Culture By Emmie Willis The people felt betrayed by their leaders following the signing of the Treaty of Versailles after WWI which devastated the once-thriving country German leadership had maintained that they were the superior power and would defeat their enemies even when it became clear they were losing the war when the war ended and the Germans signed the treaty Vast tracts of land were taken away and the Rhineland (Germany’s industrial heart) was occupied by Allied troops The German army was reduced to a maximum of 100,000 men All Germany’s colonies were seized and most damaging of all reparations were imposed upon Germany to compensate the Allies for damages incurred during the war It’s understandable that everyday Germans felt bitterness and resentment They felt they were cheated of their rightful victory Into this political climate came the National Socialist German Workers Party (also known as the Nazis) with promises that they make a better Germany—that they would make Germany great once more Sophie Scholl was raised in a Christian household Her parents believed in speaking up for truth The Scholl household hosted many political discussions A few months before Sophie’s 13th birthday not least of which was a rush of youth groups popping up with the aim of supporting Nazi values In addition to the official youth groups were some not officially affiliated with the Nazi party whether because they existed before youth groups became a political platform or because they wanted to explore their own way through Nazi values without having to follow the official rules and their emphasis on military training The Nazis did not like unofficial youth groups and soon a law was implemented banning any such groups who supported the Nazis against their parents’ wishes along with other members of the illegal youth group Werner and the others were soon released with a warning This prolonged time in prison made him start to think hard about what the Nazis were doing comparing them with the values he knew to be true Those questions stayed in the back of Sophie’s mind as she tried to fulfil her dream of studying at university a law was implemented that only those who had served time in National Labour Service would be given leave to seek higher education Sophie quit school to take on an apprenticeship as a kindergarten teacher in the hopes that this would satisfy the requirement she joined the National Labour Service and found it to be arduous The strict discipline with no room for personal expression did not suit her and she chafed at it she was able to enrol in the University of Munich where she studied biology and philosophy while also studying religion as much as she could also attended the University of Munich after having completed his conscription services as a medic on the eastern front.When Sophie heard some of the stories he brought home of the cruelties of the Nazis in their treatment of captured enemies she felt the injustice of it and wanted to do something It wasn’t until she came across a pamphlet one day that she had any idea what she could do This pamphlet contained information about the ugly truth the Nazis were trying to contain as well as a call to action for the citizens of Germany It was highly illegal and if the Nazis found out who wrote it the perpetrators would be killed for treason Sophie recognised the writing and knew immediately that Hans was involved he tried to keep her out of it because of the danger—but she was adamant that she be included she became a member of the resistance group known as the White Rose It was a small group of mostly students and one professor bent on fighting back with the power of truth unable to turn a blind eye to the cruelty happening in their country They still had faith in the German people and formed the White Rose to tell the truth about what was happening and spark a fire of resistance that they hoped would defeat the Nazis and end their reign of injustice They wrote pamphlets and mailed them to people encouraging them in whatever resistance efforts they could manage from sabotaging ammunitions factories to publicly speaking out against the Nazis At the time of the release of their sixth pamphlet it was increasingly clear that the Germans would lose this war also hand delivering the pamphlets around their university Sophie was in the corridor between classes when she realised that there was a stack of these pamphlets that would go to waste if she didn’t act so she grabbed them and threw them down the stairwell a janitor who was loyal to the Nazis saw her and reported her Hans was carrying the draft for their seventh pamphlet The three were executed for treason on February 22 This wasn’t the end of the impact of the White Rose however as the Allies heard of the executions and ran stories in their newspapers about German students protesting the Nazis This helped boost morale near the end of a very long war They also managed to get a copy of the sixth pamphlet which they copied and dumped over Germany from planes Sophie never resorted to violence; she held true to the belief that truth would set them free ensuring her voice and those of her fellow conspirators would be heard far and wide holding her head high in the face of injustice movies and plays have been written to tell her story ensuring that her courage in speaking the truth will not be in vain and that Sophie Scholl will never be forgotten Sign up to get our monthly newsletter Signs of the Times has been published by the Seventh-day Adventist Church since 1886 Subscribe The year was 1942. While the Battle of Stalingrad would begin later that summer, the horrors of the Holocaust were far from over with the mass, systematic murder of Jews at Auschwitz-Birkenau just beginning 20-year-old University of Munich student Sophie Scholl was coming to the conclusion that she could no longer sit idly by and watch the expanding crimes against humanity that Hitler and the Nazi party were commintting Scholl made a commitment to what activists of today might call active allyship joining the White Rose resistance group and in turn stirring thousands of German students and civilians into action even serving time in a Nazi prison later in his life for calling Hitler “God’s scourge on mankind.” It wasn’t until her brother, Hans, was arrested in 1937 for participating in an illegal non-Nazi group that Sophie would begin her awakening, fully turning against the Nazi Party and making her way into the resistance. In 1939, both of Sophie’s brothers were drafted into the war, with Hans being stationed at the Eastern Front. It was here that he witnessed some of the atrocities being committed against the Jews first hand and what would inevitably inspire the founding of the White Rose After serving her required six months of auxiliary war service as a nursery teacher, Sophie enrolled at the University of Munich alongside Hans in 1942 began printing and distributing anti-Nazi Party leaflets around the city of Munich under the name of the White Rose The group was inspired by the examples of passive resistance they had heard about in the United States where groups of students were beginning to fight in the name of civil rights and racial justice The White Rose would eventually write and distribute six pamphlets in total and even cultivating a network of supporters that would help them distribute the leaflets throughout all of Germany The leaflets asked many questions of their readers they asked the same question Sophie asked of herself as she began to grow suspicious of the National Socialist Party and their values: If you know what is happening Along with educating German students and calling for “freedom of speech and protection of the individual citizen from the arbitrary action of criminal dictator-states,” the White Rose’s activist materials implored civilians to engage in forms of non-violent resistance by sabotaging weapon plants and war industries and attempting to obstruct the overall actions of the Nazi Party Leaving a number of copies of the sixth pamphlet throughout the empty hallways of the University of Munich Sophie made the decision to fling the remaining leaflets off the staircase and into the main hall It was then that a janitor and supporter of the Nazi regime saw Sophie and her brother and called the Gestapo immediately and I have to go… What does my death matter thousands of people are awakened and stirred to action?” She was 21 The efforts of the White Rose did not die with Sophie their sixth leaflet was smuggled into the United Kingdom where it was reprinted and later dropped all over Germany by Allied planes because they die too… Life is always on the edge of death; narrow streets lead to the same place as wide avenues and a little candle burns itself out just like a flaming torch does As we bear witness to perhaps one of the largest civil rights uprisings in modern history with the Black Lives Matter movement non-Black allies must ask themselves the same question Sophie and the White Rose asked of the German people: If you see what is happening Sophie’s courageous actions remind us of how important it is to speak out against injustice and to engage in passive resistance not only when our own rights are being threatened but as an ally when the lives of others are at stake and her story is something we would all do well to remember Header image of Sophie via National World War II Museum; flowers via CSA Images/Getty Images Find more of her musings on feminst pop-culture and history on BUST.com and on Twitter @alizapelto By submitting I agree to the privacy policy Does a video shared on Facebook genuinely show "Texas tractors" Customs and Border Patrol confirmed to Lead Stories that there is no evidence that such an event occurred The clip in question was taken from a longer video posted on YouTube by German broadcaster Schöntal TV and was described as a farmer protest that took place on January 14 A version of the claim originated in a video shared on Facebook on January 23, 2024 (archived here) Below is how the post appeared at the time of writing: (Source: Facebook screenshot taken Fri Feb 2 21:40:07 UTC 2024) In response to a query from Lead Stories, Rick Pauza (archived here) Customs and Border Protection (CBP) in Laredo emailed that the agency has "no evidence" that the event shown in the video ever occurred along the Texas portion of the U.S.-Mexico border "The equipment depicted in the reel is not CBP equipment is not indicative of anything used by the agency in our day-to-day operations and does not appear to be the U.S.-Mexico border area," Pauza wrote in an email received on January 31 A description that accompanied the video read: 500 Bauern in den Weinbergen von Forchtenberg im Hohenlohekreis gegen die aktuelle Sparpolitik der Bundesregierung around 500 farmers protested in the wine mountains of Forchtenberg in the Hohenkreis district against the current austerity policy of the Federal Government A comparison of screenshots taken from the clip shared on Facebook (below right) and from the video posted by Schöntal TV (below left) show similar elements, including the white street sign alongside a roadside shoulder seen at the 9:53 mark and a white house located on a hillside shown at the 10:18 mark of the video on YouTube: (Source: Lead Stories screenshot taken Fri Feb 2 22:56:49 UTC 2024) Lead Stories emailed Schöntal TV for further confirmation but did not receive a response the location was also identified as Forchtenberg Madison grew up a perpetually curious tidepooler and has used that love of science and innovation in her now full-time role as a science reporter for the fact-checking publication Lead Stories Chat with our friendly robots on WhatsApp Add our number +1 (404) 655-4223, follow this link or scan the image below with your phone: Please select all the ways you would like to hear from Lead Stories LLC: You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails For information about our privacy practices We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. 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