What They Believed
While their incredible courage has made them latter-day film heroes, most people today have no idea that the extraordinary acts of the Scholls, Christel Probst, and Willi Graf were grounded in a firm belief in God. Their fourth leaflet boldly called Hitler the Anti-Christ, and declared that ‘[o]nly religion can reawaken Europe, establish the rights of the peoples, and install Christianity in new splendor visibly on earth in its office as guarantor of peace.’ (1, 2, 6)
The Scholls’ mother, Magdalena, was a Lutheran deaconess who taught her children the Bible. Her son Hans also found guidance in Catholic works such as St Augustine’s Confessions and Paul Claudel’s writings. (3, 6) [St Augustine’s City of God (Civitas Dei) would even find mention in the third leaflet]. (2) Sophie kept a well-worn copy of Confessions in the compulsory labor service camp. One line in particular resonated with her: ‘Thou hast created for us Thyself, and our heart cannot be quieted till it find repose in Thee.‘ (2)
German historians Jakob Knab and Guenther Biemer believe today that Cardinal John Henry Newman’s writings influenced Hans and Sophie’s moral, spiritual, and intellectual formation -- including the Christian understanding of conscience. (2)
Professor Carl Muth had introduced them to St Augustine's works, and also to Cardinal Newman's work through his friend, Theodor Haecker. Haecker was a Catholic convert who had translated Newman's writings into German. ' [C]onscience,' Newman wrote, 'is the voice of God....’ (5) Sophie apparently valued Newman's ideas enough to share them with Fritz Hartnagel, giving him two volumes of the Cardinal’s sermons in 1942. (2, 4, 7)
REGINA | 117