Sophie Scholl and the White Rose

Resistance and the final prosecution

Sophie Scholl joined the White Rose resistance circle in Munich, where students and professor Kurt Huber produced and distributed leaflets against Nazi rule. Her political development is also recorded outside the group’s public writing. The German Federal Archives preserves her correspondence with Fritz Hartnagel, including letters from her school years and the period of her resistance activity.^[2] These personal records place her opposition within a developing life rather than only the final days for which she is remembered.

The sixth leaflet addressed university students after the German defeat at Stalingrad. On 18 February 1943, Sophie and her brother Hans brought copies to the University of Munich, left stacks around the building and scattered some into the atrium. Custodian Jakob Schmid detained them and alerted the Gestapo.^[1][2] Police arrested the siblings, and interrogations quickly widened the investigation.

The surviving archive records trace that compressed sequence: Schmid’s statement on 18 February, Sophie’s interrogation on 21 February, the indictment, the judgment and the record of execution. On 22 February the Nazi People’s Court sentenced Sophie, Hans and Christoph Probst to death. They were executed at Stadelheim prison that afternoon.^[2] The existence of extensive paperwork did not make this a fair judicial process; it documents how the regime used its courts to suppress resistance.

The leaflet beyond Munich

The leaflets continued to circulate after the executions. The Deutsches Historisches Museum records that the Royal Air Force dropped more than five million leaflets over German cities in July 1943, including excerpts from the White Rose’s sixth leaflet.^[1] The museum preserves an example of that British reprint. A message carried by students through university corridors had reached a vastly larger audience, even as the regime continued prosecuting other members of their circle.

Production and the changing audience

The first four White Rose leaflets were produced in June and July 1942, principally by Hans Scholl and Alexander Schmorell. The DHM describes a mimeograph machine and small mailings to recipients selected from Munich’s telephone book.^[1] The practical work of typing stencils, obtaining paper and sending copies was central to opposition in a society where ordinary public criticism could invite arrest.

The audience and language changed. The earlier texts used literary and philosophical references to appeal to educated readers. The fifth leaflet, issued in January 1943, addressed a wider German public and urged a break with National Socialism.^[1] Enlarging distribution offered a chance of wider resistance while increasing the number of actions that could expose the group.

Letters, court papers and the wider network

The court documents and personal letters answer different historical questions. The prosecution record establishes what the regime charged and ordered; it is not an independent endorsement of the charges’ moral legitimacy. Letters can show Sophie’s developing thought and relationships without revealing every action of a clandestine group. Reading them together gives a fuller life than a judgment alone.

The executions continued beyond February. The DHM records Alexander Schmorell and Kurt Huber’s deaths in July 1943 and Willi Graf’s in October.^[1] Remembering Sophie accurately therefore also means remembering the network and the continued repression. Her prominence in later public memory should not make the White Rose seem like a solitary act.