Hans
"Hans . . was born in Forchtenberg on September 22nd, 1918.
Hans Scholl was the dominant personality among them, and not only because of his status as older son and big brother. He had the dark good looks not uncommon in south German males, but a certain Italianate cast to his features refined the modeling of his face and made him handsomer than most. He was tall for his age, slender, and with a kind of tautness that came from energy seeking its outlet." (John Simkin, Robert Scholl, 1997)
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(John Simkins, Hans Scholl, 1997)
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Sophie
(Pintrest, Sophie Scholl, n.d.)
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"Sophie Scholl was born on May 9, 1921, in Forchtenberg Germany"
"Sophie[...] was regarded at home and at school as a self-directed child. She also was considered reflective, insightful, and measured... Sophie, with her dark eyes, short hairstyle, and tomboyish manner, excelled in school, where she was a bright student with an armload of friends." (Vargo, Women of the Resistance: Eight Who Defied the Third Reich, 2012)
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"Ulm -- the city where Sophie and her older brother, Hans Scholl, grew up as Hitler Youth fanatics."
(Newborn, Somebody Had to Make a Start, 2008)
Robert Scholl
(John Simkin, Robert Scholl, 1997)
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"Robert Scholl was a strong opponent of Adolf Hitler and was very upset when Hans and Werner joined the Hitler Youth and Sophie Inge and Elisabeth became members of the German Leauge of Girls (BDM) in 1933. He argued against Hitler and the Nazi Party and disagreed with his children's views that he would reduce unemployment: "Have you considered how he's going to manage it? He's expanding the armaments industry, and building barracks. Do you know where that's all going to end."
(John Simkins, Hans Scholl, 1997)
He was considered an "Einzelganger" which means "a man that goes is own way, alone."
(Dumbach, Shattering the German Night: The Story of the White Rose, 1986) |
Even with his best efforts to stop them, his kids were being brainwashed by the Nazi's promises, and they joined the Hitler Youth Program.
Hans and Sophie "rejected their parents' Christian humanism as youngsters in 1933 to embrace Hitler's offer of racial superiority and the glory of fanatical self-sacrifice to bring about the 'Thousand-Year Reich.'"
(Freedman, We Will Not Be Silent: The White Rose
Student Resistance Movement That Defied Adolf Hitler, 2016) |
A little bit of trouble...
Because Robert took a stand, "The Gestapo had arrested [him] after his secretary had denounced him for an offhand remark made in his office... He had called Hitler "God's scourge on mankind," adding "If the war doesn't end soon the Russians will be sitting in Berlin in two years." A Nazi court convicted him of "malicious slander of the Fuhrer." He was sentenced to four months in prison and banned from practicing law.
(Freedman, We Will Not Be Silent: The White Rose
Student Resistance Movement That Defied Adolf Hitler, 2016)
Student Resistance Movement That Defied Adolf Hitler, 2016)
Resistance In The Family
Sophie became interested in standing against the Nazi's based on her family's beliefs:
"Her commitment to the resistance movement was an act of passion one that reealed n independence of spirit that began in her home with her momcomformist Lutheran parents during the interwar period, the years between 1918 and 1939" (Vargo)
"Her commitment to the resistance movement was an act of passion one that reealed n independence of spirit that began in her home with her momcomformist Lutheran parents during the interwar period, the years between 1918 and 1939" (Vargo)
Werner Scholl
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"Werner, seventeen at the time, became the first member of the Scholl family to engage in a public act of opposition to the Nazi regime. Late one night, he went to the Ulm courthouse, climbed to the top of the statue of Justice, and placed a blindfold marked with a swastika across the statue's eyes – a daring, even reckless, act that he did not admit to until many years later" (Freedman, We Will Not Be Silent: The White Rose
Student Resistance Movement That Defied Adolf Hitler, 2016) |
(John Simkin, Robert Scholl, 1997)