Sophia Magdalena Scholl was a German student and anti-Nazi political activist, active within the White Rose non-violent resistance group in Nazi Germany. She was convicted of high treason after having been found distributing anti-war leaflets at the University of Munich with her brother, Hans. As a result, she was executed by guillotine. Since the 1970s, Scholl has been extensively commemorated for her anti-Nazi resistance work.
| Born: | Sophia Magdalena Scholl, May 9, 1921, Forchtenberg, Germany |
| Died: | February 22, 1943, Stadelheim Prison, Munich, Nazi Germany |
| Cause of death: | Beheading with guillotine |
| Resting place: | Perlacher Friedhof, Munich |
| Nationality: | German |
| Alma mater: | Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich |
| Occupation: | Student, resistance member |
| Parent(s): | Robert Scholl, Magdalena Müller |
| Relatives: | Inge Scholl (sister), Hans Scholl (brother) |
About Sophie Scholl
Remembered for her mid-twentieth-century anti-Nazi activism, she belonged to a non-violent, student resistance group called the White Rose and was executed for handing out what the Nazi government deemed treasonous political literature.
Before Fame
Before joining the White Rose, she worked as a kindergarten teacher and went on to study philosophy and biology at the University of Munich.
Achievement
She was the subject of the Academy Award-nominated film Sophie Scholl – Die letzten Tage (Sophie Scholl: The Final Days). Actress Julia Jentsch won both German and European Film Awards for her portrayal of Scholl.
Family Life
The daughter of leftist politician Robert Scholl, she grew up in Forchtenberg, Ludwigsburg, and Ulm, Germany, with siblings named Inge, Hans, Elisabeth, Sophie, Werner, and Thilde. Her brother Hans was also put to death for his dissemination of anti-Nazi pamphlets, and her boyfriend, Fritz Hartnagel, ultimately married her sister Elisabeth.
Associations
She and fellow activist Johanna Kirchner were both part of the Nazi resistance movement.
Information related to Sophie Scholl
- Geschwister-Scholl-Preis - The Geschwister-Scholl-Preis is a literary prize which is awarded annually by the Bavarian chapter of the Börsenverein des Deutschen Buchhandels and the city of Munich.
- Helmuth Hübener - Helmuth Günther Guddat Hübener, was the youngest opponent of the Third Reich to be sentenced to death by the Special People's Court and executed.
- Swing Kids - The Swing Youth were a group of jazz and swing lovers in Germany in the 1930s, mainly in Hamburg and Berlin. Formed in Hamburg in 1939, they were composed of 14-to-21-year-old boys and girls in high school, most of them middle- or upper-class students, but with some apprentice workers as well.
- German Christian pacifists
- White Rose members
- Executed activists
- People executed by guillotine by Nazi Germany
- People executed for treason against Germany
- Executed German women
- German anti-fascists
- Women sentenced to death
- Lutheran pacifists
- Protestants in the German Resistance
- Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich
- Hans and Sophie Scholl
- German revolutionaries
- German civilians killed in World War II
- Executed revolutionaries
- German people of World War II
- Resistance members killed by Nazi Germany
- Nonviolence advocates
- People condemned by Nazi courts
- German Lutherans
- Women in World War II
