"Somebody, after all, had to make a start."

I’ve been thinking a lot about Sophie Scholl. If you don’t know her story, Sophie and her brother Hans and three friends, Alexander Schmorell, Willi Graf, Jurgen Wittenstein and Christoph Probst (among others) were a group of university students who undertook a campaign of passive resistance against the Nazi regime, calling themselves the White Rose.

 The White Rose predominantly engaged intellectuals and students through leaflets urging resistance that they printed at great risk to themselves. In February 1943 a janitor observed Sophie dropping flyers in the atrium at the university and turned her in. Sophie, Hans and Christoph were arrested by the Gestapo on February 18, 1943. On February 22, they appeared before the notoriously vicious judge Roland Freisler in a show trial.  No testimony was allowed, but Sophie spoke these words: "“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." They were the only words spoken by any of the defendants, who were found guilty of treason and sentenced to death. They were all executed that same day.

Although her resistance lasted barely one year, it stands as a testament to courage in the face of terror and evil. She was only 21 years old.

Freisler was killed when a bomb hit the court building on February 3, 1945 and column from his courtroom toppled and crushed him. According to Wikipedia: Luise Jodl, wife of General Alfred Jodl, recounted more than 25 years later that she had been working at the Lützow Hospital when Freisler's body was brought in, and that a worker commented, "It is God's verdict." According to Mrs. Jodl: "Not one person said a word in reply. 

Read more about The White Rose.