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Message: <blockquote data-quote="RealAlHazred" data-source="post: 9863462" data-attributes="member: 25818">A somber day of reflection for me. Disclaimer: I'm a German-American.It's the anniversary of the execution of Sophie Scholl and the rest of the Society of the White Rose. They were ardent critics of the Nazis who distributed flyers explaining why the Nazis were bad. When they were caught, they were given a show trial and executed. Sophie was 21; her brother Hans was 24. Their father, Robert Scholl, also a critic of the Nazi party, was sent to jail five days after the executions for listening to Allied radio broadcasts. He lived until 1974; as a father myself, I can't imagine his pain.Sophie and her brother were initially enthusiastic members of the Hitler Youth, but became disillusioned when they realized what it was really about. The White Rose was made up of students and one professor. They wrote essays on their moral and ethical objections to the Nazis and distributed them. That was their crime.She came to more people's attention in 2009 when Winston Rowntree wrote the comic, "<a href="https://viruscomix.com/page474.html" target="_blank">The Line</a>." It's very long and has a lot of text, but it's worth the read in my opinion. He compares her to Traudl Junge, Hitler's last secretary, who was about the same age and had about the same upbringing. I don't buy a lot of Traudl's story -- she claimed she never knew about the atrocities. But, you know, I wasn't there. Maybe there was enough rationalization and detachment that, consciously, she had no idea. Regardless, it's an interesting comparison.Traudl Junge's story was turned into an excellent movie, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Downfall_(2004_film)" target="_blank">Der Untergang</a> (English: Downfall). I don't usually watch movies about WWII, but it was gripping.Anyway, Sophie Scholl was executed by guillotine 83 years ago today, for the High Treason crime of questioning authority. Her's is one of the stories that made me the antiaithoritarian I am today. And I'm not alone: in 2003, the German public broadcast channel ZDF ran a poll to find the top ten most influential Germans of all time. Hans and Sophie Scholl came in at number 4; if they'd counted just the younger voters (21 and younger), they'd have been #1.“There is a line which a man dare not cross, a line which separates the reasonably just and human from the mere functionary.” -- J. Glenn Gray (1913-1977)“Where they burn books, they will, in the end, burn people too.” -- Heinrich Heine (1797-1856)“How can we expect righteousness to prevail when there is hardly anyone willing to give himself up individually to a righteous cause? Such a fine, sunny day, and I have to go, but what does my death matter, if through us, thousands of people are awakened and stirred to action?” -- Sophie Scholl</blockquote>

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