In Memory of Sophie and Hans Scholl

[Prestidigitweeze]

I've sometimes encountered people who dismissed any older person with a German accent as being a "Nazi." Here's a story of resistance and sacrifice that shows how incorrect that stereotype really is.

White Rose: The Germans Who Tried to Topple Hitler

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Yesterday was the 70th anniversary of the murder of poet and activist, Sophie Scholl, and her brother, Hans.

Here are Sophie Scholl's last words to her cellmate, Else Gebel:

"It is a splendid sunny day and I have to go. But how many will have to die on the battlefield in the days to come; how many of the young and promising will lose their lives? What does my death matter if by our acts thousands are warned and alerted?"

II recall hearing about the Scholls quite some time before I spent my last six months of graduate school in Munich, Germany at the Technische Universität München. To get to the university on a bicycle from where I was living I had to pass a road that was named after the Scholls. I asked my native German office mate about that one day if that was in memory of those involved in the White Rose movement. She said yes and expressed surprise that I knew anything about that. I guess all Americans are not ignorant about anything except Americana. Some of us may be ugly and American, but we're not 'ugly Americans.'

The Friends of the Library organization for my local library [of which I am a member] recently sponsored a screening of a film about Mildred Harnack and her husband in the auditorium on the library third floor. The only American woman executed by the Nazis by direct order of Hitler.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=roamt0q7vQA

[Prestidigitweeze]

Thanks for the bump, the personal story and the link.

If only the White Rose Movement were taught in high school history classes outside of Germany.

Many of us in America and the UK want people across the world to know we don't always agree with the prejudices of other citizens or the actions of our governments. We of all people should recognize that citizens from other countries might feel the same way.

Those who demonstrate the courage to act on their conscience in deadly circumstances deserve our remembrance, compassion and respect.

Another example of such a sacrifice is the deportation and murder of the great French surrealist poet, Robert Desnos.

[Billi]

Originally Posted by Hamlet53

The Friends of the Library organization for my local library [of which I am a member] recently sponsored a screening of a film about Mildred Harnack and her husband in the auditorium on the library third floor. The only American woman executed by the Nazis by direct order of Hitler.

I've quite recently read a very interesting biography of Mildred Harnack:
RESISTING HITLER: MILDRED HARNACK AND THE RED ORCHESTRA.
by Shareen Blair Brysac but unfortunately I can't tell you anything about its availability as paper or e-book (I've read the German translation).

[Prestidigitweeze]

Thanks for the rec, Billi. Resisting Hitler is available as an ebook in English here and here.

How did you feel about Brysac's presentation of the life of the only American woman ever executed for treason during WWII, let alone the only one tortured and beheaded on Hitler's orders?

And of course, Mildred Harnack's German husband was killed as well, as were many of the couple's friends and family members.

Originally Posted by Billi

I've quite recently read a very interesting biography of Mildred Harnack:
RESISTING HITLER: MILDRED HARNACK AND THE RED ORCHESTRA.
by Shareen Blair Brysac but unfortunately I can't tell you anything about its availability as paper or e-book (I've read the German translation).