(A series brought to you by Feminist Global Resistance)
The Series:
Patriarchy ensures that male (almost exclusively white colonizer) history is remembered though a few women shine through or are given a twisted footnote.
More often, women are relegated to lost tomes and forgotten lore. Some shine through in song and tales while others, more recently, are beginning to have their stories told (progress?)
Throughout history, women around the world have stood to fight patriarchy, some winning, some losing, but they often brought revolution and change, their lives given for the just causes of freedom, liberty and justice.
This series will focus on the stories of some of those women who have stood up to patriarchy fighting oppression and colonization; confronting violence and abuse; And sacrificing everything in a fight for freedom, justice, and human rights. There have been many. I have chosen just a few of those who inspire me by their bravery and resolve.
Learn their names, learn from them, let them inspire you to do great things.
Part 10: Sophie Scholl, Weiße Rose (White Rose)
Sophia Magdalena Scholl, May 9, 1921 to February 22, 1943
WWI, Reparations and the Rose of Adolf Hitler
Germany:
The Imperial Monarchy of Germany (The German Empire), which had allied with the Ottoman Empire, Bulgaria, as well as the Habsburgs of Austria-Hungary (Central Powers), entered WWI on August 1, 1914, declaring war on Russia but, instead of attacking Russia, Germany declared war on France and sent their main armies through Belgium to attack France from the North in an attempt to seize Paris.
Germany, known for being highly militaristic, had one of the most powerful armies in all of Europe (4.5 million members by 1914 rising to 13.2 million by the war’s end).
At home, the Empire, via German Kaiser Wilhelm II, promised a swift victory:
“You will be home before the leaves fall from the trees”
The people believed the war would be over quickly and fully supported the war effort but, as the war dragged on, that changed. Harsh working conditions and long hours, severe rationing, struggling food production, and supply shortages brought severe hardship to the people. The government seized control of production and supply to make sure they were first given to the war effort then the remaining goods, were distributed to the people. Shortages of meat, bread, cheese, potatoes, rice and sugar were becoming a constant hardship for the people of Germany leading to a decrease in support for the war and demoralization of both the soldiers and the civilian population.
All these hardships led to political upheaval in the Empire. The Kaiser was leader of the Empire but the war brought power to the military leaders and that power grew as the war continued. By 1916, the Kaiser was only handling symbolic ceremonies while Field Marshal Paul von Hindenburg, leader of the armed forces, handled the entirety of the war effort: which controlled production, rationing, propaganda, and other aspects of governance.
By 1918, the people had had enough; Morale was at an all-time low. The German Revolution (November Revolution) was sparked by the hardships and anger – the working class suffering under harsh rationing and starvation and the soldiers living in harsh conditions, losing large numbers in failed campaigns, and their own rationing of food and supplies – as the war dragged on.
German sailors carrying out mutinies then joined with the workers in an all-out revolt – delegations of protestors and revolutionaries were sent into all the cities. First the coastal cities and then inland. Kaiser Wilhelm finally understood he lost the support of his people and, on November 9, 2018 abdicated his throne – bringing an end to constitutional monarchy; Social Democrat Philipp Scheidemann proclaimed a democratic parliamentary republic; 2 days later, Germany signed the armistice and World War I was over; Wilhelm fled to the Netherlands; And the Weimer Republic was born.
The Rise of Hitler
By the end of WWI, the German people didn’t recognize their nation. 3 million Germans, to include 15% of all men of the nation, were killed in the 5 years that war raged. To add to the loss, political changes, international condemnation and forced reparations rocked the country.
Germany was now a “Republic” trying to create a new government under the terms of the Treaty of Versaillles – that new government became the focus of the anger of the German people. Hardships continued as hyperinflation and destabilization of the economy, created by forced reparations, stripped the nation of any remaining wealth – their currency held little value (By November 1923, 42 billion marks were worth the equivalent of one American cent).
The people began looking to other forms of government and other leaders to cure their hardship, restore the economy and instill national pride.
The government was split – old elites from industry, landowners, military, judiciary and former administration, who never accepted the democratic republic, on one side; the leftist factions of the new government, workers, and revolutionaries on the other (forming the KPD aka the Communist Party of Germany). One side choosing to continue the militarism of the monarchy and retain the power they had gained during WWI, while the other pushed to abolish that power elite, maintain peace and support the people.
Tensions rose within the new government and soon spilled onto the streets. Strikes turned into street fights, agitation within the factories brought military action against the workers; demonstrations brought more military action against the people. Paramilitary forces killed demonstrators; Regular military killed demonstrators.
Right-wing nationalist forces wanted the government to fail; Left Wing Socialist and Communist revolutionaries wanted the government to fail.
The left-wing accused the ruling Social Democrats of having betrayed the ideals of the workers’ movement by preventing the Communist Revolution ( Christmas Crisis of 1918 and January Revolt of 1919) and unleashing the “Freikorps” (voluntary paramilitary units) upon the workers.
The Right-wing opposed any democratic system, preferring an authoritarian state. To further undermine the Republic’s credibility, right-wing extremists (to include, former Field Marshal Paul von Hindenburg, and other members of the former officer corps) used the myth of Dolchstoßlegende to blame for Germany’s defeat in World War I. The myth (antisemitic conspiracy theory), also known as the “dagger-stab legend”, promoted the theory that the Imperial German Army did not lose the war but it was the Jews and the Socialists who betrayed the nation (drawing fuel from the fact that eight out of the ten of the leaders of the communist revolution in the Weimer were Jewish). In 1919, Paul von Hindenburg (the Field Marshall that led the final, unsuccessful last-ditch effort to turn the tide of the war on the Eastern front, losing close to 1 million soldiers and presided over the retreat of thousands of German soldiers) testified in front of a parliamentary commission regarding the defeat of Germany in WWI, he pointed to the “Stab-in-the-Back” myth blaming “liberal elements” on the homefront for the surrender and suggesting that German military forces had not been defeated.
Both sides were determined to bring down the Weimar Republic.
The Left began to split apart. Leaders of the Left were arrested and many executed; Demonstrators and civilians were shot; And the Leftist members of the KPD split losing the voice they had obtained in the earlier days of the revolution.
In the end, the right-wing extremists were successful, and the Weimar Republic came to an end with the ascent of Hitler and the National Socialist Party.
Her Story:
The Radicalization of Sophie Scholl
On May 9, 1921, Sophia Magdalena Scholl was born. Her father, Robert Scholl, was the politically active Mayor of Forchtenberg am Kocher, and her mother, Magdalena, was an RN. Her parents provided Sophie, the 4th of 6 children, and her siblings a supportive, middle class, liberal Lutheran home.
It was May 5 of that year that the London Commission set the final 1921 London Schedule of Payments for reparations owed by the Weimar Republic, at 132 billion gold marks or 6.6 billion British pounds, to be payable in annual instalments of 1.5 %.
It was, July 29th of that year that Adolf Hitler became the leader of the National Socialists (NSDAP).
Sophie was nearly 4 years old, in early 1925, when the former Field Marshal Paul von Hindenburg, was elected President of the Weimer Republic. A staunch nationalist, he often ruled “by decree”, allowed by Article 48 of the Weimar Constitution. Article 48 stated that “If public security and order are seriously disturbed or endangered within the German Reich, the President of the Reich may take measures necessary for their restoration, intervening if need be with the assistance of the armed forces.” It also allowed the President to suspend civil liberties guaranteed in the Weimar Constitution. The use of the Article weakened the power of the Reichstag (Parliament).
When Sophie was 9 years old, 1930, and in her 2nd year of school, her father, considered too “liberal” by some of the citizens of Forchtenberg am Kocher, was voted out of office and the family moved to Ludwigsburg in Baden-Württemberg.
It was in July, 1930, when Hindenburg dissolved Parliament and began implementing the policies of his newly appointed Chancellor, Heinrich Brüning. Germany was joining the rest of the world in a plunge into the Great Depression. Brüning’s policies were austere, and his response to the crisis was to increase taxation and revenue and curtail government spending.
That same year, the Reichstag elections resulted in increased support for both the National Socialists (NSDAP) and the German Communist Party (KPD).
That next year, when Sophie was 10, the banks of Germany begin to fail resulting in a run on the banks. A petition to appoint Adolf Hitler as Chancellor was circulated though Hitler was a “stateless person” having terminated his Austrian citizenship in 1925, he had not been granted citizenship in Germany.
In 1932, Sophie and her family moved to Ulm, a city situated on the Danube River. Her father founded a tax and accounting service company and the family settled into their new town. Sophie began secondary school
It was also 1932 when Adolf Hitler was finally granted citizenship in Germany; Hindenburg appointed a little-known Prussian conservative, Franz von Papen, as Chancellor in an attempt to appease the new Reichstag; And Papen immediately lifted the ban on the Sturmabteilung (Brownshirts). The Brownshirts were the original paramilitary wing of the NSDAP Party whose primary purposes were to provide protection for NSPD rallies and assemblies, disrupt the meetings of opposing parties, fight against the paramilitary units of those opposing parties (especially the Roter Frontkämpferbund of the Communist Party of Germany or KPD and the Reichsbanner Schwarz-Rot-Gold of the Social Democratic Party of Germany or SPD), and intimidate the Romani (“gypsy” is a perjorative term used for the Romani), trade unionists, and especially Jews.
By 1933, when Sophie 12 years old and, much to her father’s chagrin (he was a sharp critic of the Nazi Party, aka, Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei or NSDAP), joined Bund Deutscher Mädel (League of German Girls), as did most of her classmates.
Inge Scholl (Sophie’s sister) recalling life in the BDM (Bund Deutscher Mädel (“The White Rose: Munich, 1942-1943,pgs 5-6, by Inge Scholl , Author, Dorothee Sölle, Contributor):
“We heard much oratory about the fatherland, comradeship, unity of the Volk, and love of country…. Our fatherland – what was it but the extended home of all those who shared a language and belonged to one people. We loved it, though we couldn’t say why. After all, up to now we hadn’t talked very much about it. But now these things were being written across the sky in flaming letters. And Hitler – so we heard on all sides – Hitler would help this fatherland to achieve greatness, fortune, and prosperity. He would see to it that everyone had work and bread. He would not rest until every German was independent, free, and happy in his fatherland. We found this good, and we were willing to do all we could to contribute to the common effort. But there was something else that drew us with mysterious power and swept us along: the closed ranks of marching youth with banners waving, eyes fixed straight ahead, keeping time to drumbeat and song…. We entered into it with body and soul, and we could not understand why our father did not approve, why he was not happy and proud. On the contrary, he was quite displeased with us.”
In 1933, Hindenburg was pressured into appointing Adolf Hitler as Chancellor.
It was also 1933 when the Reichstag Fire (February 27, 1933, the German Parlimentary Building burns) was used to claim (without proof) “the Communists” were planning a violent uprising and that emergency legislation was needed to prevent it. The subsequent Reichstag Fire Decree abolished constitutional protections and gave the regime the authority to:
- Suspend of the right of free assembly and the right to free speech,
- Remove all restraints on police investigations,
- Arrest and incarcerate political opponents without charge,
- Dissolve political organizations,
- Confiscate private property,
- Overrule state and local laws and overthrow state and local governments.
The Reichstag Fire Decree paved the way to “Nazi” dictatorship. The “Nazi Revolution” and the “Third Reich” were born. Within 4 years, Hitler, along with his chosen ministers and leaders, carried out their plan for complete control.
It was in 1936, Sophie’s brother, Hans Scholl, was chosen to be the flag bearer when his “Bund” unit (Jungenschaft, an association of the Bündische Jugend – by 1936, all “acceptable” Bunds had been merged into the Hitler Youth) was allowed attended the Nuremberg Rally.
According to his sister, Inge Scholl, (“The White Rose: Munich, 1942-1943, pg 8, by Inge Scholl, Author, Dorothee Sölle, Contributor):
“His joy was great. But when he returned, we could not believe our eyes. He looked tired and showed signs of a great disappointment. We did not expect any explanation from him, but gradually we found out that the image and model of the Hitler Youth which had been impressed upon him there was totally different from his own ideal… Hans underwent a remarkable change… This had nothing to do with Father’s objections; he was able to close his ears to those. It was something else. The leaders had told him that his songs were not allowed… Why should he be forbidden to sing these songs that were so full of beauty? Merely because they had been created by other races?”
It didn’t take long for Sophie to become disillusioned with the “Bund” as well. Like her brother, Hans, she was unable to reconcile their liberal leanings with their membership in the National Socialist organizations. They saw the way their Jewish acquaintances were treated, they were told that music, poetry and literature they had loved was no longer acceptable and the authors banned, their favorite teachers were being replaced (Teachers who did not support the Nazi Party had been removed). Most troubling was the new teachers began encouraging their students to inform on their parents if they were critical of the government or its policies.
Sophie began to have trouble in school.
She and her siblings began to view the regime more critically.
By 1937, Sophie was 16 and her brother, Hans, was 19.
At the age of nineteen, every German, male or female, had to spend six months on a construction project or a farm as part of the RAD (The Reich Labour Service or Reichsarbeitsdienst)*. This required service was an attempt to keep older adolescents/young adults under the control and supervision of government agencies and keep young people off the streets where they might cause trouble. It also removed thousands from the labor market and therefore reduced the unemployment statistics.
*Please note, all workers were merged into the German Labour Front (Deutsche Arbeitsfront or DAF), Hitler’s labor organization that replaced all trade unions in the Third Reich. Trade union leaders removed – many arrested, beaten and sent to the newly built concentration camps. By 1933, all workers were a part of the DAF with no say in wages, work hours or choice of employer. Wages were extremely low, hours were up to 12 hours a day and employers could keep employees from accepting or changing jobs
At age 19, Hans Scholl was assigned 6 months of road building near a place called Göppingen, in service for National Labour Service or RAD. The project was part of the Autobahn system, one of Hitler’s most valued programs, the network of roads across Germany.
His 6 months was followed by conscription into the German Army. Hans always loved horses. He volunteered and was accepted for a cavalry unit in 1937, but, only a few months into his service, he was arrested in his barracks by the Gestapo. It had been reported that, while living in Ulm, he had taken part in activities that were not part of the Hitler Youth program*.
*Hans and friends had formed their own private group that met and enjoyed sports, discussions, reading and other activities and it had not been sanctioned by the government. By the mid-1930s, only sanctioned youth organizations were allowed. The Bunds and other organizations were merged into the Hitler Youth while others were forbidden [Inge Scholl states: “The club had its own most impressive style, which had grown up out of the membership itself. The boys recognized one another by their dress, their songs, even their way of talking… For these boys life was a great, splendid adventure, an expedition into an unknown, beckoning world. On weekends they went on hikes, and it was their way, even in bitter cold, to live in a tent… Seated around the campfire they would read aloud to each other or sing, accompanying themselves with guitar, banjo, and balalaika. They collected the folk songs of all peoples and wrote words and music for their own ritual chants and popular songs.”(“The White Rose: Munich, 1942-1943,pg 13, by Inge Scholl , Author, Dorothee Sölle, Contributor).]
Since Sophie was only sixteen, she was released and allowed to go home the same day. The Gestapo felt she was too young and “childish” to be a threat to the Reich.
Inge and Werner were released after 1 week of confinement.
Sophie began having more difficulty in school. She upset teachers by being more candid in her statements that ran counter to the Nazi doctrine; More than once, she was summoned to the principal’s office and reprimanded; She was told she would be barred from the university exams if her attitude and behavior did not change.
“As time went on Sophie became increasingly disillusioned with the Nazis. On the day before England declared war in 1939 I went with her for a walk along the Danube and I remember I said: Hopefully there will be no war. And she said: Yes, I hope there will be. Hopefully someone will stand up to Hitler…”
By 1939, Sophie was 18 and the world was at war again
Sophie’s boyfriend, Hans Hartnagel was serving in the German Army and was a loyal supporter of Adolf Hitler by the time WWII began in 1939. In a letter to Fritz, from September 1, 1939:
“Now you’ll surely have enough to do. I can’t grasp that now human beings will constantly be put into mortal danger by other human beings. I can never grasp it, and I find it horrible. Don’t say it’s for the Fatherland.”
Sophie began taking even more risks by criticizing the government. The threat to her safety was very real.
According to Sophie’s sister, Inge ( A Noble Treason: The Story of Sophie Scholl, Richard F. Hanser, 1979, pg 92):
“We were living in a society where despotism, hate, and lies had become the normal state of affairs. Every day that you were not in jail was like a gift. No one was safe from arrest for the slightest unguarded remark, and some disappeared forever for no better reason… Hidden ears seemed to be listening to everything that was being spoken in Germany. The terror was at your elbow wherever you went.”
In 1940, Sophie became a kindergarten teacher at the Frobel Institute in Ulm-Söflingen as a part of her required service to RAD. It was during this time she became more political. In another letter to Fritz, June 28, 1940, she wrote:
“If I didn’t know that I’ll probably outlive many older people then I’d be overcome with horror at the spirit that’s dominating history today… I’m sure you find what I’m writing very unfeminine. It’s ridiculous for a girl to involve herself in politics. She should let her feminine feelings dominate her thoughts. Especially compassion. But I believe that first comes thinking, and that feelings, especially about little things that affect you directly, maybe about your own body, deflect you so that you can hardly see the big things anymore.”
Sophie was now convinced that it was time for German citizens to begin rebelling against the Nazi government.
In another letter to Fritz, September, 1940, she wrote:
“For me the relationship between a soldier and his people is roughly like that of a son who swears to stand by his father and his family through thick and thin. If it turns out that the father harms another family and then gets hurt as a consequence, must the son still stick by him? I can’t accept it. Justice is more important than sentimental loyalty.”
White Rose
In 1941, Sophie passed her entrance exams for university but she still had to complete her service to the RAD. She wrote in her journal: “Wouldn’t it be wonderful if Hans and I could study together for a time? We’re already bursting with plans!”
Her final service was as a nursery teacher in Blumberg. It was not a happy time for Sophie.
From “Sophie Scholl and the White Rose”, 1986, page 44 by Annette Dumbach and Jud Newborn:
“Blumberg was a small and unattractive industrial town. It was hard for Sophie to find any saving graces here, even though she did become fond of the children. But her chores were menial and exhausting, and labored, she was aware always that her work helped indirectly to perpetuate a war she deplored, conducted by a regime she had gradually come to consider criminal.”
1942 was a very big year for Sophie Scholl:
In the Spring, Sophie entered university in Munich to study biology and philosophy – she especially enjoyed her class with professor Kurt Huber and his discussions of Immanual Kant. Her boyfriend, Fritz, was now serving in the Soviet Union, writing frequently about how horrified he was at the “shooting of Jews” and the stories he had heard from Poland about the executions of Jews and the Polish intelligentsia.
By July,1942, Hans Scholl, along with his student friends, Christoph Probst, Alexander Schmorell and Willi Graf, were sent to the Eastern Front as medics (The 4 friends had been allowed to train as doctors at the university in Munich from 1940 until their deployment in July. All four shared similar sentiment regarding the Nazi government. It was in Munich that they met Sophie’s Kant teaching philosophy professor, Kurt Huber. Sophie, Hans, Christof, Alexander and Professor Huber would later become the “White Rose”.) While in Poland and the Soviet Union, Hans and his friends witnessed, first hand, the atrocities being committed by the German Army which made them even more hostile to the government. Also, they were having to treat so many wounded and dying soldiers – It became clear that Germany was fighting a war it could not win.
And in August, 1942, Sophie’s father was arrested by the Gestapo, having been reported by a woman in his office for stating, “The war! It is already lost. This Hitler is God’s scourge on mankind, and if the war doesn’t end soon, the Russians will be sitting in Berlin.”
He was sentenced to 4 months in prison.
It was, also, in 1942 that White Rose was formed. According to Elisabeth Scholl,( “Sophie Scholl and the White Rose”, 1986, page 56 by Annette Dumbach and Jud Newborn) :
“We learned in the spring of 1942 of the arrest and execution of 10 or 12 Communists. And my brother said, In the name of civic and Christian courage something must be done. Sophie knew the risks. Fritz Hartnagel told me about a conversation in May 1942. Sophie asked him for a thousand marks but didn’t want to tell him why. He warned her that resistance could cost both her head and her neck. She told him, I’m aware of that. Sophie wanted the money to buy a printing press to publish the anti-Nazi leaflets”
The White Rose began producing leaflets. They were typed, printed, folded into envelopes, addressed to academics, civil servants, restaurateurs and publicans throughout Munich; Many were dropped on the campus of the university for students. A few of the leaflets landed in the hands of the Gestapo who immediately suspected students at the university.
The 1st leaflet opened with the following statement:
Nothing is so unworthy of a civilized nation as allowing itself to be “governed” without opposition by an irresponsible clique that has yielded to base instinct. It is certain that today every honest German is ashamed of his government. Who among us has any conception of the dimensions of shame that will befall us and our children when one day the veil has fallen from our eyes and the most horrible of crimes – crimes that infinitely outdistance every human measure – reach the light of day? If the German people are already so corrupted and spiritually crushed that they do not raise a hand, frivolously trusting in a questionable faith in lawful order in history; if they surrender man’s highest principle, that which raises him above all other God’s creatures, his free will; if they abandon the will to take decisive action and turn the wheel of history and thus subject it to their own rational decision; if they are so devoid of all individuality, have already gone so far along the road toward turning into a spiritless and cowardly mass – then, yes, they deserve their downfall.”
“Why tell you these things, since you are fully aware of them – or if not of these, then of other equally grave crimes committed by this frightful sub-humanity? Because here we touch on a problem which involves us deeply and forces us all to take thought. Why do the German people behave so apathetically in the face of all these abominable crimes, crimes so unworthy of the human race? Hardly anyone thinks about that. It is accepted as fact and put out of mind. The German people slumber on in their dull, stupid sleep and encourage these fascist criminals; they give them the opportunity to carry on their depredations; and of course, they do so. Is this a sign that the Germans are brutalized in their simplest human feelings, that no chord within them cries out at the sight of such deeds, that they have sunk into a fatal consciencelessness from which they will never, never awake? It seems to be so, and will certainly be so, if the German does not at last start up out of his stupor, if he does not protest wherever and whenever he can against this clique of criminals, if he shows no sympathy for these hundreds of thousands of victims. He must evidence not only sympathy; no, much more: a sense of complicity in guilt. For through his apathetic behavior he gives these evil men the opportunity to act as they do; he tolerates this government which has taken upon itself such an infinitely great burden of guilt; indeed, he himself is to blame for the fact that it came about at all! ”
“We want to try and show them 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 only one available is passive resistance. 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 first concern of every German is not the military victory over Bolshevism, but the defeat of National Socialism.”
“Imperialistic designs for power, regardless from which side they come, must be neutralized for all time… All centralized power, like that exercised by the Prussian state in Germany and in Europe, must be eliminated… The coming Germany must be federalistic. The working class must be liberated from its degraded conditions of slavery by a reasonable form of socialism… Freedom of speech, freedom of religion, the protection of individual citizens from the arbitrary will of criminal regimes of violence – these will be the bases of the New Europe.”
The Gestapo took this 5th leaflet more seriously. Not only was it more radical, it was now appearing in other cities to include Stuttgart, Vienna, Ulm, Frankfurt, Linz, Salzburg and Augsburg which suggested that the organization was growing.
By 1943, the Gauleiter of Bavaria, Paul Giesler, addressed the students of University of Munich in the Main Auditorium of the Deutsche Museum. He argued that universities should not produce students with “twisted intellects” and “falsely clever minds”. His diatribe continued with insults on women to include, “the natural place for a woman is not at the university, but with her family, at the side of her husband.” (referencing his belief that women shouldn’t be studying but, rather, fulfilling their “duties” as mothers), and finally, “for those women students not pretty enough to catch a man, I’d be happy to lend them one of my adjutants”
To this, women students stood and began shouting abuse at Giesler – he ordered their arrest by the SS. Men students came to the aid of the women and fights ensued. Those who had left the auditorium formed a large group, linked arms and marched singing songs of solidarity as they moved towards the university. Armed police forced them to disperse.
On, February 18, 1943, White Rose printed an additional 1,300 leaflets. Sophie and Hans packed them into a suitcase and headed to the University of Munich. They delivered a number of the leaflets in the corridors then let the remaining leaflets fall from the top of the staircase into the entrance hall, Unfortunately, they were seen by a janitor, a building superintendent, named Jakob Schmidt.
Schmidt went to the Gestapo; Sophie and Hans were arrested and searched. The Gestapo found a handwritten draft of a new leaflet – the handwriting matched a letter, they found in Hans apartment, written by Christoph Probst. All 3 were charged with treason
Sophie was interrogated all night; She refused to cooperate until, finally, the Gestapo told her they found evidence, in her brother’s room, including a leaflet draft she had written. She chose to confess and take the blame for everything so others could remain free.
She was assigned an attorney – they would not allow the family to obtain their own; Her parents were denied access to the court during Sophie’s trial.
The trial was swift, not lasting even a day.
On February 22, 1943, the three defendants were convicted and sentenced to death. Judge Freisler told the court:
“The accused have by means of leaflets in a time of war called for the sabotage of the war effort and armaments and for the overthrow of the National Socialist way of life of our people, have propagated defeatist ideas, and have most vulgarly defamed the Führer, thereby giving aid to the enemy of the Reich and weakening the armed security of the nation. On this account they are to be punished by death. Their honour and rights as citizens are forfeited for all time.”
Their parents were allowed to see them one last time before their execution.
Sophie’s cellmate, Else Gebel, recorded Sophie’s last words:
“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.”
Sophie Scholl, Revolutionary and Freedom-Fighter, achieved more in her 21 years than most of us do in our lifetime. She stood proudly and resolutely against the evil of the Nazi Regime and gave her life to confront that evil.
Remember her; Learn from her; Use her strength to confront evil and injustice every day.