Bluesky

#neverforget | James Carli

82 years ago today, on February 22, 1943, a Nazi executioner forced 21-year-old Munich University student Sophie Scholl into a guillotine in Stadelheim Prison and beheaded her, before also beheading her brother, Hans Scholl, and a classmate, Christoph Probst within 10 minutes. Their crime? Distributing leaflets critical of Hitler and the Nazis. To stand by silently, they claimed, was to be complicit in “the most horrible of crimes – crimes that infinitely outdistance every human measure.” To do nothing was to truckle to Hitler; and “every word that comes out of Hitler’s mouth is a lie.” White Rose’s third leaflet read, “Why do you allow these men who are in power to rob you step by step, openly and in secret, of one domain of your rights after another, until one day nothing, nothing at all will be left but a mechanized state system presided over by criminals and drunks? Is your spirit already so crushed by abuse that you forget it is your right—or rather, your moral duty—to eliminate this system?” The fourth pamphlet made a promise: “We will not be silent. We are your bad consciences. The White Rose will not leave you in peace.” Sophie was caught tossing extra leaflets into her college atrium by a school maintenance man who called himself a “proud German nationalist." He called the Gestapo who arrested Sophie, Hans, and Christoph. Four days later, they convened a show trial after which they each were summarily beheaded. Sophie's final 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?” After the war, Sophie and White Rose were lauded as heroes. Streets across Europe were named for her and White Rose. She has been honored in art, city squares, and cinema. And In 2003, she became the fifth woman honored with a bust in Walhalla Temple, the sacred shrine where Germany honors its heroes. Indeed, resistance is never futile, and antifascism is in fact the hallmark of the Pantheon. #NeverForget 🫡