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At the Heart of the White Rose: Letters and Diaries of Hans and Sophie Scholl
Personal letters and diaries provide an intimate view into the hearts and minds of a brother and sister who became martyrs in the anti-Nazi resistance during World War II.Idealistic, serious, and sensible, Hans and Sophie Scholl joined the Hitler Youth with youthful and romantic enthusiasm. But as Hitler's grip throttled Germany and Nazi atrocities mounted, Hans and Sophie emerged from their adolescence with the conviction that at all costs they must raise their voices against the murderous Nazi regime.In May of 1942, with Germany still winning the war, an improbable little band of students at Munich University began distributing the leaflets of the White Rose. In the very city where the Nazis got their start, they demanded resistance to Germany's war efforts and confronted their readers with what they had learned of Hitler's "final solution" "Here we see the most terrible crime committed against the dignity of humankind, a crime that has no counterpart in human history."These broadsides were secretly drafted and printed in a Munich basement by Hans Scholl, by now a young medical student and military conscript, and a handful of young co-conspirators that included his twenty-one-year-old sister Sophie. The leaflets placed the Scholls and their friends in mortal danger, and it wasn't long before they were captured and executed.As their letters and diaries reveal, the Scholls were not primarily motivated by political beliefs, but rather came to their convictions through personal spiritual search that eventually led them to sacrifice their lives for what they believed was right. Interwoven with commentary on the progress of Hitler's campaign, the letters and diary entries range from veiled messages about the course of a war they wanted their country to lose, to descriptions of hikes and skiing trips and meditations on Goethe, Dostoyevsky, Rilke, and Verlaine; from entreaties to their parents for books and sweets hard to get in wartime, to deeply humbled and troubled entreaties to God for an understanding of the presence of such great evil in the world. There are alarms when Hans is taken into military custody, when their father is jailed, and when their friends are wounded on the eastern front. But throughout--even to the end, when the Scholls' sense of peril is most oppressive--there appear in their writings spontaneous outbursts of joy and gratitude for the gifts of nature, music, poetry, and art. In the midst of evil and degradation, theirs is a celebration of the spiritual and the humane.Illustrated with photographs of Hans and Sophie Scholl and their friends and co-conspirators.
331 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1984
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October 5, 2017
Hans and Sophie Scholl were the most prominent members of the White Rose Nazi resistance group, made up largely of Munich university students and professors who wrote and secretly distributed anti-Nazi flyers. They were exposed after Hans and Sophie were observed throwing flyers in the air in the central hall of the university on February 18, 1943. After a brief show trial presided over by the notorious Nazi judge Roland Freisler, they, along with their friend, Christoph Probst, were executed on February 22, 1943. News of the White Rose activities went global when Thomas Mann read a flyer on BBC radio later that year. After the war, Hans and Sophie—I call her Germany’s secular Joan of Arc—became iconic symbols representing the idea that not all Germans were complicit in Nazism. Today the name “Geschwister Scholl” (brother and sister Scholl) can be found on streets, schools, and public buildings throughout Germany.
These letters and diary excerpts were collected by their sister, Inge, whose lifelong advocacy of their cause is largely responsible for their place in history. Their words reveal two incredibly mature, thoughtful, strong-willed young people trying to sort out and make sense of their lives. They share a love of family, people, books, and disdain for national chauvinism.
Hans was a medical student whose studies were interrupted to serve as a medic first in France and later on the Russian front. He makes a point of engaging with the people and cultures of France and Russia, where he writes about finding “the real Dostoyevsky.” He sees beauty everywhere, especially in the flatness and open skies of Poland and Russia. There is brave humor in one letter when he refers to how the Gestapo censors must have a hard time reading his handwriting but concludes, “that’s what they’re paid for, and duty is duty, isn’t it sirs?” Since we know the ending of his story, his letter to his friend Otl Aicher of January 19, 1943, just 29 days before his arrest, takes on a more ominous note when he writes, “I can’t leave Munich this weekend for reasons that I’d rather tell you than write.”
When Sophie, as a part of her required state service, is sent to a factory to work, she works in an assembly line with a Russian forced laborer, writing her friend that this makes her happy because this allows to try to “correct her views about Germans.” In her late teens and early twenties, her reading included many theological writings and works by Goethe, Sigrid Undset, and St. Augustine. When she writes about trying to read Thomas Mann’s Der Zauberberg (The Magic Mountain) in a dormitory room with ten other girls, it is hard not to speculate what she might have experienced had she known that Mann’s BBC broadcast would tell rest of the world about their resistance activities.
This collection is not a place to start to learn about the Scholls and the White Rose. A good deal of knowledge about their story is needed to appreciate their words and thoughts. But for those who are interested to learn more, Hans and Sophie can be deeply appreciated as flesh and blood humans, not the iconic symbols they have become. These are the kind of people you would love to have as family and friends. Although they may not have been the authors, an excerpt from one of their White Rose flyers somehow seems to sum up their views and amplify the tragedy of their early deaths: “The name of Germany will forever be disgraced if German youth does not stand up and simultaneously avenge, destroy its tormentors, confess [its sins], and build a European spirit.”
(Sophie wrote many letters to her fiancé, Fritz Hartnagel, who served in army and was stationed in France, the Netherlands, Russia and north Africa. After the war he became a respected lawyer and judge who was active in the nuclear non-proliferation movement. Shortly after the war, he married their sister, Elisabeth. Their mutual childhood friend, Otl Aicher, to whom each wrote often, married their other sister, Inge. He became a respected graphic artist who designed the current Lufthansa logo in 1969. For the 1972 Munich Olympics, he designed the still-used sports pictograms and the official mascot, the dachshund Waldi. He also designed the informational pictograms that can be seen in airports throughout Europe and the world.)
These letters and diary excerpts were collected by their sister, Inge, whose lifelong advocacy of their cause is largely responsible for their place in history. Their words reveal two incredibly mature, thoughtful, strong-willed young people trying to sort out and make sense of their lives. They share a love of family, people, books, and disdain for national chauvinism.
Hans was a medical student whose studies were interrupted to serve as a medic first in France and later on the Russian front. He makes a point of engaging with the people and cultures of France and Russia, where he writes about finding “the real Dostoyevsky.” He sees beauty everywhere, especially in the flatness and open skies of Poland and Russia. There is brave humor in one letter when he refers to how the Gestapo censors must have a hard time reading his handwriting but concludes, “that’s what they’re paid for, and duty is duty, isn’t it sirs?” Since we know the ending of his story, his letter to his friend Otl Aicher of January 19, 1943, just 29 days before his arrest, takes on a more ominous note when he writes, “I can’t leave Munich this weekend for reasons that I’d rather tell you than write.”
When Sophie, as a part of her required state service, is sent to a factory to work, she works in an assembly line with a Russian forced laborer, writing her friend that this makes her happy because this allows to try to “correct her views about Germans.” In her late teens and early twenties, her reading included many theological writings and works by Goethe, Sigrid Undset, and St. Augustine. When she writes about trying to read Thomas Mann’s Der Zauberberg (The Magic Mountain) in a dormitory room with ten other girls, it is hard not to speculate what she might have experienced had she known that Mann’s BBC broadcast would tell rest of the world about their resistance activities.
This collection is not a place to start to learn about the Scholls and the White Rose. A good deal of knowledge about their story is needed to appreciate their words and thoughts. But for those who are interested to learn more, Hans and Sophie can be deeply appreciated as flesh and blood humans, not the iconic symbols they have become. These are the kind of people you would love to have as family and friends. Although they may not have been the authors, an excerpt from one of their White Rose flyers somehow seems to sum up their views and amplify the tragedy of their early deaths: “The name of Germany will forever be disgraced if German youth does not stand up and simultaneously avenge, destroy its tormentors, confess [its sins], and build a European spirit.”
(Sophie wrote many letters to her fiancé, Fritz Hartnagel, who served in army and was stationed in France, the Netherlands, Russia and north Africa. After the war he became a respected lawyer and judge who was active in the nuclear non-proliferation movement. Shortly after the war, he married their sister, Elisabeth. Their mutual childhood friend, Otl Aicher, to whom each wrote often, married their other sister, Inge. He became a respected graphic artist who designed the current Lufthansa logo in 1969. For the 1972 Munich Olympics, he designed the still-used sports pictograms and the official mascot, the dachshund Waldi. He also designed the informational pictograms that can be seen in airports throughout Europe and the world.)
July 12, 2016
I collect books about the White Rose, of which there are at least a half dozen. This book comes from the heart, though it does not tell us much about the beloved and admired associates of Hans and Sophie like Alexander Schmorell, Willi Graf and Professor Kurt Huber, who were executed later. The story is well-known in Germany but should be better-known in America than it is. It is sublimely heroic and non-violent. See also The Short Life of Sophie Scholl, by Hermann Vinke.
There is a dramatization called The White Rose, by Lillian Garrett-Groag, that was performed in NYC in 1991, with Melissa Leo as Sophie. This can be got through the Dramatists Play Service, Inc. in NYC. A good performance might be unbearably moving.
There is a dramatization called The White Rose, by Lillian Garrett-Groag, that was performed in NYC in 1991, with Melissa Leo as Sophie. This can be got through the Dramatists Play Service, Inc. in NYC. A good performance might be unbearably moving.
September 10, 2021
Two side notes that have to do with the reading of this book: First, I have a very simple definition of heroism. It is when an individual has a choice to turn his back and safely walk away, but instead goes to the help of innocent, victimized, and disabled individuals, putting his/her self in danger and possibly death, to unburdened those individuals and hopefully bring them to safety.
The death of twelve service personnel at the Afghanistan airport wasn't so much acts of heroism, but tragedy. The choice they made to put themselves in the middle of such a dangerous and humanitarian mission is heroic.
Secondly, Even though the characters in this book often talk about how much better it would be to see and talk to each other together in a house or room, the fact that they wrote so many letters gives us one of the truest accounts of the two most prominent heroes in this amazing account of heroism and humanity.
"At The Heart of the WHITE ROSE: Letters and Diaries of Hans and Sophie Scholl," is an intimate portrayal of two young Germans (Hans on his way to being a doctor) and (Sophie studying philosophy and art at the University in hope of becoming a teacher). They were raised in a loving German family with three other sisters and brothers. Politics nor class were not the reasons for their dissent. Their dissent is the product of a childhood and youth that were deeply rooted in the humane with religious manifestations.
In both their letters to friends and family there is almost always mention of the beauty of nature. Sophie dreams of becoming part of a Birch tree and Hans talks about the beauty of the Russian landscape when he is fulfilling his military service at the front as a doctor. They marble at God's creation, and how each spring it brings forth new life. They love people, and don't discriminate against any one race. Hans talks about the friendliness of the Russian peasants and how they shared food and drinks and sang together.
The 'White Rose Organization' put out pamphlets and bulletins describing the Nazi atrocious against Jews, against Germans, against humanity in every country they invaded. They did not blow up buildings or assassinate political or military leaders. For this terrible crime of uncovering the truth with words, Hans and Sophie Scholl and their friend Christoph Probst were sent to the guillotine a few days after they were arrested for distributing handbills at Munich university. Many of the remaining members of "The White Rose Organization," were eventually arrested and put to death.
Thomas Mann, Nobel Laureate remarked:
“Good, splendid young people! You shall not have died in vain; you shall not be forgotten. The Nazis have raised monuments to indecent rowdies and common killers in Germany—but the German revolution, the real revolution, will tear them down and in their place will memorialize these people, who, at the time when Germany and Europe were still enveloped in the dark of night, knew and publicly declared: ‘A new faith in freedom and honor is dawning.”
Thomas Mann, Nobel Laureate (Broadcasting from exile to Germany on the radio series “German Listeners”
On a personal note: For most of my life I have refused to visit three countries, Germany, Japan, and Italy. Their atrocious against humanity, especially the Germans and Japanese, I cannot find it in my heart to ever forgive them. Despite, what one might read, only a small pocket...a tiny pocket...of Germans resisted the Nazis and Hitler. In fact, Sophie and Hans Scholl were arrested because a janitor who supported the Nazis went to the Gestapo and informed on them.
HIGHLY, HIGHLY RECOMMEND.
The death of twelve service personnel at the Afghanistan airport wasn't so much acts of heroism, but tragedy. The choice they made to put themselves in the middle of such a dangerous and humanitarian mission is heroic.
Secondly, Even though the characters in this book often talk about how much better it would be to see and talk to each other together in a house or room, the fact that they wrote so many letters gives us one of the truest accounts of the two most prominent heroes in this amazing account of heroism and humanity.
"At The Heart of the WHITE ROSE: Letters and Diaries of Hans and Sophie Scholl," is an intimate portrayal of two young Germans (Hans on his way to being a doctor) and (Sophie studying philosophy and art at the University in hope of becoming a teacher). They were raised in a loving German family with three other sisters and brothers. Politics nor class were not the reasons for their dissent. Their dissent is the product of a childhood and youth that were deeply rooted in the humane with religious manifestations.
In both their letters to friends and family there is almost always mention of the beauty of nature. Sophie dreams of becoming part of a Birch tree and Hans talks about the beauty of the Russian landscape when he is fulfilling his military service at the front as a doctor. They marble at God's creation, and how each spring it brings forth new life. They love people, and don't discriminate against any one race. Hans talks about the friendliness of the Russian peasants and how they shared food and drinks and sang together.
The 'White Rose Organization' put out pamphlets and bulletins describing the Nazi atrocious against Jews, against Germans, against humanity in every country they invaded. They did not blow up buildings or assassinate political or military leaders. For this terrible crime of uncovering the truth with words, Hans and Sophie Scholl and their friend Christoph Probst were sent to the guillotine a few days after they were arrested for distributing handbills at Munich university. Many of the remaining members of "The White Rose Organization," were eventually arrested and put to death.
Thomas Mann, Nobel Laureate remarked:
“Good, splendid young people! You shall not have died in vain; you shall not be forgotten. The Nazis have raised monuments to indecent rowdies and common killers in Germany—but the German revolution, the real revolution, will tear them down and in their place will memorialize these people, who, at the time when Germany and Europe were still enveloped in the dark of night, knew and publicly declared: ‘A new faith in freedom and honor is dawning.”
Thomas Mann, Nobel Laureate (Broadcasting from exile to Germany on the radio series “German Listeners”
On a personal note: For most of my life I have refused to visit three countries, Germany, Japan, and Italy. Their atrocious against humanity, especially the Germans and Japanese, I cannot find it in my heart to ever forgive them. Despite, what one might read, only a small pocket...a tiny pocket...of Germans resisted the Nazis and Hitler. In fact, Sophie and Hans Scholl were arrested because a janitor who supported the Nazis went to the Gestapo and informed on them.
HIGHLY, HIGHLY RECOMMEND.
January 14, 2018
Hans and Sophie Scholl are regarded as heroes in Germany. Celebrated for their resistance to the Nazis that resulted in their executions, Munich (and the rest of Germany) is riddled with places and buildings named after the Geschwister Scholl (the Scholl siblings). There were others who died resisting Hitler's regime, but the tireless work of their sister Inge after the war and their youth have made them powerful symbols of principled resistance.
At the Heart of the White Rose: Letters and Diaries of Hans and Sophie Scholl takes the private writing of these two siblings written between May of 1937 until February, 1943, just a few days before they were executed. Even in their diaries, they were careful to omit any references that might put them under suspicion, and they operated under the assumption that their letters were read by the Gestapo. This isn't a book about their resistance, but rather about what they were thinking and feeling and reading. Editor Inge Jens provides some brief paragraphs placing the letters in context of what was going on at the time, but the reader is expected to have a basic knowledge of the story of the White Rose.
These letters tell the story of young people living in untenable times. They've been forced to defer their dreams; Hans of studying medicine, Sophie of finding out what she wants in life. They have to hide their books and watch their words with ever-increasing vigilance. Sophie begins 1937 as a somewhat self-involved teenager, full of enthusiasm and by November of 1942, she writes:
But I can't feel wholeheartedly happy. I'm never free for a moment, day or night, from the depressing and unremitting state of uncertainty in which we live these days, which precludes any carefree plans for the morrow and casts a shadow over all the days to come. When will we finally be relieved of the compulsion to focus all our energy and attention on things that aren't worth lifting one's little finger for? Every word has to be examined from every angle before it's uttered, to see if it carries a hint of ambiguity. Faith in other people has been forcibly ousted by mistrust and caution. It's exhausting -- disheartening too, sometimes.
What made this book so fascinating is seeing how two people slowly began to see the rot in their country and how their conviction was nurtured and strengthened by others; each other, but also their family and the people they knew who gathered together to talk about religion, nature and philosophy and why the regime they lived under was wrong. These people joined the Scholls in their resistance and were arrested, imprisoned and murdered as well, but they drew strength and determination from each other and from their faith. This book is powerful evidence of how important it is to stand for what is right and good, even when the inevitable consequence is death. The Scholls had no idea that they would one day be celebrated as heroes. From where they were, they knew only that unsuccessful resistance was better than comfortable compliance.
At the Heart of the White Rose: Letters and Diaries of Hans and Sophie Scholl takes the private writing of these two siblings written between May of 1937 until February, 1943, just a few days before they were executed. Even in their diaries, they were careful to omit any references that might put them under suspicion, and they operated under the assumption that their letters were read by the Gestapo. This isn't a book about their resistance, but rather about what they were thinking and feeling and reading. Editor Inge Jens provides some brief paragraphs placing the letters in context of what was going on at the time, but the reader is expected to have a basic knowledge of the story of the White Rose.
These letters tell the story of young people living in untenable times. They've been forced to defer their dreams; Hans of studying medicine, Sophie of finding out what she wants in life. They have to hide their books and watch their words with ever-increasing vigilance. Sophie begins 1937 as a somewhat self-involved teenager, full of enthusiasm and by November of 1942, she writes:
But I can't feel wholeheartedly happy. I'm never free for a moment, day or night, from the depressing and unremitting state of uncertainty in which we live these days, which precludes any carefree plans for the morrow and casts a shadow over all the days to come. When will we finally be relieved of the compulsion to focus all our energy and attention on things that aren't worth lifting one's little finger for? Every word has to be examined from every angle before it's uttered, to see if it carries a hint of ambiguity. Faith in other people has been forcibly ousted by mistrust and caution. It's exhausting -- disheartening too, sometimes.
What made this book so fascinating is seeing how two people slowly began to see the rot in their country and how their conviction was nurtured and strengthened by others; each other, but also their family and the people they knew who gathered together to talk about religion, nature and philosophy and why the regime they lived under was wrong. These people joined the Scholls in their resistance and were arrested, imprisoned and murdered as well, but they drew strength and determination from each other and from their faith. This book is powerful evidence of how important it is to stand for what is right and good, even when the inevitable consequence is death. The Scholls had no idea that they would one day be celebrated as heroes. From where they were, they knew only that unsuccessful resistance was better than comfortable compliance.
August 10, 2021
This book is a collection of letters and diary entries written by Hans and Sophie Scholl, two members of the anti-Nazi White Rose movement during World War II. Since their correspondence was being heavily monitored by the Nazis, there isn't much information about the White Rose in these letters. For those who would like to learn more about the movement itself, it would be better to read another book. However, this book would be of interest to those who would like to get to know some of the people behind the movement at a more personal level.
December 28, 2019
I am putting together a list of the top ten most influential books that I read in 2019, and this is #4. I did not originally review it, but would like to share what I have written now:
In May 1942, Hans Scholl founded the underground White Rose resistance group in Nazi Germany. He and his co-conspirators at Munich University wrote and distributed seditious leaflets that denounced Hitler, Nazi ideology, and German complicity in war atrocities, and even though Hans tried to protect his younger sister Sophie by hiding this from her, she discovered what he was doing and insisted on joining. The White Rose group duplicated and spread thousands of copies of each leaflet through a complicated operation, but in February 1943, the Gestapo arrested the Scholls siblings and a friend, held a sham trial, and executed them for treason. Over the subsequent months, the Gestapo also closed in on other members of the group.
I have been familiar with this story for several years, and recently researched it in-depth for my senior capstone project. When I read this collection of the Scholl siblings' letters and diaries, I saw new sides of them that biographers don't include, enjoyed reading their musings on society, nature, relationships, philosophy, politics, and religion, and was very interested to learn about the spiritual awakenings that they each separately experienced in 1941. One of my favorite quotes comes from a Christmas letter than Hans wrote: "It fills me with joy to be able, for the first time in my life, to celebrate Christmas properly and Christianly, with true conviction. [...] I am praying. I feel I have a firm background and a clear goal. This year, Christ has been born for me anew." The siblings' newfound faith and soul-searching turned their passive disagreement with the Nazi system into active resistance, and I find their story deeply inspiring.
In May 1942, Hans Scholl founded the underground White Rose resistance group in Nazi Germany. He and his co-conspirators at Munich University wrote and distributed seditious leaflets that denounced Hitler, Nazi ideology, and German complicity in war atrocities, and even though Hans tried to protect his younger sister Sophie by hiding this from her, she discovered what he was doing and insisted on joining. The White Rose group duplicated and spread thousands of copies of each leaflet through a complicated operation, but in February 1943, the Gestapo arrested the Scholls siblings and a friend, held a sham trial, and executed them for treason. Over the subsequent months, the Gestapo also closed in on other members of the group.
I have been familiar with this story for several years, and recently researched it in-depth for my senior capstone project. When I read this collection of the Scholl siblings' letters and diaries, I saw new sides of them that biographers don't include, enjoyed reading their musings on society, nature, relationships, philosophy, politics, and religion, and was very interested to learn about the spiritual awakenings that they each separately experienced in 1941. One of my favorite quotes comes from a Christmas letter than Hans wrote: "It fills me with joy to be able, for the first time in my life, to celebrate Christmas properly and Christianly, with true conviction. [...] I am praying. I feel I have a firm background and a clear goal. This year, Christ has been born for me anew." The siblings' newfound faith and soul-searching turned their passive disagreement with the Nazi system into active resistance, and I find their story deeply inspiring.
June 5, 2019
The book is split into two parts, each listing letters and diary entries of one of the siblings in chronological order. I love how you can really feel them growing and changing with time. This shows in how they write, what kind of words they use and what they write about. Especially the diary entries are treasures of beautiful and deep thoughts.
I’ll miss reading about Hans’ interest in medicine and philosophy, or listening to Sophie thinking about morals, society or the mystery of god...
It is an awesome feeling when you know, after you’ve finished a book, that the time reading it was damn worth it.
I’ll finish with the two quotes on the book’s cover:
“Ich kann nicht abseits stehen, weil es für mich abseits kein Glück gibt, weil es ohne Wahrheit kein Glück gibt.” - Hans Scholl, 28.10.1941
“Wie könnte man da von einem Schicksal erwarten, dass es einer gerechten Sache den Sieg gebe, da sich kaum einer findet, der sich ungeteilt einer gerechten Sache opfert.” - Sophie Scholl, 22.5.1940
I’ll miss reading about Hans’ interest in medicine and philosophy, or listening to Sophie thinking about morals, society or the mystery of god...
It is an awesome feeling when you know, after you’ve finished a book, that the time reading it was damn worth it.
I’ll finish with the two quotes on the book’s cover:
“Ich kann nicht abseits stehen, weil es für mich abseits kein Glück gibt, weil es ohne Wahrheit kein Glück gibt.” - Hans Scholl, 28.10.1941
“Wie könnte man da von einem Schicksal erwarten, dass es einer gerechten Sache den Sieg gebe, da sich kaum einer findet, der sich ungeteilt einer gerechten Sache opfert.” - Sophie Scholl, 22.5.1940
May 6, 2018
“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?”
Those were the courageous and inspiring last words of Sophie Scholl, an idealistic twenty-one-year-old former kindergarten teacher who was executed by guillotine on February 22, 1943 for her part in distributing anti-Nazi leaflets at a Munich university. Her twenty-four-year-old brother Hans, a medic recently returned from the Russian front—who along with Sophie and a small circle of other young German intellectuals styled themselves members of the “White Rose” resistance—met the same fate that day. His final words were more succinct, perhaps less poetic than hers, but no less bold. Before he died, Hans said simply: "Long live freedom!"
It is often painful to read the contents of At the Heart of the White Rose: Letters and Diaries of Hans and Sophie Scholl, edited by Inge Jens, because we know how the story ends. But their twin stories are no less beautiful to experience through this collection of letters and random diary entries that cover several years leading up to their untimely deaths. While there are sometimes coded remarks, especially in the later period, that more starkly acknowledge their moral revulsion to pain, death, the war, and the atrocities committed in the name of the Nazi regime that filter back to them—as well as their shared responsibility to somehow counter that panoply of wickedness—much of the collection barely references politics or the greater issues and events of the time. Instead, there is an emphasis upon a shared love of art, literature and music, nature and the outdoors, intellectual musings on philosophy, and an increasingly fervent embrace of religious faith to counter the problem of evil in the world.
The Scholl family—not only Hans and Sophie, but another brother and two sisters—were cultured, well-educated, well-read, raised in a climate loyal to liberal democracy, nurtured by their father, a former major, who himself was jailed for referring to Hitler as “a scourge of God.” Hans and Sophie wrote in an era when literate people tended to write much more frequently and more copiously than is common in a twenty-first century replete with email and messaging. Letters were everything. Most of this volume contains the letters that Hans and Sophie wrote to others; we are not privy here to those received in return. They each wrote to their parents and their siblings. Hans wrote to his girlfriend Rose Nagle, and to friends back home. Sophie wrote to her oldest friend, Lisa, as well as, most poignantly, to her boyfriend Fritz Hartnagel, a soldier on the Russian front who became disillusioned by the Nazi atrocities he witnessed and fell more deeply under the spell of Sophie’s commitment to a moral center, despite the barbarity that colored their world.
Hans, a handsome iconoclast scolded by officers for wearing his hair longer than customary, plainly chafed at the kind of “order” stereotypical to German youth in the Hitler era. It is clear that his sense of duty was far less to the Fuhrer than to the mangled wounded and frostbitten unfortunates—German and Russian—that fell under his care. Likewise, Sophie—mandated for a time to perform factory service behind the lines—had far more compassion for the Russian women compelled to work at her side, and for faraway victims of Nazi aggression, than loyalty to the war effort. The quality of their collective prose is nothing less than superlative. Hans’s words are striking and impressive, anchored to an intellectual tradition, firm in conviction, articulate in expression. Yet it is Sophie, wittier than Hans, plainer in appearance, highly artistic, deeply spiritual, and consumed by the beauty of nature despite the ugliness that intrudes upon her, who truly captivates the reader. As Richard Gilman observes in the Preface: “Although one’s admiration for Hans never falters, it’s Sophie who breaks your heart.” [p.xi]
There is much more that could be said about Hans and Sophie, but the primary duty of the reviewer should be to let their own voices be heard. Here’s one from Hans:
I’m not dejected and distracted at heart, truly not. On the contrary, I can see positive values in the midst of a world of brutal negation … As for a world of illusion, I don’t give a damn for it. None of this implies a morose attitude toward others. Far from it. I try to see them as they are and make an equable impression on them, and I don’t shrink from the vilest stench or the muddiest color. They exist. Shadows exist for the sake of light, but light takes precedence. [Hans, in a letter to Rose Nagle, August 12, 1941, p.169]
And one from Sophie:
Now I’m delighting once more in the last rays of the sun and marveling at the incredible beauty of all that wasn't created by man: the red dahlias beside the white garden gate, the tall, solemn fir trees, the tremulous, gold-draped birches whose gleaming trunks stand out against all the green and russet foliage, and the golden sunshine that intensifies the colors of each individual object, unlike the blazing summer sun, which overpowers anything else that tries to stir. It's all so wonderfully beautiful here that I have no idea what kind of emotion my speechless heart should develop for it, because it's too immature to take pure pleasure in it. It merely marvels and contents itself with wonder and enchantment. Isn’t it mysterious—and frightening, too, when one doesn’t know the reason—that everything should be so beautiful in spite of the terrible things that are happening? My sheer delight in all things beautiful has been invaded by … an inkling of the creator … That's why man alone can be ugly, because he has the free will to disassociate himself from this song of praise. Nowadays one is often tempted to believe that he'll drown the song with gunfire and curses and blasphemy. But it dawned on me last spring that he can’t, and I’ll try to take the winning side. [Sophie, in a letter to her friend Lisa, October 10, 1942, p.275-76]
Another from Hans:
The mail I get here is very irregular. I really sympathize with the Gestapo, having to decipher all those different handwritings, some of which are highly illegible, but that's what they're paid to do, and duty is duty, gentlemen, isn’t it! … Another batch [of casualties] arrived here yesterday from Russia … The demands on us differ from those involved in opening other people’s letters and prying around in them. I wonder if those gentlemen would be as courageous if they had to slit open dressings sodden with pus and stinking to high heaven? It might upset them, I fear. [Hans, in a letter to his parents, March 18, 1942, p.217]
And a final one from Sophie:
I’ve never, ever believed that anyone thinks it is good for a weak country to be attacked by a powerful army. Even the worst of men … won’t regard that as a good thing. The supremacy of brute force always implies that the spirit has been destroyed or at least banished from view … Oh, those lazy thinkers with their sloppy notions of life and death! Only life engenders life, or have they seen a dead woman give birth to a child? Or what about a stone, which can’t be denied a semblance of life, since it exists and has a fate of its own—have they ever seen one reproduce itself? They’ve never reflected on the absurdity of the proposition that only death engenders life, and their urge for self-preservation will lead to their self-destruction. [Sophie, in a letter to Fritz Hartnagel, October 28, 1942, p.278]
The writing quality reflected in these excerpts is typical of much of the collection. Knowing their fates, I more than once found tears in my eyes as I turned the pages, especially when I was touched by poor, doomed Sophie’s irrepressible optimism. Full disclosure: I inadvertently obtained At the Heart of the White Rose through an early reviewer’s program because I carelessly skimmed the description. I expected to receive a history of the “White Rose” movement, rather than some three hundred pages of primary sources. Still, bound to a strong obligation to read and review books that come to me via this program, I persevered. The hours I spent alone with Hans and Sophie made me so very grateful that I did.
While the German resistance movement was tiny, and the efforts of the Scholls and the White Rose hardly resulted in a single Nazi military setback, their struggle manifested an outsize moral victory. So substantial, in fact, that the final White Rose leaflet was smuggled out and millions of copies of it were dropped by Allied planes over Germany in July 1943, just months after Hans and Sophie went to the guillotine. Hans and Sophie remain martyrs to a universal cause that still resonates today, particularly in these dark times in the United States and across the globe, where the forces of tyranny seem to have reassembled once more with a chilling vigor.
Hans and Sophie were betrayed while distributing White Rose leaflets by a janitor at the university, an act that sent them to their deaths. I know nothing of this janitor in real life, but I can’t help imagining him much like some miserable, disaffected middle-aged fellow standing in the back of a populist rally here, wearing a red “Make America Great Again” cap, casting hatred and suspicion at those who are not like him, whom he holds responsible for his every failure. One passage from the leaflet that cost Hans and Sophie their lives proclaimed the critical importance of the principles of “Freedom of speech, freedom of religion and protection of the individual citizen from the arbitrary action of criminal dictator-states." In honor of Hans and Sophie Scholl, let’s make certain their sacrifice and those principles are never forgotten. Especially today.
Review of: At the Heart of the White Rose: Letters and Diaries of Hans and Sophie Scholl, edited by Inge Jens https://regarp.com/2018/05/06/review-...
Those were the courageous and inspiring last words of Sophie Scholl, an idealistic twenty-one-year-old former kindergarten teacher who was executed by guillotine on February 22, 1943 for her part in distributing anti-Nazi leaflets at a Munich university. Her twenty-four-year-old brother Hans, a medic recently returned from the Russian front—who along with Sophie and a small circle of other young German intellectuals styled themselves members of the “White Rose” resistance—met the same fate that day. His final words were more succinct, perhaps less poetic than hers, but no less bold. Before he died, Hans said simply: "Long live freedom!"
It is often painful to read the contents of At the Heart of the White Rose: Letters and Diaries of Hans and Sophie Scholl, edited by Inge Jens, because we know how the story ends. But their twin stories are no less beautiful to experience through this collection of letters and random diary entries that cover several years leading up to their untimely deaths. While there are sometimes coded remarks, especially in the later period, that more starkly acknowledge their moral revulsion to pain, death, the war, and the atrocities committed in the name of the Nazi regime that filter back to them—as well as their shared responsibility to somehow counter that panoply of wickedness—much of the collection barely references politics or the greater issues and events of the time. Instead, there is an emphasis upon a shared love of art, literature and music, nature and the outdoors, intellectual musings on philosophy, and an increasingly fervent embrace of religious faith to counter the problem of evil in the world.
The Scholl family—not only Hans and Sophie, but another brother and two sisters—were cultured, well-educated, well-read, raised in a climate loyal to liberal democracy, nurtured by their father, a former major, who himself was jailed for referring to Hitler as “a scourge of God.” Hans and Sophie wrote in an era when literate people tended to write much more frequently and more copiously than is common in a twenty-first century replete with email and messaging. Letters were everything. Most of this volume contains the letters that Hans and Sophie wrote to others; we are not privy here to those received in return. They each wrote to their parents and their siblings. Hans wrote to his girlfriend Rose Nagle, and to friends back home. Sophie wrote to her oldest friend, Lisa, as well as, most poignantly, to her boyfriend Fritz Hartnagel, a soldier on the Russian front who became disillusioned by the Nazi atrocities he witnessed and fell more deeply under the spell of Sophie’s commitment to a moral center, despite the barbarity that colored their world.
Hans, a handsome iconoclast scolded by officers for wearing his hair longer than customary, plainly chafed at the kind of “order” stereotypical to German youth in the Hitler era. It is clear that his sense of duty was far less to the Fuhrer than to the mangled wounded and frostbitten unfortunates—German and Russian—that fell under his care. Likewise, Sophie—mandated for a time to perform factory service behind the lines—had far more compassion for the Russian women compelled to work at her side, and for faraway victims of Nazi aggression, than loyalty to the war effort. The quality of their collective prose is nothing less than superlative. Hans’s words are striking and impressive, anchored to an intellectual tradition, firm in conviction, articulate in expression. Yet it is Sophie, wittier than Hans, plainer in appearance, highly artistic, deeply spiritual, and consumed by the beauty of nature despite the ugliness that intrudes upon her, who truly captivates the reader. As Richard Gilman observes in the Preface: “Although one’s admiration for Hans never falters, it’s Sophie who breaks your heart.” [p.xi]
There is much more that could be said about Hans and Sophie, but the primary duty of the reviewer should be to let their own voices be heard. Here’s one from Hans:
I’m not dejected and distracted at heart, truly not. On the contrary, I can see positive values in the midst of a world of brutal negation … As for a world of illusion, I don’t give a damn for it. None of this implies a morose attitude toward others. Far from it. I try to see them as they are and make an equable impression on them, and I don’t shrink from the vilest stench or the muddiest color. They exist. Shadows exist for the sake of light, but light takes precedence. [Hans, in a letter to Rose Nagle, August 12, 1941, p.169]
And one from Sophie:
Now I’m delighting once more in the last rays of the sun and marveling at the incredible beauty of all that wasn't created by man: the red dahlias beside the white garden gate, the tall, solemn fir trees, the tremulous, gold-draped birches whose gleaming trunks stand out against all the green and russet foliage, and the golden sunshine that intensifies the colors of each individual object, unlike the blazing summer sun, which overpowers anything else that tries to stir. It's all so wonderfully beautiful here that I have no idea what kind of emotion my speechless heart should develop for it, because it's too immature to take pure pleasure in it. It merely marvels and contents itself with wonder and enchantment. Isn’t it mysterious—and frightening, too, when one doesn’t know the reason—that everything should be so beautiful in spite of the terrible things that are happening? My sheer delight in all things beautiful has been invaded by … an inkling of the creator … That's why man alone can be ugly, because he has the free will to disassociate himself from this song of praise. Nowadays one is often tempted to believe that he'll drown the song with gunfire and curses and blasphemy. But it dawned on me last spring that he can’t, and I’ll try to take the winning side. [Sophie, in a letter to her friend Lisa, October 10, 1942, p.275-76]
Another from Hans:
The mail I get here is very irregular. I really sympathize with the Gestapo, having to decipher all those different handwritings, some of which are highly illegible, but that's what they're paid to do, and duty is duty, gentlemen, isn’t it! … Another batch [of casualties] arrived here yesterday from Russia … The demands on us differ from those involved in opening other people’s letters and prying around in them. I wonder if those gentlemen would be as courageous if they had to slit open dressings sodden with pus and stinking to high heaven? It might upset them, I fear. [Hans, in a letter to his parents, March 18, 1942, p.217]
And a final one from Sophie:
I’ve never, ever believed that anyone thinks it is good for a weak country to be attacked by a powerful army. Even the worst of men … won’t regard that as a good thing. The supremacy of brute force always implies that the spirit has been destroyed or at least banished from view … Oh, those lazy thinkers with their sloppy notions of life and death! Only life engenders life, or have they seen a dead woman give birth to a child? Or what about a stone, which can’t be denied a semblance of life, since it exists and has a fate of its own—have they ever seen one reproduce itself? They’ve never reflected on the absurdity of the proposition that only death engenders life, and their urge for self-preservation will lead to their self-destruction. [Sophie, in a letter to Fritz Hartnagel, October 28, 1942, p.278]
The writing quality reflected in these excerpts is typical of much of the collection. Knowing their fates, I more than once found tears in my eyes as I turned the pages, especially when I was touched by poor, doomed Sophie’s irrepressible optimism. Full disclosure: I inadvertently obtained At the Heart of the White Rose through an early reviewer’s program because I carelessly skimmed the description. I expected to receive a history of the “White Rose” movement, rather than some three hundred pages of primary sources. Still, bound to a strong obligation to read and review books that come to me via this program, I persevered. The hours I spent alone with Hans and Sophie made me so very grateful that I did.
While the German resistance movement was tiny, and the efforts of the Scholls and the White Rose hardly resulted in a single Nazi military setback, their struggle manifested an outsize moral victory. So substantial, in fact, that the final White Rose leaflet was smuggled out and millions of copies of it were dropped by Allied planes over Germany in July 1943, just months after Hans and Sophie went to the guillotine. Hans and Sophie remain martyrs to a universal cause that still resonates today, particularly in these dark times in the United States and across the globe, where the forces of tyranny seem to have reassembled once more with a chilling vigor.
Hans and Sophie were betrayed while distributing White Rose leaflets by a janitor at the university, an act that sent them to their deaths. I know nothing of this janitor in real life, but I can’t help imagining him much like some miserable, disaffected middle-aged fellow standing in the back of a populist rally here, wearing a red “Make America Great Again” cap, casting hatred and suspicion at those who are not like him, whom he holds responsible for his every failure. One passage from the leaflet that cost Hans and Sophie their lives proclaimed the critical importance of the principles of “Freedom of speech, freedom of religion and protection of the individual citizen from the arbitrary action of criminal dictator-states." In honor of Hans and Sophie Scholl, let’s make certain their sacrifice and those principles are never forgotten. Especially today.
Review of: At the Heart of the White Rose: Letters and Diaries of Hans and Sophie Scholl, edited by Inge Jens https://regarp.com/2018/05/06/review-...
July 4, 2017
WOW. This is a very important book that is well written and compelling. I have been reading about the circumstances of WWII this year from many points of view. This book by far exceeds the others. Perhaps it is because I find Sophie Scholl to be a testament to the strength of women. What a courageous, brave, positive minded woman. Her story is one of tragedy and perseverance and by far one of the best I've read. Terribly frightening, yet terribly interesting. Highly recommend.
**I received a free copy of this book from the publisher.** Thank you!
**I received a free copy of this book from the publisher.** Thank you!
June 5, 2021
Wow. This is a heartbreaking book. The ending is as abrupt as their short lives. This was the first book (besides works of Bonhoeffer) that I have read about Germans resistance from the inside. I did not know that some of the youth women of Germany were forced to work at labor camps or teachers instead of going to University. Sophie rarely had her own choices after graduating high school. She would have to petition to go to university and finally got in, but everything was dictated by the government.
The first letters of Sophie reflect how young she was. You watch her mature over time. She has such a love for nature, compositions in classical music, and adventure. I think we today should get lost in nature all day as she sometimes was able to do.
Hans was a beautiful poet. He was well read and had such a vast vocabulary for his young age. Although there were some mundane letters to wade through it also makes it so real. You get to know the characters and their hearts. You see them both come to know God and wrestle with many big questions about life. I was so sad at the end about the injustice of it all. Yet, that is also what makes it so powerful of a story.
The first letters of Sophie reflect how young she was. You watch her mature over time. She has such a love for nature, compositions in classical music, and adventure. I think we today should get lost in nature all day as she sometimes was able to do.
Hans was a beautiful poet. He was well read and had such a vast vocabulary for his young age. Although there were some mundane letters to wade through it also makes it so real. You get to know the characters and their hearts. You see them both come to know God and wrestle with many big questions about life. I was so sad at the end about the injustice of it all. Yet, that is also what makes it so powerful of a story.
December 23, 2021
Good primary source material from the Scholls themselves, in the form of letters and diary extracts, plus a few photographs not usually seen elsewhere.
October 4, 2025
What was at the heart of the White Rose was not the heroism of fiction and myths and stories of characters. It was the heroic sacrifice of two (and more) very real individuals.
Hans and Sophie’s letters and diaries begin simply, describing the details and little events of everyday life—the beauty of a walk in the woods, frustrations with obnoxious coworkers, pet peeves and particular observations, low emotions and high. Their lives are like any of ours—normal. But as time goes on and Hans and Sophie rub up against the oppressive Nazi state, their simplicities take on a special importance, and every observation or feeling of theirs becomes a hidden treasure. In some sense, it almost seems like they knew, subconsciously, the fate that awaited them, and lived their lives in accordance with that prophecy. Their shortcomings come into the light and are exposed, and become a matter of life and death. They realize their own utter need for and dependence on the abundant grace of God. “I place my powerless love in your hands, that it may become powerful.” But in the course of a very fascinating and enflaming reversion, they rediscover Christ, who saved them freely, and their simplicities become profundities, the little beauties in their lives a proof of the infinite power of love. “But the sight of an evening sky above the mountains and the gentle sound of bells inspire another vision of humanity in me.”Every word of theirs testifies to their humility and their great hope which conquers all—and it did.
They were normal people, and humble, and great. They were the very best of us.
“Yes, we do believe in the victory of the stronger, but the stronger in spirit. And the fact that this victory may perhaps come to pass in a world other than our own limited one (beautiful though it is, it’s nonetheless small)—no, it already does so here, but only as a radiant prospect visible to all—makes it no less worthy of attainment.”
Hans and Sophie’s letters and diaries begin simply, describing the details and little events of everyday life—the beauty of a walk in the woods, frustrations with obnoxious coworkers, pet peeves and particular observations, low emotions and high. Their lives are like any of ours—normal. But as time goes on and Hans and Sophie rub up against the oppressive Nazi state, their simplicities take on a special importance, and every observation or feeling of theirs becomes a hidden treasure. In some sense, it almost seems like they knew, subconsciously, the fate that awaited them, and lived their lives in accordance with that prophecy. Their shortcomings come into the light and are exposed, and become a matter of life and death. They realize their own utter need for and dependence on the abundant grace of God. “I place my powerless love in your hands, that it may become powerful.” But in the course of a very fascinating and enflaming reversion, they rediscover Christ, who saved them freely, and their simplicities become profundities, the little beauties in their lives a proof of the infinite power of love. “But the sight of an evening sky above the mountains and the gentle sound of bells inspire another vision of humanity in me.”Every word of theirs testifies to their humility and their great hope which conquers all—and it did.
They were normal people, and humble, and great. They were the very best of us.
“Yes, we do believe in the victory of the stronger, but the stronger in spirit. And the fact that this victory may perhaps come to pass in a world other than our own limited one (beautiful though it is, it’s nonetheless small)—no, it already does so here, but only as a radiant prospect visible to all—makes it no less worthy of attainment.”
September 21, 2020
Hans and Sophie Scholl , are a brother and sister who believed in Hitler , at first , and then, realized, after following him, that at all costs they must do SOMETHING against this murderous dictator.
In May of 1942, they, along with a little band of students at Munich University, formed the White Rose and began distributing their leaflets vs. Hitler.
They were so appalled by the atrocities committed against the Jewish people. The leaflets they distributed placed the Scholls and their friends, who believed as they did, in mortal danger, and it wasn't long before the Scholls were captured and executed.(BTW the DVD of their lives is amazing too)
They sacrificed their lives for what they believed was right. Their letters and diaries speak of the course of a war. A time in history we must never forget. Especially because right now in 2020 we are living with other evil leaders. We must never ever forget that time in history. They saw the great evil in the world, that must NEVER be allowed to continue. The Scholls gratitude and humility, and their love for nature, music, poetry, and art are also, in this book. . In the midst of evil, these young people stood up for their fellow man.
There are also photographs of Hans and Sophie Scholl and their friends and co-conspirators.I am in awe of them and loved this book.
« Less
In May of 1942, they, along with a little band of students at Munich University, formed the White Rose and began distributing their leaflets vs. Hitler.
They were so appalled by the atrocities committed against the Jewish people. The leaflets they distributed placed the Scholls and their friends, who believed as they did, in mortal danger, and it wasn't long before the Scholls were captured and executed.(BTW the DVD of their lives is amazing too)
They sacrificed their lives for what they believed was right. Their letters and diaries speak of the course of a war. A time in history we must never forget. Especially because right now in 2020 we are living with other evil leaders. We must never ever forget that time in history. They saw the great evil in the world, that must NEVER be allowed to continue. The Scholls gratitude and humility, and their love for nature, music, poetry, and art are also, in this book. . In the midst of evil, these young people stood up for their fellow man.
There are also photographs of Hans and Sophie Scholl and their friends and co-conspirators.I am in awe of them and loved this book.
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December 2, 2019
Wow I am so grateful that a book was composed of Sophie and Hans Scholl’s letters. As a Canadian, I first heard about The White Rose when I visited Munich at 17. Now at 22, a year older than Sophie when she was executed, reading their letters touches me deeply. It’s so inspiring, and tragic, that they led such deeply moral and action-focused lives during a time of despair. I connected with Hans philosophical Russian writings the most. His words are so beautiful and reflective. I really questioned my own worldview and beliefs while reading this. I feel as though I will turn to this book time, and time again. It’s a picture of their lives rather than the activity of The White Rose.
The only thing I would change is that many of the books that are mentioned within their letters and quotes are left untranslated. It would be nice if it was fully translated to English.
The only thing I would change is that many of the books that are mentioned within their letters and quotes are left untranslated. It would be nice if it was fully translated to English.
October 23, 2007
This is an insightful look at a part of the resistance movement in Germany. It is the diary and letters of a brother and sister that chronicles their journey to believing so strongly in nazi resistance that they eventually gave their lives for it.
August 10, 2019
I’d never heard of Hans and Sophie Scholl or the White Rose before receiving this book from Plough Publishing. In one way I’m glad to be just learning their story now against the backdrop or our current political and cultural climate. I’m beginning to understand that the one-dimensional understanding of anyone loyal to Hitler’s Germany has created massive blind spots and harmful ignorance in our belief that we’re living on the “right side of history.” May God raise up many more Hans and Sophie Scholls in our day. May we, like these young, idealists be willing as their peer in the resistance, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, allow all our wish-dreams to be shattered by Jesus.
And even then, in our zeal for Christ’s Kingdom to be on earth as it is in heaven, may we like Sophie Scholl never lose sight of the beauty of our Father’s world who wrote during her final autumn - a few months before her execution by the Nazi government ruling her beloved Germany:
Read this book with a side of humble curiosity and then pass it on.
And even then, in our zeal for Christ’s Kingdom to be on earth as it is in heaven, may we like Sophie Scholl never lose sight of the beauty of our Father’s world who wrote during her final autumn - a few months before her execution by the Nazi government ruling her beloved Germany:
“Now I’m delighting once more in the last rays of the sun and marveling at the incredible beauty of all that wasn’t created by man: the red dahlias beside the white garden gate, the tall, solemn fir trees, the tremulous, gold-draped birches whose gleaming trunks stand out against all the green and russet foliage, and the golden sunshine that intensifies the colors of each individual object, unlike the blazing summer sun, which overpowers anything else that tries to stir. It’s all so wonderfully beautiful here that I’ve no idea what kind of emotion my speechless heart should develop for it, because it’s too immature to take pure pleasure in it. It merely marvels and contents itself with wonder and enchantment - isn’t it mysterious - and frightening, too, when one doesn’t know the reason - that everything should be so beautiful in spite of the terrible things that are happening? My sheer delight in all things beautiful has been invaded by a great unknown, an inkling of the creator whom his creatures glorify with their beauty. - That’s why mane alone can be ugly, because he has the free will to disassociate himself from this song of praise. Nowadays one is often tempted to believe that he’ll drown the song with gunfire and curses and blasphemy. But it dawned on me last spring that he can’t, and I’ll try to take the winning side.”
Read this book with a side of humble curiosity and then pass it on.
December 9, 2021
This is a remarkable book. It is non-fiction, which I find to be stiff and uninteresting most of the time, but this reads like fiction.
Kind of similar to The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, this book is a compilation of letters, as well as a few diary entries.
In the Afterward, Inge Scholl (Hans and Sofie's sister), mentions that there were nearly a thousand letters and such sorted through. About 400 made it into this book.
I loved the progression in both Hans and Sofie Scholl.
At the beginning, Hans' letters were almost boring to read. They were pretty much emotionless. And vague. His progression towards the end, I found, was more significant that Sofie's, in that by the end, he was literally poring his heart and soul into his letters.
Sofie, on the other hand, was a very emotional (not in a bad way, but similar to Anne from Anne of Green Gables, if you know what I mean), and passionate. She pored her heart and soul into her letters from the beginning, and even more so at by the end of the book.
Reading about their trials was so profound. I especially related to Sofie.
This was an absolutely amazing book, and I highly recommend it to anyone who wants a taste of history through the eyes of real human beings.
5 stars
Kind of similar to The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, this book is a compilation of letters, as well as a few diary entries.
In the Afterward, Inge Scholl (Hans and Sofie's sister), mentions that there were nearly a thousand letters and such sorted through. About 400 made it into this book.
I loved the progression in both Hans and Sofie Scholl.
At the beginning, Hans' letters were almost boring to read. They were pretty much emotionless. And vague. His progression towards the end, I found, was more significant that Sofie's, in that by the end, he was literally poring his heart and soul into his letters.
Sofie, on the other hand, was a very emotional (not in a bad way, but similar to Anne from Anne of Green Gables, if you know what I mean), and passionate. She pored her heart and soul into her letters from the beginning, and even more so at by the end of the book.
Reading about their trials was so profound. I especially related to Sofie.
This was an absolutely amazing book, and I highly recommend it to anyone who wants a taste of history through the eyes of real human beings.
5 stars
July 10, 2024
I first learned of the White Rose as a freshman in college. From that singular slide on a PowerPoint in a WWII class sprang a need to know, understand, and share their story. I’ve read this book more times that I can count but each time I go through it, something new sticks out to me.
Even if you’re not a historian, I beg you to please read this book and familiarize yourself with the White Rose and their actions.
“I shall cling to Him and when all else falls away He alone will remain.”
As a Christian, Sophie’s faith in her writing has always convicted me. The context under which she was writing never fails to knock the breath out of me. By living fully committed to her convictions (political and social in her case, though they sprang from her faith), Sophie acknowledged each day that she could die by the same convictions at the hands of an intolerant ruler. This realization forced an 18 year old me to ask myself if I believed in any cause so greatly that I was willing to sacrifice my life for it. not just the standard VBS answer of Jesus, but how my belief in Christ pours over into my social or political views, and how tightly I would hold to them for the sake of my fellow man.
Personally, I’m still struck by how Fritz told Sophie that she needed to be careful so she didn’t lose her head towards the beginning of her activities with the group, only for that to be her fate not too long after.
Even if you’re not a historian, I beg you to please read this book and familiarize yourself with the White Rose and their actions.
“I shall cling to Him and when all else falls away He alone will remain.”
As a Christian, Sophie’s faith in her writing has always convicted me. The context under which she was writing never fails to knock the breath out of me. By living fully committed to her convictions (political and social in her case, though they sprang from her faith), Sophie acknowledged each day that she could die by the same convictions at the hands of an intolerant ruler. This realization forced an 18 year old me to ask myself if I believed in any cause so greatly that I was willing to sacrifice my life for it. not just the standard VBS answer of Jesus, but how my belief in Christ pours over into my social or political views, and how tightly I would hold to them for the sake of my fellow man.
Personally, I’m still struck by how Fritz told Sophie that she needed to be careful so she didn’t lose her head towards the beginning of her activities with the group, only for that to be her fate not too long after.
March 22, 2019
A fascinating insight into the minds of the Scholl siblings, known for standing up to fascism and becoming martyrs of the fight against dictatorship and tyranny. The parallels between what they felt and what I feel now watching America's downfall are uncanny. Hans and Sophie both describe carefully their descent into deep depression, caused by living through a particularly horrific moment in history; it's a depression that I feel weighing on me every time I read the news these days.
I have a particular soft spot for Sophie, who was both an artist and a childcare teacher. As a writer myself, and as someone who works with children in a daycare/preschool, I felt her brief reflections on art and childcare to be relatable and charming.
What I HATED about this book was the ridiculous preface by Gilman, who for whatever reason felt the need to comment on how "handsome" Hans was, and how "plain" Sophie was... as if their looks had anything to do with anything at all. It was so horribly gendered and did a horrible disservice to Sophie. Granted, the edition I read was published in 1987, so it was a bit antiquated, but it just irritated me to no end.
The letters did tend to get a bit repetitive, but overall, 3/5 stars. I found so many great quotes, especially in Sophie's letters.
I have a particular soft spot for Sophie, who was both an artist and a childcare teacher. As a writer myself, and as someone who works with children in a daycare/preschool, I felt her brief reflections on art and childcare to be relatable and charming.
What I HATED about this book was the ridiculous preface by Gilman, who for whatever reason felt the need to comment on how "handsome" Hans was, and how "plain" Sophie was... as if their looks had anything to do with anything at all. It was so horribly gendered and did a horrible disservice to Sophie. Granted, the edition I read was published in 1987, so it was a bit antiquated, but it just irritated me to no end.
The letters did tend to get a bit repetitive, but overall, 3/5 stars. I found so many great quotes, especially in Sophie's letters.
February 20, 2024
This needs to be required reading for any history course on World War II. I've never read anything like this. This is a collection of beautifully written letters from Hans and Sophie Scholl, two siblings who lived in Nazi Germany and served in the Hitler Youth Program. They are famous for starting a literary resistance group known as The White Rose, who composed leaflets denouncing the pride of the Nazi regime and calling for their fellow Germans to oppose Hitler's persecution of Jews. Sophie and Hans Scholl letters' to their friends' and loved ones are filled with snapshots of life serving in the Hitler Youth, to studies at the University of Munich, to spiritual reflections on God, and the love of the arts (nature, fellowship with friends, art, music, philosophy). Both siblings write beautifully and if they had survived the war, both would have gone on to publish more beautiful prose. Truly a privilege to read.
August 6, 2017
Very touching true account of Hans & Sophie Scholl, which allows the reader to know them through letters they've penned to their siblings, parents, & various friends. Beautifully written prose containing picturesque, descriptive accounts of locales, living quarters, and in depth feelings about their surroundings are contained within these letters. Although the details given about their activities in The White Rose are somewhat coded
( the group they are part of which protests the workings of fascism during Hitler's reign), the many notes contained in the index give the reader detailed insight into the group and it's various members. More admired in modern day Germany than Einstein among many Germans, their ultimate sacrifice for their principles is a tribute to the human spirit. Highly recommend this book.
( the group they are part of which protests the workings of fascism during Hitler's reign), the many notes contained in the index give the reader detailed insight into the group and it's various members. More admired in modern day Germany than Einstein among many Germans, their ultimate sacrifice for their principles is a tribute to the human spirit. Highly recommend this book.
August 12, 2017
I received this book free, in exchange for a review, from LibraryThing. This book contains diary excerpts and the personal correspondence of two siblings who were involved in the anti-Nazi movement during WWII in Germany. The abundant footnotes provided a few bits of information about the White Rose organization; however, many of the footnote numbers in the text do not accurately correspond to the footnotes section in the back of the book [personally, I prefer footnotes at the bottom of the page as I find flipping to the back section numerous times a bit annoying.] Many non-English words, phrases and book titles were not translated. At first I thought I must have gotten an uncorrected, advance copy; but apparently this is the retail version. Overall, a rather disappointing volume, in my opinion.
August 24, 2017
Faits guère connus, une opposition s’organise en Allemagne nazie par rapport à la folie meurtrière engendrée par le 3e Reich. La Rose blanche, animée entre autres par Hans et Sophie Scholl, incarne cette résistance au sein de l’Université de Munich. À travers des extraits de lettres envoyées aux amis et à la fratrie ainsi que de leurs journaux intimes, nous constatons leur cheminement intérieur et la progression de leur pensée respective. Après avoir procédé à la distribution d’un sixième tract qui appelait leurs compatriotes à sortir de leur état d’hypnose, la Gestapo les arrêta. Cinq jours après et suite à un procès inique, la justice nazie les guillotina.
July 20, 2017
***I won this book in a Goodreads Giveaway***
Hans and Sophie Scholl were loving, intelligent, fractured children in Nazi Germany. They were destroyed by the times they lived in and the ugliness of humanity. Reading their letters was incredibly hard...they deserved so much better than they were given. Their faith in God and sense of love for nature was both heartbreaking and invigorating to read. I can only hope that if I'm ever faced with evil of such proportions, I can have a fraction of the strength and compassion they had.
Hans and Sophie Scholl were loving, intelligent, fractured children in Nazi Germany. They were destroyed by the times they lived in and the ugliness of humanity. Reading their letters was incredibly hard...they deserved so much better than they were given. Their faith in God and sense of love for nature was both heartbreaking and invigorating to read. I can only hope that if I'm ever faced with evil of such proportions, I can have a fraction of the strength and compassion they had.
July 26, 2017
I don't want to discount what these kids were trying to achieve, but I found this book to really drag on. I wish it would have been more about the White Rose Organization. I am intrigued by the fact that these kids where more about their spiritual beliefs than political. I am impressed that they took a stand and tried to make things better. I am horrified that they were murdered. I just can't say this book held my attention. I found that about half way through I was skipping through some pages.
February 12, 2018
Heartbreaking, humbling, intense, haunting,and full of the human spirit and faith in a very dark time in history.
I find this is one of those books that will stay with you for a lifetime.
The intense personal struggles of Hans and Sophie shows that not all Germans were on board with the political situation they were living in during the war.
That there was good people who knew what was happening and did not support it and tried to open others eyes to it and paid with their very young lives.
A must read book.
I find this is one of those books that will stay with you for a lifetime.
The intense personal struggles of Hans and Sophie shows that not all Germans were on board with the political situation they were living in during the war.
That there was good people who knew what was happening and did not support it and tried to open others eyes to it and paid with their very young lives.
A must read book.
January 11, 2020
I found the first half challenging because Hans and Sophie came across as a bit pretentious, but it seems meeting Carl Muth and Otl Aicher had a profound influence over the two as their letters began containing a more spiritual element. Unfortunately, I did not find what I was seeking, which was how they came to oppose National Socialism in the first place. I imagine their father’s pacifism was influential.
I will note there is a section or two where the endnote numbering is not aligned with the numbers in the endnote section.
I will note there is a section or two where the endnote numbering is not aligned with the numbers in the endnote section.
February 29, 2020
This book is a window into the siblings' thoughts and emotions. Such eloquently written letters to family members and friends, as well as diary entries, seem to be an art of a bygone era. Their writings allow the reader to see what their experiences were like in Germany as young adults, who were not supporters of the Nazi regime, but lived life doing what they were expected/required to do as citizens of their country. Ultimately, they chose to rebel against what they felt all along was pure evil.
January 8, 2022
I picked up this truly remarkable collection of Sophie and Hans Scholls’ letters and diary entries as one of the research materials for my novel and by the time I turned the last page, I actually felt like I knew the siblings personally, which made writing about their tragic fate even harder. Reading their personal letters, learning their thoughts on different subjects and events was a most eye-opening, profound experience. I’m still in awe of their heroism and self-sacrifice. I can only applaud their bravery and I can only hope their names and their heroic actions shall never be forgotten.
March 28, 2023
I'm not sure I can review this as I would a normal book, as its contents were never written to be read as such. These are personal letters and diaries, and the writers had no say in their publication, so it almost feels a little intrusive.
It's also not a great way to learn the history of the student movements in Nazi Germany.
But what it does do, is provide a window into the minds of two intelligent young people. And because these letters are so direct, I found myself slipping into the role of the people these letters were addressed to. And that meant I couldn't help falling a little bit in love with Sofie....
It's also not a great way to learn the history of the student movements in Nazi Germany.
But what it does do, is provide a window into the minds of two intelligent young people. And because these letters are so direct, I found myself slipping into the role of the people these letters were addressed to. And that meant I couldn't help falling a little bit in love with Sofie....
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