Sophie Scholl
(In 1942)
Sophia Magdalena Scholl (9 May
1921 – 22 February 1943) was a German student and anti-Nazi political activist,
active within the White Rose non-violent resistance group in Nazi Germany. She
was convicted of high treason after having been found distributing anti-war
leaflets at the University of Munich (LMU) with her brother, Hans. For her
actions, she was executed by guillotine. Since the 1970s, Scholl has been
extensively commemorated for her anti-Nazi resistance work.
Early life Scholl was the
daughter of Magdalena (née Müller) and Robert Scholl, a liberal politician, and
ardent Nazi critic, who was the mayor of her hometown of Forchtenberg am Kocher
in the Free People's State of Württemberg at the time of her birth. She was the
fourth of six children: Inge Aicher-Scholl (1917–1998); Hans
Scholl (1918–1943); Elisabeth Hartnagel-Scholl (27 February 1920 – 28
February 2020), married Sophie's long-term boyfriend, Fritz Hartnagel; Sophie
Scholl (1921–1943); Werner Scholl (1922–1944) missing in action and
presumed dead in June 1944 and Thilde Scholl (1925–1926) Scholl
was brought up in the Lutheran church. She entered junior or 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, Scholl began attending a
secondary school for girls. At the age of 12, she chose to join the Bund
Deutscher Mädel (League of German Girls), as did most of her classmates. Her
initial enthusiasm gradually gave way to criticism. She was aware of the
dissenting political views of her father, friends, and some teachers. Her own
brother Hans, who once eagerly participated in the Hitler Youth program, became
entirely disillusioned with the Nazi Party. Political attitude had become an
essential criterion in her choice of friends. The arrest of her brothers and
friends in 1937 for 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.
In spring 1940, she graduated
from secondary school, where the subject of her essay was "The Hand that
Moved the Cradle, Moved the World, a poem by William Ross Wallace." Scholl
almost did not graduate, having lost all desire to participate in the classes
which had largely become Nazi indoctrination. Being fond of children, she
became a kindergarten teacher at the Fröbel Institute in Ulm. She had also
chosen this job hoping that it would be recognized as an alternative service in
the Reichsarbeitsdienst (National Labor Service), a prerequisite for admission
to university. This was not the case and in spring 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 rethink her
understanding of the political situation and to begin practising 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 at the same institution, introduced
her to his friends. Although this group of friends eventually was known for
their political views, they initially were drawn together by a shared love of
art, music, literature, philosophy, and theology. Hiking in the mountains,
skiing, and swimming were also of importance to them. They often attended
concerts, plays, and lectures together. In Munich, Scholl met a number of
artists, writers, and philosophers, particularly Carl Muth and Theodor Haecker,
who were important contacts for her. The question they pondered the most was
how the individual must act under a dictatorship. During the summer vacation in
1942, Scholl had to do war service in a metallurgical plant in Ulm. At the same
time, her father was serving time in prison for having made a critical remark
to an employee about Adolf Hitler.
Importance of Religion in
Sophie Scholl's life Based upon letters between Scholl and her boyfriend,
Fritz Hartnagel (reported and analyzed by Gunter Biemer and Jakob Knab in the
journal Newman Studien), she had given two volumes of Cardinal Newman's sermons
to Hartnagel when he was deployed to the eastern front in May 1942. This
discovery by Jakob Knab shows the importance of religion in Scholl's life and
was highlighted in an article in the Catholic Herald in the UK. Her
correspondence with Hartnagel deeply discussed the "theology of
conscience" developed in Newman's writings. This is seen as her primary
defense in her transcribed interrogations leading to her "trial" and
execution.
Origins of the White Rose Between
1940 and 1941, Scholl's brother, Hans Scholl, a former member of the Hitler
Youth, began questioning the principles and policies of the Nazi regime. As a
student at the University of Munich, Hans met two Roman Catholic men of letters
who redirected his life, inspiring him to turn from studying medicine and
pursue religion, philosophy, and the arts. Gathering around him like-minded
friends, Alexander Schmorell, Willi Graf, and Jurgen Wittenstein, they
eventually adopted a strategy of passive resistance towards the Nazis by
writing and publishing leaflets that called for the toppling of National
Socialism, calling themselves the White
Rose.
The activities of the White Rose
started in June 1942. From end of June until mid July 1942, Hans Scholl and
Alexander Schmorell wrote the first four leaflets. Quoting extensively from the
Bible, Aristotle and Novalis, as well as Goethe and Schiller, the iconic poets
of German bourgeoisie, they appealed to what they considered the German
intelligentsia, believing that these people would be easily convinced by the
same arguments that also motivated the authors themselves. These leaflets were
left in telephone books in public phone booths, mailed to professors and
students, and taken by courier to other universities for distribution. Sophie
is believed to have first learned about the White Rose in July 1942, but Fritz
Hartnagel remembers her asking him in May 1942 if he could get her a pass to
buy a duplicating machine (impossible to get in Nazi Germany without a signed
and countersigned form), which suggests
that perhaps she knew about the activities sooner than thought.Whenever she
joined, she proved to be valuable to the group because, as a woman, her chances
of being randomly stopped by the SS were much smaller.
Arrest and execution On 18
February 1943, Sophie and Hans Scholl went to the Ludwig Maximilian University
to leave flyers out for the students to read. The Scholls brought a suitcase
full of leaflets to the university main building, and hurriedly dropped stacks
of copies in the empty corridors for students to find when they left the
lecture rooms. Leaving before the lectures had ended, the Scholls noticed that
there were some left-over copies in the suitcase and decided to distribute them.
Sophie flung the last remaining leaflets from the top floor down into the
atrium. This spontaneous action was observed by the university maintenance man,
Jakob Schmid, a self-avowed Nazi, who had joined the NSDAP in 1937.
Hans and Sophie Scholl were taken
into the custody of the Gestapo. A draft of a seventh pamphlet, written by
Christoph Probst, was found in the possession of Hans Scholl at the time of his
arrest by the Gestapo. While Sophie Scholl was able to hide incriminating
evidence in an empty classroom shortly before she was captured, Hans tried to
destroy the draft of the last leaflet by tearing it apart and trying to swallow
it.[14] The Gestapo recovered enough of it to read what it said, and, when
pressed, Hans gave the name of the author, Christoph Probst. In his second
interrogation, he stated: "The piece of paper that I tore up following my
arrest this morning originated with Christoph Probst... All other persons with
the exception of Probst are in my opinion not guilty." Christoph Probst
was captured on February 20, 1943. The main Gestapo interrogator was Robert
Mohr, who initially thought Sophie was innocent. However, after Hans had
confessed, Sophie assumed full responsibility in an attempt to protect other
members of the White Rose. In the People's Court before Judge Roland Freisler
on 22 February 1943, Scholl was recorded as saying these words: “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.” No testimony was
allowed for the defendants; this was their only defense.
(The grave of Hans Scholl, Sophie
Scholl and Christoph Probst, in the Perlacher Friedhof, next to the Stadelheim
prison in Munich)
On 22 February 1943, Scholl, her
brother, Hans, and their friend, Christoph Probst, were found guilty of treason
and condemned to death. They were all beheaded by guillotine by executioner
Johann Reichhart in Munich's Stadelheim Prison. Sophie was executed at 5 pm,
while Hans was executed at 5:02 pm and Christoph was executed at 5:05 pm. The
execution was supervised by Walter Roemer, the enforcement chief of the Munich
district court. Prison officials were impressed by the condemned prisoners'
bravery, and let them smoke cigarettes together before they were executed. Sophie's
last known words are disputed, although Else Gebel remembers the last words
Sophie said to her as: “How can we expect righteousness to prevail when there
is hardly anyone willing to give himself up individually to a righteous
cause... It is such a splendid sunny day, and I have to go. But how many have
to die on the battlefield in these days, how many young, promising lives. What
does my death matter if by our acts thousands are warned and alerted. Among the
student body there will certainly be a revolt.” As for her last words, they
were most likely either "God, my refuge into eternity." or "The
sun still shines." Fritz Hartnagel was evacuated from Stalingrad in
January 1943, but did not return to Germany before Sophie was executed. In
October 1945, he married Sophie's sister Elisabeth.
Legacy After her death, a
copy of the sixth leaflet was smuggled out of Germany through Scandinavia to
England by German jurist Helmuth James Graf von Moltke, where it was used by
the Allied Forces. In mid-1943, the Royal Air Force dropped millions of
propaganda copies of the tract over Germany, now retitled The Manifesto of the
Students of Munich. Playwright Lillian Garrett-Groag said in Newsday on
22 February 1993, that "It is possibly the most spectacular moment of
resistance that I can think of in the twentieth 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 do not know why." In
the same issue of Newsday, Holocaust historian Jud Newborn observed that
"You cannot 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."
(Bust of Sophie Scholl)
On 22 February 2003, a bust of
Scholl was placed by the government of Bavaria in the Walhalla temple in her
honour. She was the fifth[b] woman to receive that honor. The
Geschwister-Scholl-Institut ("Scholl Siblings Institute") for
Political Science at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (LMU) is named
in honour of Sophie Scholl and her brother Hans. The institute is home to the
university's political science and communication departments, and is housed in
the former Radio Free Europe building close to the city's Englischer Garten. Many
local schools as well as countless streets and squares in Germany, and also
Austria, have been named after Scholl and her brother. In 2003, Germans were
invited by television broadcaster ZDF to participate in Unsere Besten (Our
Best), a nationwide competition to choose the top ten most important Germans of
all time. Voters under the age of 40 helped Scholl and her brother Hans to
finish in fourth place, above Bach, Goethe, Gutenberg, Bismarck, Willy Brandt,
and Albert Einstein. If the votes of young viewers alone had been counted,
Sophie and Hans Scholl would have been ranked first. Several years earlier,
readers of Brigitte, a German magazine for women, voted Scholl "the
greatest woman of the twentieth century". On 9 May 2014, Google depicted
Scholl for its Google Doodle on the occasion of what would have been her 93rd
birthday. In April 2021, the German Ministry of Finance issued a commemorative
sterling silver €20 coin celebrating the 100th anniversary of Scholl’s birth.
In popular culture
Film and television In the
1970s and 1980s, there were three film accounts of Sophie Scholl and the White
Rose resistance. The first TV film Der Pedell (1971) focused on the university
maintenance man Jakob Schmid, who denounced Scholl and the other White Rose
members. The TV film was produced for the West German ZDF. Percy Adlon's Fünf letzte Tage (Five Last
Days, 1982) presented Lena Stolze as Scholl in her last days from the point of
view of her cellmate Else Gebel. Stolze repeated the role in Michael
Verhoeven's Die Weiße Rose (The White Rose, also 1982). In an interview, Stolze
said that playing the role was "an honour". In February 2005,
a film about Scholl's last days, Sophie Scholl – Die letzten Tage (Sophie
Scholl – The Final Days), featuring Julia Jentsch in the title role, was
released. 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. For her portrayal
of Scholl, Jentsch 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. The German TV docudrama Frauen die
Geschichte machten – Sophie Scholl was broadcast in 2013. Sophie Scholl was
played by Liv Lisa Fries. She was portrayed by Victoria Chilap in the
documentary movie Death of a Nation in 2018. In literature In February
2009, The History Press published Sophie Scholl: The Real Story of the Woman
who Defied Hitler by Frank McDonough. In February 2010, Carl Hanser
Verlag released Sophie Scholl: A Biography (in German), by Barbara Beuys. In
theatre American playwright Lillian Garrett-Groag's play The White Rose
features Scholl as a major character. We Will Not Be Silent, a
dramatization by David Meyers of Scholl's imprisonment and interrogation,
premiered at the Contemporary American Theater Festival in Shepherdstown, West
Virginia in July, 2017. In later life Whitney Seymour, his wife Catryna,
and their daughters Tryntje and Gabriel, co-wrote and produced Stars in the
Dark Sky, a one-act play about Hans and Sophie Scholl and their role in the White
Rose resistance group in Nazi Germany in the 1940s. The play, which took around
five years to write, was released in 2008 (when Seymour was 85) and had five
performances off-Broadway. In music George Donaldson, a Scottish folk
singer wrote a song called "The White Rose" on an album titled the
same, about Sophie and the White Rose movement. The English punk band
Zatopeks released an eponymous love song for Sophie Scholl on their debut album
(2005). Mickey 3D, a French rock band, wrote a song called "La Rose
Blanche" on an album titled Sebolavy (2016). American rock band
Sheer Mag recorded a song called "(Say Goodbye to) Sophie Scholl" on
its 2017 debut album Need to Feel Your Love. Reg Meuross, a British folk
singer, released "For Sophie" on his album Faraway People in 2017.
Social media Under the title @ichbinsophiescholl the German broadcasters
Südwestrundfunk and Bayerische Rundfunk began in May 2021 an Instagram project
to commemorate Scholl's 100th birthday. The last months of Scholl's life are
featured on Instagram posts and stories styled as if Scholl herself were
posting them. The actress Luna Wedler plays Sophie Scholl and illustrates the
last year of her life in the style of a modern digital influencer.
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