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The White Rose

Task

With hindsight a lot of people wondered how someone like Hitler could come to power in Germany in the thirties. They asked themselves how it was possible that people choose voluntarily for Hitler.

Many people have, in retrospect, wondered how it was possible for someone like Adolf Hitler to come to power in Germany in the thirties. And how it was possible for people to voluntarily chose for Hitler. So did Sophie and Hans Scholl. In the book 'The White Rose' their sister, Inge Scholl,describes that they were initially impressed by Hitler and National Socialism. Gradually, however, doubts arose in them and their enthusiasm turned into disgust. Both were eventually involved in a resistance movement against Hitler. Along with several other students, they formed the resistance group 'The White Rose, who was distributing leaflets at Munich University.

In this yask you will write, along with two other students, an essay in which you show how this process proceeded. The central question in this task is:

Why were the Scholls, and not only they, at first so excited about Hitler to end up, unlike most Germans, in the resistance?

Hans and Sophie Scholl paid a very high price for their contribution in the resistance, they were sentenced to death and killed by the guillotine.

To be able to answer this central question you will first collect the necessary information by doing these tasks.

At 4.30 Mohr comes in. He is still in his hat and coat, white as chalk. I am the first to ask,'is it really truw that all three (Sophie Scholl, Hans Scholl, Christoph Probst) will die?' He only nods, himself still shaken by the experience. 'How did she take the sentence? Did uoy have a chance tot talk to Sophie?'In a tired voice he answers, 'She was very brave; I talked with her in Stadelheim prison. Ans sh was permited to see her parents/'Fearfully I ask, 'Is there no chanse at all for a plea of mercy?
'He looks up at the clock on the wall and saus softly, in a dull voice, 'Keep her in your thoughts during the next half hour. By that time she will have come tot the end of her suffering''

Else Gebel (political prisoner and cellmate of Sophie Scholl in her last days), in The White Rose, 146/147.

The White Rose

Sophie Scholl

Hans Scholl