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.

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.

About the Author
Hans Scholl and his sister Sophie Scholl were active in the White Rose, a small group of students that spoke out against the rise of Nazism in Germany. Both were captured, tried, and executed by the Nazis in 1943. Inge Jens, a German literary scholar, bestselling author, and journalist, was born in 1927 in Hamburg and lives in Tubingen. She edited the letter of Hans and Sophie Scholl and of Thomas Mann.

Reviews
"For anyone still bewitched by World War II, these tormented, poetic letters and diaries make engrossing reading." - Los Angeles Times
"A well-chosen selection of personal documents, this book illuminates the intellectual and emotional development of two students who were at the center of the idealistic but futile anti-Nazi conspiracy at Munich University in 1942-43. . . . Children of a family of pacifist sentiment and cosmopolitan intellectual interests, Hans and Sophie Scholl were affected in their opposition to Nazism by a variety of influences ranging from those of Nietzsche, Rilke, and Stefan George to Catholic philosophers such as Augustine, Aquinas, and their personal mentor and friend, Carl Muth. Especially striking is the Scholls' growing attraction to Christian mysticism. . . . Smooth translation; excellent explanatory notes and illustrations; fairly good index." - Choice
"The Scholls' writings glow with all the idealism, naivete, and self-importance of youth. . . . In the context of their authors' martyrdom, they constitute a compelling, heart-wrenching testament to courage and goodness in the face of evil." - Kirkus Reviews
"The details of daily living, as noted in these letters and diaries of Hans and Sophie Scholl, take on heartrending significance in light of the tragic circumstances that eventually took the lives of the German brother and sister during World War II. . . . With unaffected sincerity, the letters not only express their growing distrust of Hitler's increasing strength, but also shed light on their individual personalities from Sophie's naivete and schoolgirl enthusiasms to Hans' dedication and deliberateness. In addition, the book lends considerable insight into the moral underpinnings of political resistance in Nazi Germany." - Booklist
"Representing six years' worth of diaries and letters, these well-edited extracts suggest how, over time, both brother and sister subconsciously prepared for the brave work they eventually undertook. It is simultaneously uplifting and agonizing to witness their gradual moral/philosophical development and their speedy capture and execution." - Library Journal
"This book conjures up an uncanny sense of the spiritual and physical world inhabited by young Germans during the war. It is both a major historical document and (I can think of no better way of putting it) a testimony to the human spirit." - Paul Robinson, Stanford University



Book Information
ISBN 9780874860290
Author Hans Scholl
Format Paperback
Page Count 381
Imprint Plough Publishing House
Publisher Plough Publishing House
Dimensions(mm) 209mm * 139mm * 22mm