In a time of lingering resentment over Germany's defeat in World War I and threat of Bolshevism, Adolf Hitler appealed to the hopes of the German nation by promising salvation and unity. Hitler believed that the German youth were ideologically pure and the key to persuading the people of Germany to support his extreme political agenda. The National Socialist movement spoke to the youth and was deeply rooted in the German universities. It was also here the underground resistance group called the White Rose was born. The group consisted of six core members: Hans Scholl, Sophie Scholl, Alexander Schmorell, Christopher Probst, Willi Graf, and Kurt Hubert. The White Rose secretly resisted by producing and distributing anti-Nazi leaflets that encouraged the German people to stand up against the terror regime on political and ethical grounds. Hitler's strict doctrine of prejudice and division shaped Germany into a foreign entity unrecognizable by most Germans. Despite their different ideas of resistance and contrasting personalities, the young White Rose members, Alexander Schmorell and Sophie Scholl, fought to change the radical landscape of Germany through actions of defiance, and sacrificed their lives for the spirit of the German people; unfortunately, due to their lack of careful planning, their spontaneous and premature resistance missions led to their deaths.
In 1933, Adolf Hitler came to power in Germany. He offered to restore the Fatherland to its statue of greatness before World War I and purge its enemies. Hitler used strong rhetoric to unleash his radical regime. He knew that controlling the youth movements played a significant role in the Nazifying Germany. Hitler believed that the youth needed to be strong. He stated, "Weakness must be stamped out. The world will shrink in terror from the youngsters who grow up in my fortress" (Dumbach and Newborn 25). Hitler was able to gain control of the youth by implementing changes in the educational system and shaping the youth groups in the image of National Socialism. The Hitler Youth now enjoyed enormous power over adults, teachers, and other authority figures. Germany had also gradually transformed into a militaristic country filled with chaos, destruction, and war under Hitler's rule. The Nazis demanded respect and loyalty to the Fatherland and the Fuhrer and those who resisted were murdered or sent to labor camps. The White Rose members believed that Hitler and his doctrine had enslaved the essence of humanity in Germany and Europe; they considered him to be the antichrist that sinfully referenced God. In their Fourth Leaflet they wrote, "When he says peace, he means war, and when he blasphemously used the name of the Almighty, he means the power of evil, the fallen angel, Satan. His mouth is the foul-smelling maw of Hell, and his might is the bottom accursed" (Dumbach and Newborn 196). They resisted him in anyway they could. In their first leaflet entitled Leaflets of the White Rose, they describe the way the Nazis imprisoned the German people and how the regime turned evil. The leaflet encouraged Germans to rise up and resist the Nazi government. The leaflet stated, "Nothing is so unworthy of a civilized nation as to allow itself to be 'governed' without opposition by an irresponsible clique that has yielded to basest instincts" (Dumbach and Newborn 186). It created turmoil among the students because it was the first time revulsion and resistance from within Germany had surfaced. The White Rose members found random addressed in directories and sent their leaflets all over Germany. The surfacing of the leaflets started to worry the Nazi regime because it demoralized the troops and the people of Germany. The Gestapo started a witch-hunt for the authors of the leaflets. The leaflets quoted famous and forbidden works, which symbolized the struggle and freedom of the human spirit. Sophie Scholl became apart of the White Rose activities. Alexander Schmorell, Hans Scholl, and Willi Graf printed the political leaflets. They lacked sufficient resources to mail out the leaflets. At this point, Sophie and Hans decided to personally distribute the remaining leaflets to the University. Alex and Sophie represented the true spirit of Germany reverting the barbarism of Hitler. One day, Sophie's luck ran out. The custodian named Jacob Schmidt caught her and Hans Scholl as they were distributing leaflets at the University of Munich. After initially denying having any involvement on the White Rose or the production of the leaflets. Sophie Scholl took responsibility for her actions. Hans Scholl had already confessed to the crimes. The People's Court had reached a verdict following the court proceedings on 22 February 1943: the defendants published the leaflets at times of war calling the people of Germany to sabotage and overthrow the Nazi regime. The resisters were labeled as the enemy of the state and beheaded. Not long after that, Alexander Schmorell was also turned over to the Gestapo and sentenced to Death. The resisters produced foreign ideas and viciously insulted the Fuhrer. Both resisters touch upon political and ethical problems of the Nazi genocide, the armed conflict with Soviet, and Germans resisting Hitler's regime. Sophie's and Alexander's mistake was their innocence and blunt ignorance of the consequences; their strong convictions and risk-taking attitudes were the elements that led to their imminent death.
Alexander Schmorell and Sophie Scholl grew up middle class milieu where the privileged youth indulged in naturalistic themes, music, art, literature, philosophy, and theology. Alex and Sophie shared literary interests, which formed their restless and youthful personalities. They enjoyed activities such as hiking, swimming, fencing, and skiing. Many young people in Germany believed in Hitler's ideas of greatness and racial superiority. As the brutally of the Nazi regime intensified throughout Germany, Alex and Sophie decided to "Be the performers of the word…not just the listeners" (Dumbach and Newborn 60). They realized that Hitler was enslaving the German people. They had also developed attitudes and styles that clearly set them apart from the Nazi establishment. Both Alexander and Sophie had witnessed all moral voices of protest grow silent and give into the brute force of Nazism. "Zealousness replaced reason, denunciation replaced loyalty and affection; a chilled silence invaded the home" (Dumbach and Newborn 26). They joined the resistance group for similar reasons. For Sophie, her father was the voice of reason; he instilled values of freedom, justice, and equality. She read books by Socrates, Pascal, Heine, and Aristotle, which influenced and strengthen her convictions. Alexander, on the other hand, had a void in his heart and he yearned for his estranged homeland Russia. Books such as Tolstoy, Gogol, and Pushkin shaped Alex's ideas; their writings were heart gripping and touched the core of his soul.
Sophie Scholl was only twelve when she, like so many other young Germans, enthusiastically joined the Hitler Youth. She believed that Adolf Hitler would lead Germany and its people back to greatness. Her father, on the other hand, was not as thrilled with Hitler. Sophie had always had a deep admiration and a sense of understanding for her father Robert Scholl. He instilled values of the democracy, human rights, and freedom in his children. Mr. Scholl taught his children to hold themselves up in hard times. He also told his children that Hitler was leading the German people to destruction. Her political views and attitudes toward National Socialism were shaped through her father, brother, friends, and teachers. Gradually, Sophie realized that her father was correct about Hitler. The Nazis were enslaving the German people and slowly taking away their rights. On the outside, Sophie seemed to be an ordinary young woman but, on the inside, she was strong and persistent. Sophie Scholl was different from other people. She refused to close her eyes to the injustices in society and was too firm in her own convictions to follow others. Sophie had to remain true to her inner self. She understood from an early age that the life of domestic life and motherhood was not for her. She desired independent and yearned for a more meaningful life where she could change the world. Sophie wanted to attend the university. She was often uninterested in National Socialism. "As the time of her examinations approached, the school principal called her to his office several times with warnings; if she didn't change her attitude she would not graduate" (Dumbach and Newborn 45). Sophie resisted as much as she could both actively and passively. When she was forced to go to the hard milieu of the labor camp she wrote, " We live like prisoners; not only work but leisure time is turned into duty hours. Sometimes I want to scream 'My name is Sophie Scholl! Don't you forget it!'" (Dumbach and Newborn 47). She believed that it was the duty of all citizens to stand up against the evil Nazi regime, especially when hundreds of thousand people were being murdered. Sophie is an emotional and psychologically complex individual with deeply religious convictions. During the trial Sophie touches upon the themes of the principles of democracy versus the ideology of National Socialism. She stated hat her convictions are grounded on the compassion, faith, and reason. While she was in prison she dreams of freedom within nature, which reveals her sorrowful longing for the outside world. She said "Such a beautiful sunny day" (Dumbach and Newborn 152). She then went on saying, "How many are dying on the battlefields, how many young lives full of hope…what difference does my death make if our actions arouse thousands of people? The students will definitely rise up" (Dumbach and Newborn 152).
Alexander Schmorell was half-Russian and half-German. His friends called him by his Russian nickname Shurik. His father Hugo considered himself as German and studied medicine in Munich. He settled in Russia where he married a Russian woman. His mother died when he was two years old from typhus. During the Russian Revolution, Alex's family evacuated to Germany. Hugo Schmorell settled in the prosperous suburb of Harlaching, Munich where he established a medical practice and remarried a Russian born German woman. Alexander had a happy childhood. He grew up as an Orthodox Russian Christian. These values affected him and shaped his worldviews. His nurse told him stories of his mother's radiant world. She implanted a longing for Russia, his homeland, in him. Alexander spoke fluent Russian and read famous Russian authors such as Dostoevsky, Pushkin, and Gogol. "He was a talented boy; he loved music, the tragic and gay folk songs of Russia as well as the great classics; he played piano and the balalaika" (Dumbach and Newborn 51). His father wanted his to become a doctor. Alexander went along with this idea unwillingly. He was rewarded with great allowance and freedom to indulge in art, music, travel, skiing, and other activities for the privilege youth of Munich. Alexander was a young, elegant, and charming young man with a brilliant smile. He despised the Third Reich. He believed that "It was not even a question of ethics and justice; it was simply unbearable to live and function in a grey, regimented world inhabited by men and women in uniform, marching in lockstep" (Dumbach and Newborn 51). Before the Nazis took over, he belonged to a right-wing youth group called the Scharnhorst Youth for which he did not bare enthusiasm. As this group was taken over by the Nazis in 1933, he stopped showing up for the meetings. He was the boy that would be forever getting in trouble only to be rescued by his father's money and influences. "He could be inconsiderate, he could be reckless, he was prodigal in his energies and talents and affections, and there was no sense of caution in him; he simply did not understand what it meant to play things safe" (Dumbach and Newborn 52). Alex experienced a severe emotional crisis at the beginning of his army career. He had to swear absolute devotion, loyalty, and truth to Adolf Hitler. "He could not do it; he completely broke down. Finally, he went to the commanding officer and told him that he was unable to take the oath-incredible as that seems- and asked to be released from military duty" (Dumbach and Newborn 52). Alex did not experience any repercussions of these actions. He was not punished or killed. He had witnessed the ordeals in the ghettos and the brutal beatings and violence of Russians. He despised the Third Reich.
The act of passive resistance is sometime more effective when one wants to profoundly change the word. However, it takes more than a great leader to make the act of passive resistance to be effective; it takes a culture that is willing to hear it. The White Rose believed that they could overthrow the Nazi government by adopting strategies of nonviolent passive resistance. The problem the resistance members faced was that it was impossible to stage any kind of political resistance and criticize the Nazi regime openly without facing harsh repercussions of being labeled as the enemy of the people and killed. Moreover, both passive and active resistance is hard work. The White Rose constantly lacked resources such as stamps, envelopes, and money. They were always constantly living in fear of the Hitler's totalitarian government; they had had a secret life to protect their family and friends. The Nazis encouraged people to turn in their parents, friends, relatives, and neighbors. In short, anyone who disagreed with the methods and ideology of Nazism would be in terrible trouble. Therefore, Alexander Schmorell and Sophie Scholl were both convinced that Hitler was a catastrophe for humanity. They resisted his terror regime with conscience, empathy, and the principles of democracy. However, the group was not disciplined because most of their actions were both spontaneous and premature. They did not have well planned resistance strategies when going out on these dangerous resistance missions. Many times, both Alexander and Sophie traveled alone, dressed in civil clothes, and without legal documents. They performed reckless resistance efforts that put them in unnecessary risks. Even the timing of the release of the leaflets were not cleverly planned, it was simply a way for the students to reach the masses of Germany. The resisters should have been seeking out influential allies and shying away from risky missions of political activism. They should have mobilized their efforts by collaborating with other resistance groups such as the Red Orchestra, Communist groups, Christian groups, Jewish groups, and other underground groups. The White Rose had connections in Berlin, Hamburg, Vienna, and Munich, which they should have tried to utilize to make their resistance effort bigger. If the White Rose had planned better and collaborated with other groups they would have had a stronger effect on the people of Germany. Instead, the resistance effort in Germany often consisted of smaller and isolated groups, which were unable to mobilize and have strong enough impact on the society to overthrow the government. Moreover, Alexander should have used his father's money to buy more supplies and documents. He received a substantial amount of allowance, which he should have used to buy forged documents to save more people. He could have also used these papers to save himself when he was fleeing from Munich.
The lessons of the White Rose are clear; everyone is in a position to change the world and that the responsibility lies in the arms of all humanity. No matter how difficult it may seem, Alexander and Sophie, demonstrated that it is possible for anyone to make a significant difference in the society. They opened the Germans' eyes to the horrors the Nazi regime inflicted upon thousands of people. Although Alexander Schmorell's and Sophie Scholl's actions were at time risky and premature, their struggles are universal and timeless. They affected millions of people with written words and are still the voice of humanity today.
