On Sunday night, we watched the movie Sophie Scholl – Die letzten Tage, which shows the last few days in the lives of Sophie Scholl and her brother Hans, members of a passive resistance group in Germany during World War 2. It is a moving film, based on official records and eye-witness accounts. They were arrested for distributing leaflets describing the true state of the war and challenging people to face the fact that Germany could not win against Russia, Britain and the USA.
The evidence against them was initially flimsy and circumstancial, so they tried to avoid imprisonment by denying involvement. As the evidence mounted, Sophie openly admits her involvement, and refuses to take the offered means of lessening her penalty, because she would have had to deny her convictions that what they had written was right and true. The film does not show Hans’ interrogation, but the implication is that he responded similarly. The Scholls and other members of their group were sentenced to death in an effectively staged trial. Sophie, Hans and one other member of the group were executed later that same day.
I hope that I would demonstrate the same courage and conviction, although I very much hope never to be in similar circumstances.
technorati tags: Sophie Scholl, Courage
