📃 TREE 435: The message lives on
This is the final post by Valorie Clark for TREE Year 2. Valorie is the creator of the world-famous history podcast Unruly Figures, as featured on the front page of Substack.1
Valorie, thank you so much for sharing these important and too often ignored stories!
Grow slowly
Jeff
One.
In the summer of 1942, four mysterious leaflets began cropping up all over Munich. Daringly, the leaflets advocated for nonviolent resistance to the Nazi Regime.
Each one coupled youthful idealism and an impressive breadth of knowledge that encompassed Christian theology, modern philosophy, and German poetry. They made passionate arguments for passive resistance and reminded people “every nation deserves the government that it endures”.
Behind the four leaflets were a group of college students and a few intellectual adults who supported them. Hans Scholl and Alexander Schmorell are usually credited with writing the first four leaflets, but Christoph Probst, Professor Kurt Huber, and Hans’s sister Sophie wrote and distributed the leaflets as well.
Motivations for their resistance varied. Some had spent time in the military, where they witnessed war crimes. Others had Jewish relatives or were pacifists; Sophie remembered when Hans was almost sent to a concentration camp for loving another boy when he was 16.
On January 18, 1943, Sophie and Hans were caught distributing a sixth leaflet. A draft for the seventh, penned by Christoph, was in Hans’s pocket. They were quickly tried and executed for this work. Hans was 24, Sophie was 21.
In the months that followed, 29 people were tried in connection with the White Rose. Several more, including Christoph were executed.
But their message lived on. A single copy had been smuggled out of Germany to the UK. It was printed by the thousands and dropped from British planes over German cities through 1944. The White Rose died, but their message of nonviolent resistance lived on.
Listen to the rest of Sophie and Hans’ story on the Unruly Figures website or search for Unruly Figures on your podcast app
Two
Replicas of the White Rose Leaflets are embedded into the road in front of University of Munich.
Three.
Inspired by the death of Sophie Scholl for her work with the White Rose, songs like “(Say Goodbye To) Sophie Scholl” carry on the legacy of resistance and sacrifice.
Probably because she was on TREE first 😉
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