The Fluttering of the White Rose At 11:00 AM on February 18, 1943, a biting winter wind blew across the magnificent main building of the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich. Siblings Hans Scholl and Sophie Scholl walked inside carrying heavy suitcases. Inside were not textbooks, but thousands of leaflets of the 'White Rose'—evidence of treason that would lead them straight to the guillotine if discovered. This was their 6th leaflet. The group had previously declared: "We will not be silent. We are your bad conscience. The White Rose will not leave you in peace!" This latest edition condemned the senseless sacrifice of soldiers at Stalingrad and fiercely mocked Adolf Hitler. The White Rose (Weiße Rose) was a secret anti-Nazi resistance group formed by the Scholl siblings, fellow university students (Alexander Schmorell, Christoph Probst, Willi Graf), and philosophy professor Kurt Huber. Armed only with pens and an old mimeograph machine, these young intellectuals risked their lives to awaken the anesthetized conscience of the German people.
The Fatal Moment in the Atrium Classes were in session, and an eerie silence filled the empty corridors. With their hearts pounding, the siblings moved quickly, carefully leaving stacks of leaflets exposing Nazi madness in front of closed classroom doors and around the hallway corners. As their suitcases emptied, they reached the balustrade on the top (third) floor, overlooking the grand central atrium. Soon, the bell would ring, and hundreds of students would pour out. Grabbing the very last stack of leaflets from the bottom of her bag, Sophie Scholl pushed them over the railing into the empty space. The white papers fluttered down like petals of a white rose, descending brilliantly toward the ground floor. But at that exact moment, Jakob Schmid, a Nazi party member and university custodian, saw them. His sharp yell echoed through the building: "Stop there! Arrest them!" Schmid frantically locked all the heavy iron doors of the building. There was no escape. Students poured out of their classrooms, holding their breath as they looked at the white leaflets covering the floor and the Scholl siblings cornered at the top of the stairs. Soon, the piercing wail of sirens announced the arrival of the Gestapo. Surrounded by men in black leather coats holding pistols, the siblings did not tremble or try to flee. Knowing their deaths would awaken thousands of consciences, they exchanged a single glance and walked upright alongside their captors.
72 Hours of Hell and a Kangaroo Court Following their arrest, Hans and Sophie were taken to Gestapo headquarters at the Wittelsbach Palace. Sophie initially denied the charges, but upon learning Hans had confessed in the face of evidence, she tried to take all the blame. Her interrogator, Robert Mohr, later recalled that she was astonishingly calm, arguing against the injustice of Nazism so logically that even he was shaken. Hans also tried to protect his friends, refusing to name names. Tragically, a draft for a 7th leaflet found in his pocket led to the arrest of his friend, Christoph Probst.
To make an example of them, Hitler dispatched the notorious "Hanging Judge," Roland Freisler, to Munich. On the morning of February 22, the 'People's Court' was a mere theater. The judge screamed and insulted the defendants. During the trial, 21-year-old Sophie stared directly at the screaming judge and said: "What we said and wrote are what many people are thinking. They just don't have the courage to say it." Even the demonic judge was momentarily silenced. The trial ended in just three hours. The verdict for all three: Death by guillotine.
The Guillotine (February 22, 5:00 PM) By German law, a 90-day grace period was required before execution. The Nazis ignored this, ordering the execution for 5 PM that same day. In a brief, final meeting, their tearful mother said, "Sophie, I'll never see you again." Sophie comforted her, saying, "Mother, what does it matter if we live a few more years?" Their father held his son's hand and said, "You will go down in history." At Stadelheim Prison, Sophie walked to the guillotine first, stepping forward with such profound dignity that the guards, overwhelmed by her courage, allowed her to smoke a cigarette beforehand. Hans was the last to step up. Just before the blade fell, the 24-year-old shouted: "Es lebe die Freiheit!" (Long live freedom!)
The Aftermath: Guilt, Survival, and Irony Under the Nazi law of Sippenhaft (guilt by association), the entire Scholl family was arrested.
Werner Scholl (younger brother): Sneaked into the courtroom to watch the trial and visited them in prison. After being released from Sippenhaft, he was drafted as a medic to the Eastern Front and went missing in action in 1944.
Inge Scholl (oldest sister): Imprisoned for 5 months. In 1952, she published the book Die Weiße Rose, bringing their story to the world.
Elisabeth Scholl (second sister): Married Fritz Hartnagel, Sophie’s fiancé and a German officer whose letters with Sophie turned him anti-war. She preserved their records and lived to be 100, passing away in 2020.
The Parents: Father Robert was later imprisoned for listening to foreign radio. After the war, he became the first post-war mayor of Ulm.
The Comrades: Kurt Huber, Alexander Schmorell, and Willi Graf were all subsequently arrested and beheaded. Graf withstood brutal torture for months, refusing to give up any names before his execution.
The Fate of the Collaborators
Jakob Schmid (The Custodian): Received a 3,000-mark reward and a promotion. After the war, he was arrested by the US military. He pathetically argued he wasn't political, just "stopping people from littering in the building." The court dismissed this and sentenced him to 5 years in a labor camp. He died in 1964, having spent his final years suing the government to get his pension back—and failing every time.
Roland Freisler (The Hanging Judge): Sentenced 5,000 people to death. On February 3, 1945, during a US bombing raid on Berlin, he delayed entering a bunker to grab a defendant's file. A bomb struck the courthouse, and a thick stone pillar crushed him to death instantly. The file he was holding was a death warrant; thanks to his death, that defendant's life was spared.
The Final Leaflet The Nazis immediately collected and burned all the leaflets in the university. But one single copy slipped across the border to Sweden, then Norway, and finally reached London. Months later, in the autumn of 1943, British RAF bombers dropped millions of copies of a strange piece of paper over Germany. Fluttering down like a blizzard, the heading read: "Manifesto of the Students of Munich" It was the 6th leaflet. The White Rose was still falling.
(Source: "The White Rose" by Inge Scholl)
Note: Today, outside the LMU in Munich, a memorial of broze tiles shaped like the scattered leaflets is embedded in the cobblestones right where they fell. One of the tiles depicts Sophie Scholl.
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