February 22, 1943

John Autry

February 22, 1943

Sophie Scholl, a 22-year-old White Rose (Weisse Rose) activist at Munich University, was executed after being convicted of urging students to rise up and overthrow the Nazi government.

There are many memorials in Bavaria and Germany to Sophie and her group, the White Rose, but little is known outside of Germany. They were medical students who organized nonviolent resistance to Hitler, and were arrested for printing and distributing anti-Nazi flyers.

Sophie, her brother Hans, a former member of Hitler Youth who started White Rose, and Christof Probst, the three young people in the photo, were executed. Few White Rose members survived the war which is why the story is not well known.

#SophieScholl

Lien Rag · February 22, 1943

@JohnAutry

Well, some people do remember...
https://inv.nadeko.net/watch?v=9dLH5gO2DWs

M Estévez · February 22, 1943

@JohnAutry I think older people might have watched the movie about Sophie Scholl (see link below).

Sophie and her brother Hans were absolute heroes. I also admire their parents. If I remember correctly, her fiancé married her sister, Elisabeth, who dedicated her life to the legacy of her siblings.
https://youtu.be/lIc5uDnvWTI

IHateFireworks

@JapanProf

That was released in 2005!!

But fr we watched some of the 1982 Die Weisse Rose in class in high school.

You know, from 23 years *before* that one.

@JohnAutry

Cho · February 22, 1943

@JohnAutry Almost every larger town here in Germany has a street named in their honour. Even a lot of schools bear their names.

Garrulous Ambivert #SNP1SGP2 · February 22, 1943

@JohnAutry
The BBC podcast "History's Youngest Heroes" did an episode on them
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m00282hq

Linda Rose Smit · February 22, 1943

@JohnAutry so ein schöner TTag, und ich muss gehen’

LukefromDC · February 22, 1943

@JohnAutry Best possible response to this would have been for the resistance to take out ten randomly chosen SS or Gestapo agents in the streets, and warn the Nazis that any counter-reprisals would trigger more of the same until the whole town has to choose sides. Give them a strong dose of their own medicine and see how they like it.

I read somewhere that escalating reprisals and counter-reprisals did in fact force whole towns into the resistance.

Late in the war, many US, British, and Russian soldiers took the position that members of the SS did not get to surrender and were executed where they stood if captured or cornered.

Oyu F'ka · February 22, 1943

@JohnAutry Thank you for this - as you say, very little is known about the resistance within nazi germany.

I know it existed....how could it not, tbh?

Would it be a safe assumption that the white flower she is wearing, (not a rose?), was a silent sign of resistance?

ts 🚇 · February 22, 1943

@JohnAutry thank you so much for sharing this. Important to #remember there are always people resisting evil. Chattel slavery faced opposition. Women all along have known they deserve the right to make their own decisions. And we continue to reject apartheid and exploitation as we push for real freedom

John Autry

@Oyu_Fka Interesting question. I'm afraid that is above my pay grade.

Oyu F'ka

@JohnAutry Well, if it's any help, I've just ploughed through Wikipedia, and find no reference to wearing a white flower as symbolic of resistance...and, logically speaking, considering how few they were, it would have been fool-hardy to do so.

Conclusion: Pure coincidence ️.

John Autry

@Oyu_Fka Did the same before my initial response.