Sophie Scholl
1921-1943
Somebody, after all, had to make a start.
Sophie Scholl was a member of the White Rose, a small group of students in Munich who distributed leaflets against the Nazi regime. On 18 February 1943 she and her brother Hans left leaflets at the University of Munich. A maintenance man, Jakob Schmid, who was a Nazi Party member, saw her throw the last leaflets into the atrium, and the Gestapo arrested them that day. Christoph Probst was arrested two days later.
On 22 February 1943 the three were tried before Roland Freisler at the People's Court. They were denied witnesses, found guilty of high treason and sentenced to death the same day. They were guillotined at Stadelheim Prison that evening: Sophie at 5:00 pm, Hans at 5:02 and Probst at 5:05. Her last words are disputed. In mid-1943 the Royal Air Force dropped millions of copies of the group's final leaflet over Germany. Schools, streets and squares across Germany and Austria now bear her name, a bust of her was placed in the Walhalla temple on 22 February 2003, and Germany issued a commemorative coin and stamp in 2021.