“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 into action?”
Those were the last words uttered by 21-year-old activist Sophie Scholl before she was executed by way of guillotine on Feb. 22, 1943 for peacefully resisting the Nazi government. Raised alongside her five other siblings in a Lutheran-German home, Sophie had a relatively comfortable and happy childhood. When she was 12 years old, Hitler rose to power—a fact that left Sophie initially unconcerned. She was even a member of the “League of German Girls,” a sort of Girl Scouts with Nazi ideals and values. However, as time wore on, Sophie began to grow uneasy with the growing anti-semitism, and her eyes began to open.
As she began to search for her own truth, Scholl became a convicted Christian, and it became clear to her that she couldn’t stand on the sidelines anymore. While studying at the University of Munich, Sophie joined a passive resistance group—co-founded by her brother, Hans Scholl—called the White Rose Movement. This small group of young people sought to open eyes by distributing anti-Nazi leaflets. Peaceful, but unyielding, the White Rose Movement painted their message across Munich, calling their fellow Germans to stand up against fascism.
In February of 1943, two years before the war would come to an end, Sophie and her brother were arrested, along with one other member of the White Rose Movement. They were brutally interrogated, subject to an unfair trial and sentenced to death. Even though Sophie’s leg had been broken during the course of her interrogation, she stood in court unfazed. “Somebody, after all, had to make a start,” she said. “What we wrote and said is also believed by many others. They just don’t dare express themselves as we did.”
In the face of one of the modern world’s most terrifying regimes, Sophie Scholl’s faith did not waver. She stood strong in her Christian belief, and when she saw injustice, she stood up against it with peaceful resistance. Her last words are a call to all of us, even today, to fight for a better world.