Sophie Scholl: The Final Days (ATOM Study Guide)

Today in Germany, one of the most popular heroes is Sophie Scholl. She is greatly admired for the bold and courageous actions she took to defy the Nazi regime. She and several other members of the White Rose, including her brother Hans, clandestinely published and distributed anti-Nazi literature. Between the early summer of 1942 and February 1943, people in cities in the South of Germany and in Austria found leaflets in their mail boxes calling for protests against the Nazi regime. On 19 February 1943, Hans and Sophie took a great risk by placing copies of a sixth leaflet produced by the White Rose Group in the deserted halls of the University of Munich. After a janitor spotted them, they were arrested by the Gestapo. Sophie, her brother Hans and Christoph Probst were soon tried and executed.

The recent film, Sophie Scholl: The Final Days, directed by German director Marc Rothemund, reconstructs the last six days of her life. Based on actual trial transcripts and official police records, this film dramatises her arrest, her interrogation, her imprisonment, her trial, and her execution.

This film reminds its viewers that German resistance did occur and that young adults played prominent roles in the German resistance movement. It is also a reminder of how difficult resistance can be in a dictatorship. Even democracies have problems with law enforcement against minorities and dissenters. Therefore, the White Rose case study can be valuable to teach not only about the Nazi era, but also about issues surrounding law, dissent, patriotism and the price that is paid for standing up against what might be termed an 'evil' regime.