German non-violent resistance to the Nazis

On 18 February 1943, Sophie and Hans Scholl, members of the “White Rose” group distributed a leaflet protesting against the policies of Hitler, the SS and the Nazi regime. They were caught doing this at the University of Munich, imprisoned and interrogated. With a co-fellow Christoph Probst they were summarily prosecuted by the Volksgerichthof (People’s Court) on 22 February.  Found guilty, they were beheaded by the guillotine the same day. Later, three of their comrades were executed, others received punishment, some escaped. George J. Wittenstein, the sole survivor of the core group wrote this account.

Sophie Scholl,  with her brother Hans Scholl, left, and White Rose member Christoph Probst in July 1942.                  (Credit: George Wittenstein)

The leaflet was smuggled to Britain that summer, and 3,8 million copies were spread over Germany by the Royal Air Force (RAF). The group’s non-violent actions against the Nazis, in the heart of the regime, has inspired and given hope to many Germans and others. Two hundred German schools are named for the Scholls. Two films have been made, “Die Weisse Rose” and the Award-winning “Sophie Scholl - The Final Days”. 

.                              The film “Sophie Scholl – The final days”.

Background

Nazi Germany was a totalitarian state where any open opposition was repressed brutally. Hans Scholl, Willi Graf, and Alexander Schmorell, students of medicine at the University of Munich did front service on the Eastern front. They experienced first hand SS soldiers killing Jewish civilians. Back in Munich they discussed with other students what they could do. They formed a group “The White Rose” with the intention to awake more people in Germany about what was going on. In June 1942 they started to write pamphlets opposing the policies of the Nazi regime. They quoted liberally from the works of Friedrich Schiller and Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. When Hans’ sister Sophie learned about it she insisted to participate. The sent the pamphlets to students and professors in Germany by mail, and left others in public phonebooks. In all six pamphlets were printed and sent, and the group members also painted graffiti on public walls. They didn’t know, but they were one of 300 groups in Germany resisting the regime, according to George J. Wittenstein.

The end of the Nazi Judge

It was the well-known Nazi judge Roland Freisler. He was State Secretary of the Reich Ministry of Justice and President of the People's Court. The People’s Court did show trials sentencing thousands of Germans to the death, and Freisler was the one who sentenced most of them. Preparing for a show trial on 3 February 1945 in Berlin against Fabian von Schlabrendorff, one of the participators of the plot to kill Hitler, he was killed by a bomb from a US bomber plane.

Professor Huber, author of the sixt leaflet    He was executed.

Atrium of the University where they spread the leaflets

Lilo Ramdohr and Carl G. Fürst in Munich, February 1944. Lilo survived the war.

Hans and Sophie Scholl on an East German postage stamp in 1961.

A bit ironic given the East German treatment of opponents to their own regime.

Sources and more information

http://white-rose-studies.org/CWRS.html

http://www.historyplace.com/pointsofview/white-rose1.htm

http://www.newsday.com/lifestyle/story-of-courage-amid-horrors-of-holocaust-1.4925210 http://www.psywar.org/product_1943G039.php

I am open to your comments and proposals.

Warmly

Bjarte Bjørsvik