Note: When I started this blog almost two years ago, this was supposed to be my first entry. I had decided to write it on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of Sophie’s birth in May 2021, but just as I was working on it one afternoon I got the news that my grandfather had passed and never finished writing it. Until now, it had remained at the bottom of the draft board, with that day marked as the last time it had been edited, but realizing that the 80th anniversary of Sophie’s death was this year I decided that this was the perfect opportunity for me to finally post this tribute to her.
February 22nd this year marks the 80th anniversary of the death of German anti-Nazi political activist Sophie Scholl, one of the leaders of the non-violent intellectual resistance organization “The White Rose". It will probably go mostly unnoticed, though I suspect lots of public tributes would have taken place if not for the war in Ukraine and the COVID-19 pandemic, which is still wrecking havoc in some parts of Germany. As Sophie is one of my greatest personal heroes, I decided I would dedicate one of the very first entries on this blog to her.
Sophia Magdalena Scholl, nicknamed Sophie, was born on May 9th, 1921, in the town of Forchtenberg, in what today is the state Baden-Württemberg, Germany. The fourth of six children, she was the daughter of Robert Scholl, mayor of her hometown at the time of her birth, and his wife Magdalena. She enjoyed a relatively carefree childhood with her siblings in a very Lutheran household, a faith which would deeply shape her worldview later on. From an early age, she enjoyed drawing and was a very avid reader. When Sophie turned twelve years old, she chose to join the Bund Deutscher Mädel (League Of German Girls), the girls' wing of the Hitler Youth, not wanting to miss out after seeing that all of her classmates were doing the same thing. However, as time went by, the enthusiasm she had first showed slowly turned to criticism, especially as she became aware of her father's dissenting views on the Nazi Party. Her older brother Hans had also become extremely disillusioned during his time in the Hitler Youth with what he perceived as indoctrination, and later joined the illegal Deutsche Jungenschaft (German Youth Movement), which caused him to be arrested in 1937. This left a strong impression on Sophie, making her question the ongoing situation even more. After graduating high school in 1940, when the war had already begun, Sophie, who loved children, started working as a kindergarten teacher, hoping it would save her from having to do the Reichsarbeitsdienst (National Labor Service), a prerequisite for admission to university. Unfortunately, her strategy didn't work and, after a six month stint in the RAD as a nursery teacher in Blumberg, she got a clearer glipse of the political scenario and started practicing non-violent resistance in her daily life.
In May of 1942, Sophie enrolled at the University of Munich to study both biology and philosophy. Hans, already a medical student at the same campus, had encountered two Catholic men of letters who inspired him to stard studying arts, philosophy and religion. He also became extremely close to a group of other people at the university who opposed Hitler's deadly regime, and was quick to introduce them to his younger sister. That group was formed by students Willi Graf, Christoph Probst, Jürgen Wittenstein, Alexander Schmorell, Hans and professor Kurt Huber. Inspired by the Bible, as well as philosophers like Novalis and poets like Goethe, the group eventually decided to take action and, over the following months, began releasing a series of anonymous leaflets demanding the fall of National Socialism, calling themselves Die Weiße Rose ("The White Rose"). Their activities officially began on June 27th, 1942, and within the first month Hans and Alexander Schmorell had already written the first four leaflets. Over time, the White Rose authored a total of six leaflets, which were multiplied and spread, in a total of about 15,000 copies, around the University of Munich, as well as being mailed to fellow students and professors, left in phone booths and taken by courier to other universities. Sophie quickly turned out to be a very valuable asset in the group, because she was much less likely to be caught by the SS for being a woman and could get away with more things. She would share material on the so-called “theology of conscience”, the basis for her line of thinking, in the letters she sent to her boyfriend, Fritz Hartnagel, who was deployed in the Eastern Front.
Perhaps the most famous of all leaflets released by The White Rose would be the second, which contained the words: “Each man wishes to be acquitted of his complicity – everyone does so, then lies back down to sleep with a calm, clear conscience. But he may not acquit himself. Everyone is guilty, guilty, guilty!”. This was in response to what was perceived as the complicity of those Germans who were fully aware of the horrors perpetrated by the Nazis, but weren’t speaking out against them. They claimed that inaction was just as immoral as directly supporting the evildoers, and that more people needed to get engaged in the anti-war efforts if they were to be successful. It still resonates today, as it is not rare to find that the oppressed masses are too afraid to speak up for themselves and others.
Tragically, the heroic actions of The White Rose would only last for a few months before being cut short. On February 18th, 1943, Sophie and Hans carried a suitcase full of leaflets to the nearby Ludwig Maximilian University, and left several stacks of copies in the empty corridors while students were in class so they would find them as soon as they left their classrooms. As they were leaving they realized they had some left-over copies still in the suitcase and decided to distribute those too. It was then that Sophie was spotted flinging leaflets down the atrium by the maintenance man, who reported the offense to the Gestapo, leading to the siblings being arrested. During her interrogations, Sophie said she had been compelled by her conscience to peacefully oppose Nazism, and attempted to take full responsibility to protect the other members of The White Rose, but the evidence pointed directly to Christoph Probst, who was also arrested two days later. The three defendants were subjected to show trials by the Volksgerichtshof (Nazi People’s Court) and none of them were allowed to speak, though Sophie interrupted the judge on several occasions. She 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”.
Sophie was eventually convicted of high treason on February 22nd, 1943, and executed by guillotine at 5 PM on that same day, along with Hans and Christoph Probst. Her last words were: "How can we expect righteousness to prevail when there is hardly anyone willing to give himself up individually to a righteous cause? Such a fine 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 through us thousands of people are awakened and stirred to action?"
Lo and behold, Sophie was right. Four months later, in July 1943, a copy of the sixth and final leaflet of The White Rose was successfully smuggled out of Germany to England and reached the Allied Forces, leading to Royal Air Force planes dropping millions upon millions of copies over Germany with the title The Manifesto of the Students of Munich. That way, many more people were introduced to the organization and their anti-war message, and they started becoming famous first in Germany and later worldwide, long after the core members were gone. Today, there are countless streets, schools and other places in Germany named after Sophie. The square where the central hall of Munich University is located has been named Geschwister-Scholl-Platz (Scholl Siblings Square).
To me, as a modern day pacifist, Sophie remains a timeless example of a young woman who dared to speak out against violence when almost nobody else would, with a level of passion and commitment that many of us wish we had. As a matter of fact, many of my female friends inside the pro-life movement regard her as their main role model when engaging in nonviolent action. She is also remembered and admired by many Catholics, although she sadly cannot be officially declared venerable because she was a Lutheran. Regardless of that, she is definitely someone I’m constantly trying to emulate, and I always wonder what I would ask her if I could see her for only five minutes. While Sophie is the author of several famous quotes, I wanted to close this article with my favorite of all, which has since become some sort of personal motto for me, and something I try to live by every day:
"Stand up for what you believe in, even if you're standing alone".
Comments
Post a Comment