75 Years Ago ...

On February 22, 1943, a young girl named Sophie Scholl and her older brother Hans were executed by guillotine at Stadelheim Prison in Munich, Germany.  They were convicted of treason along with their friend Christoph Probst.  She was 21 years old.

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As students at the University in Munich, they joined a group called The White Rose, a non-violent, anti-Nazi resistance group. They distributed leaflets, which warned of Nazi activities and atrocities, among the student body.  These were later copied and went through Scandinavia and on to the United Kingdom.  Many of these students, among them Sophie, were motivated by their faith.

Sophie was a real seeker - very honest about her struggle to trust - and yet because of Jesus, she found the faith to believe.  She is quoted as saying:

I'm still so remote from God that I don't even sense his presence when I pray. Sometimes when I utter God's name, in fact, I feel like sinking into a void. It isn't a frightening or dizzying sensation, it's nothing at all — and that's far more terrible. But prayer is the only remedy for it, and however many devils scurry around inside me, I shall cling to the rope God has thrown me in Jesus Christ, even if my numb hands can no longer feel it.

• As quoted in At the Heart of the White Rose: Letters and Diaries of Hans and Sophie Scholl (1987) edited by Inge Jens, translated by J. Maxwell Brownjohn; also in Voices of the Holocaust : Resistors, Liberation, Understanding (1997) by Lorie Jenkins McElroy

Finally, beginning in the 1970's, Sophie Scholl and her brave friends' story was shared more publicly after being researched and written about - and also put into film.

My favorite movie - Sophie Scholl:  The Final Days - is now available for viewing on Youtube.  It was produced in 2004/05, starring a lovely German actress named Julia Jentsch, who spoke often of what an honor it was to play this role.  (The movie is in German with English sub-titles.)




You can read a review of the film by Christianity Today here:   REVIEW of The Final Days

It is a relevant story for today.

Sophie Scholl -

• As quoted in Seeking Peace : Notes and Conversations Along the Way (1998) by Johann Christoph Arnold, p. 155

Just because so many things are in conflict does not mean that we ourselves should be divided. Yet time and time again one hears it said that since we have been put into a conflicting world, we have to adapt to it. Oddly, this completely unchristian idea is most often espoused by so-called Christians, of all people. How can we expect a righteousness to prevail when there is hardly anyone who will give himself up undividedly to a righteous cause?