Sophie Calmly Faces Nazi Torture and Death
All who witnessed their last days were struck by their ‘Seelenkraft,' their 'strength of soul.’3 Sophie’s calm fortitude so impressed her interrogator, Robert Mohr, that he actually offered her a way out: that she admit to having misunderstood what National Socialism meant and must regret what she did.
“Not at all,” Sophie defied him. “It is not I, but you, Herr Mohr, who have the wrong Weltanschauung ('world view'). I would do the same again.” (3)
The executioner himself, a veteran of thousands of such tasks, said that he had never seen anyone meet her fate so calmly as Sophie Scholl did. She was 21 years old.
Not ideology, but Faith sustained them
Seventy years after their deaths, the exceptional moral courage of these young people remains astounding. It was not a political agenda nor an ideology but basic human decency and life-affirming beliefs based on strong religious convictions that inspired and sustained the White Rose martyrs.
Hans was 24, Sophie was 21, Christel was 23, and Willi was 25 years old when their brave young lives were extinguished.
Would that their heroism live on to inspire more bravery in us all.
References
1 Scholl, Inge. The White Rose: Munich, 1942-1943. Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press, 1983.
[NOTE: Inge Scholl was the sister of Hans and Sophie. The book was originally written in 1970, and a new Introduction by Dorothee Soelle is included in the 1983 edition.]
2 McDonough, Frank. Sophie Scholl: The Real Story of the Woman Who Defied Hitler, Stroud, Gloucestershire: History Press, 2009.
*Note 13 in Chapter Three mentions Jakob Knab’s findings on the Cardinal Newman influence.
[NOTE: The latest, with a few additional tidbits that have not been mentioned in previous publications.]
3 Hanser, Richard. A Noble Treason: The Story of Sophie Scholl and the White Rose Revolt Against Hitler. New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1979.
[NOTE: Excellently written, hard to put down.]
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