In Nazi Germany, a group of German university students formed a brave resistance group called the White Rose. One of them was Sophie Scholl, just 21 years old. She was arrested on February 18th, 1943, and sentenced to death by guillotine. Sophie was beheaded by the Nazis after being caught trying to desperately awaken her fellow German citizens to the horrors of what was happening all around them.
From the second leaflet distributed by the White Rose throughout Munich…
We do not want to discuss here the question of the Jews, nor do we want in this leaflet to compose a defense or apology. No, only by way of example do we want to cite the fact that since the conquest of Poland three hundred thousand Jews have been murdered in this country in the most bestial way. Here we see the most frightful crime against human dignity, a crime that is unparalleled in the whole of history. For Jews, too, are human beings – no matter what position we take with respect to the Jewish question – and a crime of this dimension has been perpetrated against human beings.
Why do German people behave so apathetically in the face of all these abominable crimes, crimes so unworthy of the human race? Hardly anyone thinks about that. It is accepted as fact and put out of mind. The German people slumber on in their dull, stupid sleep and encourage these fascist criminals; they give them the opportunity to carry on their depredations; and of course they do so. Is this a sign that the Germans are brutalized in their simplest human feelings, that no chord within them cries out at the sight of such deeds, that they have sunk into a fatal lack of conscience from which they will never, never awake? It seems to be so, and will certainly be so, if the German does not at last start up out of his stupor, if he does not protest wherever and whenever he can against this clique of criminals, if he shows no sympathy for these hundreds of thousands of victims. He must evidence not only sympathy; no, much more: a sense of complicity in guilt.
The vast majority of Germans turned a blind eye to the mass killing of their fellow human beings because those being killed were unwanted, voiceless, and defenseless.
In America, and many other countries around the world, the unwanted, voiceless, and defenseless are once again being slaughtered on a mass scale. Although the group targeted is different this time, they are no less human.
Abortion is the barbaric act of ripping living human beings from the safety of their mother’s womb with the express intent of ending their lives. Over 59,000,000 prenatal children are killed every year, eclipsing the number killed in the Holocaust. The question of our time is simple: who among us will take a stand to awaken those so resistant to acknowledge what is happening all around them?
Sophie set a high bar for heroism. She risked her future, her freedom, and her very life to correct a great injustice. Her last words just prior to her execution…
“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?”
Will you join the movement?
Sophie Scholl: A Hero Was Born
