Sophie Scholl, The Young Woman Who Stood Up To Hitler With A White Rose
Difficulties carve brave people and the fight for freedom has not been without them. So today we bring you the story of a young girl with courage, Sophie Scholl. To know her we have to travel to Hitler’s Germany, the place and time in which a girl chose to be afraid and confront him, rather than ignore the cruel and unjustified persecution that citizens like her were suffering.
In February 1943, together with another group of young people who formed a resistance group called “La Rosa Blanca”, she was beheaded at the guillotine accused of treason. Curiously, the instrument devised in the French Revolution to end all those enemies of freedom, ended the life of one of its greatest defenders.
The Sophie Scholl Story
“What does my death matter if through us thousands of people wake up and begin to act” were Sophie’s words a few hours before she was killed. He was only 21 years old.
Despite the control and dissuasive measures with which the Nazi regime threatened anyone who opposed its way of thinking, small groups appeared within Germany that did not hesitate to confront, with scarce resources and even less support, those who tried control your actions and, incidentally, your The power of the mind.
They decided that perhaps the regime could control justice, education, health or the army but that it would never break their wills. They weren’t crazy – or maybe they were, but wonderful. They knew what the risk and the price was if they were discovered, their own lives.
In 1937, after some of her brothers and friends were illegally arrested for being part of the German Youth, Sophie became aware of the macabre regime they were subjected to. His vocation was clear, teaching. Although he eventually entered the University of Munich to study biology and philosophy.
The White Rose
Every resistance movement has a name with which its members identify themselves and La Rosa Blanca was the one that our protagonist joined. After having frequented different circles ideologically related to national socialism at the university, she was attracted to this group that did not hesitate to spread its message through pamphlets and graffiti on the walls.
That it was not limited to arguing in intellectual gatherings, but from underground they tried to tell what they thought to a large part of Germany, which with its silence was an accomplice of the barbarities committed by the party led by Hitler. People who, despite not being their target, decided to take a risk that they would have avoided simply by doing nothing.
Thanks to her brother, who was already a member of the group, Sophie began working as a propaganda carrier for “The White Rose. ” A very risky job, because if you were caught with the material on you, there would be no way to escape the charge of treason.
He defended freedom until his last breath
It was on February 18, 1943 when Sophie decided to go up to the roof of her college to drop some pamphlets from there. Nothing would have happened if one of the janitors, who belonged to the Nazi party, had not seen her and had reported her.
Captured and imprisoned, the Gestapo put a confidant as a cellmate. The intention was none other than to extract information from him in order to dismantle the entire group. However, not only did the confidant not get information from Sophie, but Sophie, marveling at the strength that Sophie was giving off, ended up being convinced of her message.
On the other hand, neither Sophie nor any of her captured companions betrayed anyone, despite the torture to which they were subjected and the temptations to benefit from a sentence to which they were exposed. Even today, the White Rose represents the symbol of freedom and in various schools, streets, parks or squares they bear the name of the Scholl brothers.
