Remembering Sophie Scholl And The Anti- Nazi Resistance On The 77th Anniversary Of Her Death

’20 Feb. 22 Sat. St. Petersburg, FL

Mark Skogman Senior Reporter Spectrum 360 Media

Today is Saturday 22 February, 2020. On this date in 1943, the wonderful Lutheran Christian, anti- Nazi activist and member of the White Rose Society, Sophie Scholl was executed by the Nazi German government by beheading with a guillotine at age 21 for her “treason” against the Nazi Regime for publishing and distributing 6 anti- Nazi leaflets.

She stated at her “trial”, “Somebody, after all, had to make a start. What we wrote and said is also believed by many others. They just don’t dare express themselves as we did.” Her last statement during her life before being executed was “Such a fine, sunny day, and I have to go… what does my death matter, if through us, thousands of people are awakened and stirred to action?” Her brother Hans Scholl and friend Christoph Probst were also executed with her that day at 5PM, implicated in the same offense by the Nazis.

After the death of the activists, the sixth leaflet was successfully smuggled out of Nazi Germany by German jurist and member of the anti- Nazi Kreisau Circle Helmuth James Graf Von Moltke to the United Kingdom. The leaflet was printed and distributed by the Allied Forces. Later, in mid-1943, the leaflets were air dropped over Germany in the millions with the new title “The Manifesto of the Students of Munich”. Remembering Sophie Scholl on the 77th anniversary of her death and all the members of the Kreisau Circle and the anti- Nazi Resistance killed by the German Nazi Regime.

Of historical note, the wonderful Lutheran Christian pastor, theologian and founding member of the Confessing Church, Dietrich Bonhoeffer was also a member of the Kreisau Circle as well as Helmuth von Moltke. Sophie Scholl, Hans Scholl, Christoph Probst, Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Helmuth von Moltke are all highly regarded personal heros of mine as well as other members of the White Rose Society, the Kreisau Circle and the anti- Nazi German Resistance.

There is an excellent documentary film that documents the situation with The Resistance in Nazi Germany and has many lessons to teach us about the current situation in our own country in the United States with the rise of Trumpian American fascism and the attempt by the Trump Administration to create a “unitary executive” constitutional dictatorship and The Resistance to it. It is entitled “The Restless Conscience: Resistance To Hitler Inside Nazi Germany 1933- 45”. The film was released in 1992 and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary feature. The film was produced and financed on a low budget by a Jewish woman who admittedly became obsessed with the subject for almost 10 years to make the film. Her name is Hava Kohav Beller. I highly recommend this film. When I first saw this film, it made a very big impression on me. It is highly instructional and pertinent to our current situation in the U. S. Watch and listen while you still can.

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Links:

Sophie Scholl

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sophie_Scholl

Helmuth James Von Moltke

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helmuth_James_von_Moltke

Dietrich Bonhoeffer

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dietrich_Bonhoeffer

Film: “Restless Conscience”

http://www.therestlessconscience.com/

Film Preview: Restless Conscience

Photo Credit: Wikipedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Sophie_Scholl.jpg

License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/deed.en