Sophie Scholl

“How can we expect righteousness to prevail when there is hardly anyone willing to give himself up individually to a righteous cause?”

Sophie Scholl was perhaps one of the most exceptionally brave women of the 20th Century and is even now rated as one of the most admired German women ever for standing up to the Nazi Party and giving her life for freedom.

Forming a passive resistance movement at the University of Munich, she handed out leaflets encouraging fellow Germans to resist the Nazi movement using philosophical and Biblical reasoning. The group she belonged to was called The White Rose. Initially their group was created by stories of war crimes including the mass killings of Jews on the Eastern front of the war.

Sophie, her brother, and another member of The White Rose were interrogated by the Gestapo and sent to a court with no defense allowed. They were found guilty and sentenced to die by Guillotine 5 hours later. Sophie’s words in court were as follows: “Somebody, after all, had to make a start. What we wrote and said is also believed by many others. They just don't dare express themselves as we did.”

Today Sophie and her brother’s memory is enshrined in Germany in many ways through the naming of streets, buildings, schools, and squares in their memory. There is a bust of Sophie on display since 2003 in the Walhalla Temple.

Being Valorous is honorable, inspiring Valor in others is unforgettable.