In Nazi Germany, this student stood up against Hitler’s dictatorship with great courage. He was executed at the age of 21. The story told by Virginia Giraud *.
This year, France celebrated the 80th anniversary of Jean Moulin’s death. As Andre Malraux wished, in 1964 the hero entered the Pantheon “with his terrible procession”. Only he became the symbol of the Resistance. However, the shadows that silently accompanied him did not come only from the west of the Maginot Line. From the banks of the Seine, where the French flag has reclaimed its place, usurping the bastard standard of the swastika, we often forget that there were resistance fighters in Germany. Among them was the young Sophie Scholl.
White rose, secret movement
Sophie, with fringed hair, a side part and a barrette above her ear, is a young girl of the Christian bourgeoisie across the Rhine, born in May 1921 in Forchtenberg, north of Stuttgart. In the 1930s, she joined the BDM, the League of German Girls, against her parents’ advice. Then the vast majority of young people joined this Nazi spy who aimed to indoctrinate them. He quickly realizes that the ideas of Hitler’s party contradict his Christian values and his humanist culture. Entering the University of Munich, this Saint-Augustin reader then founded an underground movement, the White Rose, with his older brother Hans and some fellow students.
Sophie Scholl with her brother Hans and Christoph Probst among others. akg-images / ullstein bild.
Gestapo on the teeth
The members of this small group with a poetic name signed treatises of high literary quality, originally intended for German intellectuals. They believe that only the elite have the means to understand the Führer’s terrible plans and that this obligates them to defeat them. Distributing leaflets throughout the southern half of Germany, most often by mail, distracted the Gestapo. The political police perceives “White Rose” as a large-scale riotous movement. He imagines from a thousand miles away that it is based on about ten Munich students. Encouraged by a professor who serves as her advisor, White Rose writes a tract for the general public, then another tract for students. On February 18, 1943, Sophie and her brother left leaflets at their university. They came very early, before the students arrived. A young woman throws a handful of flyers into the atrium. A shower of white sheets alerts the janitor, who locks the facility and calls the Gestapo. Sophie and Hans allow themselves to be arrested. Both refuse to use violence to defend themselves. They also hope that their cooperation will protect other members of the White Rose and take responsibility for the distribution of leaflets.
21 to the guillotine
Four days after their arrest, on February 22, they were brought to the People’s Court. Roland Freisler, the head of this exclusive justice responsible for the crimes of treason, personally judges them. After a three-hour hearing, the verdict is handed down. Sophie Scholl, who was only 21 years old, her brother and one of their friends were guillotined that same afternoon. A few days later, the British Air Force dropped millions of copies of the last White Rose leaflet in Germany… After the war, the young resistance fighter became an icon of the GDR, a symbol of Christians and non-communists opposed to Nazism. .
* Virginia Giraud holds a doctorate in history. Find him on the podcast at the Center of History from the Europe 1 Studio, on your favorite listening platform, and every week at 3pm on Europe 1.
Source: Le Figaro
