Sophie Scholl
Standing up to Nazi’s, the 21-year-old Girl
“Stand up for what you believe in, even if you are standing alone.”
I often wonder about the courage of this girl, standing up tall in the face of brute fascism. I read about her long back and I often return back to it again and again and again.
I will keep this short and this won't be about her but her execution.
Most people who know the name Sophie Scholl know she was a 21-year-old German student activist who was executed by the Nazis for distributing anti-Nazi pamphlets on her college campus.
But people don’t talk about what happened leading up to her execution, or what happened after.
Sophie and her brother Hans were caught by a university janitor named Jakob Schmid as they distributed pamphlets in a courtyard. The pamphlets were obviously against the Hilter Nazi-rule and Fascism.
He grabbed them, declared them “under arrest,” and turned them over to the Gestapo (You should know about this place, do a Google search).
Four days of interrogations later, they were in front of Nazi judge Roland Freisler (one of Hitler’s favorites, his “hanging judge” flown in from Berlin) for a show trial (Public hearing) that Hans and Sophie’s parents weren’t allowed in the courtroom for.
Hans, Sophie, and their friend Christoph Probst were all found guilty of treason, sentenced to death, and beheaded a few hours later (Yes beheaded).
During the court trial, they fiercely defended themselves and didn’t bow down at all in the face of tyranny.
No one talks about this janitor, Jakob Schmid.
He got a cash reward and a promotion for turning in Sophie and Hans. The University of Munich threw him a celebration. Hundreds of students attended and cheered for him. He thanked them with a Nazi salute.
After world war II, Jakob Schmid was arrested and put on a trial of his own. He said he only turned the Scholls in because distributing pamphlets was against university policy — it wasn’t because of the content of the pamphlets.
When you think of Nazis, you probably think of uniformed officers. But the Nazis were a political party of everyday people (Look around you see such people now as well)
So also think of a janitor tsk-tsking that someone wasn’t protesting “the right way.”
A student at the rally applauding him. A judge towing the party line.
We like to tell ourselves Nazi Germany was so horrific it could never be repeated. Maybe you don’t personally know someone who would have flipped the switch on the gas chambers. But I can almost guarantee you know a Jakob Schmid.
No, Nazi Germany was not built by just a handful of the Hilter army who did everything it was also ordinary people full of hate, bigotry who were misinformed.
References:
- Sophie Scholl and the White Rose by Annette Dumbach (Author), Jud Newborn
- At the Heart of the White Rose: Letters and Diaries of Hans and Sophie Scholl
- If you are not into reading then you can watch this movie on Youtube.
