gestapo found in Sophie's apartment that had been written by Christoph Probst. Christoph was then arrested.

Trial and Execution

Just a few days later, after intense interrogation, Sophie, Hans, and Christoph were brought before the People's Court on February 21, 1943. The notorious Judge Roland Freisler presided over the hearing. When questioned as to why the three had published the leaflets, 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." The outcome of the trial declared that all three were guilty of treason and condemned to death.

Lawfully, there was a ninety day waiting period before the death sentence could be carried out, enough time to appeal the decision, but for some reason, the rules were not followed. On February 22, 1943, at 17:00, Sophie, her brother Hans and their friend Christoph Probst were barbarically beheaded by executioner Johann Reichhart in Munich's Stadelheim Prison. The executions were supervised by the enforcement chief, Dr. Walter Roemer. Many prison officials later remarked on Sophie's last hours, they emphasized the courage with which she handled herself, even to the walking of her execution.

Sophie had a chance for freedom. The gestapo agent who interrogated her gave her the opportunity to blame all the actions on her brother, so that only he and Christoph would die. Instead, Sophie took all of the blame, claiming that it was she and Hans alone who instigated the leaflets and that Christoph should go free. Christoph Probst was married and had three tiny children at home. Sophie's last words were "Die Sonne scheint noch," meaning "The Sun still shines." She said this, knowing that her brother would understand her metaphor. She was committed to God and had hope for the future of Germany. 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. In a written account by her cell mate, Sophie prayed often to God during her three days in prison. She had faith in her religion, faith in what she had done, and faith that God would be with her.

Following the death of Sophie, Hans, and Christoph, a copy of the sixth leaflet was smuggled out of Germany through Scandinavia and then on to England. In England, the leaflet became a target for exploitation by the Allied Forces. In mid-1943, several million copies of the propaganda copies were dropped over Germany. Only the leaflet title had been changed, it now read, The Manifesto of the Students of Munich.

Legacy

In Germany, The White Rose has left a legacy, and Sophie Scholl is a national icon. Many people today still think of Scholl, refer to her, and revere her. 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 stated 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."

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 was named to honor both Sophie and Hans Scholl. The institute is home to the university's political science department.

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

The director of the film, Marc Rothemund, began searching for the story of the last days of Sophie's life. He found survivors to interview, and most importantly, was able to find the transcripts of the interrogations that took place. He said, "The easiest of the whole thing was to get these documents, because all Gestapo headquarters destroyed all documents at the end of the war. But these documents were sent to the People's Court in Berlin, and when the Russians came they sent them to Moscow, then to East Germany, where they were checked and hidden. After the reunification they became part of the German archive, and there they were lying for 13 years. No one was ever interested in them; I was really the first. I was calling asking 'Can I see the documents?' 'Yes one Euro.' And it was not only the documents of Sophie Scholl it was also Hans Scholl and all the members. There were documents about the trial, you saw the handwriting… and then I found a 14-page letter of the cell mate. In the three days she spent most of the time in the interrogation room, but the lady she shared a cell with wrote a 14-page letter to the parents to let them know exactly how their daughter spent the three days there. So the timing and motivation of the emotional breakdown of Sophie Scholl in the film are from this letter." [[2]]

The film 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" [3]. 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 are also 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 cell mate 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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