Sophie Scholl:The Final Days

(Scene from the movie) Sophie on trial in the "People's Court"

A few weeks ago, we were at one heck of a firepit party when Charlie asked us what movies we'd seen recently. We're Netflix converts, and told him the last good movie we saw was "Downfall," about Hitler's final days in Berlin. (It was a good movie).

Anyway, Charlie suggested we see "Sophie Scholl: The Final Days" about a young Christian who was executed for her membership in an anti-Nazi resistance group when she was caught passing out fliers at her university. (Here is his review).

The movie really struck me (I didn't really know the story beforehand). Sophie, her brother, and a friend were caught distributing leaflets at the University of Munich. Four days later they were tried and then executed by guillotine the same afternoon. Can you imagine a death sentence being carried out the same day as the trial in the U.S.?!

Sophie had heard of the horrors of the Nazi gassing of mentally disabled German children, the rumors of Jewish death camps, and watched as police spat in the face of her Jewish school teacher. Through the interrogations and trial, Sophie never gave up her cause. She knew it could lead to her death, but was unwilling to admit wrong and pledge allegiance to the Third Reich. Her resistance group, the White Rose, urged passive resistance and not violence, but they were still condemned to death.

Her last words were, "How can we expect righteousness to prevail when there is hardly anyone willing to give himself up individually to a righteous cause. Such a fine, sunny day, and I have to go. But what does my death matter, if through us thousands of people are awakened and stirred to action?" Sophie was only 21.

After the deaths of Sophie, her brother Hans, and their friend Christoph Probst (a young father of three), a juror smuggled the letters written by the White Rose out of Germany. They made their way to Britain and were dropped by the millions over Germany by the Allied forces' planes.

(Real Life) From Left: Hans Scholl, Sophie Scholl, and Christoph Propst.

I'm so thankful that, no matter how much I may disagree with American politics, there is probably no issue worth dying over. I could argue for lower taxes and smaller government until my voice gives out, but it's definitely not a life and death issue.