ONE OF MY HEROES is Sophie Scholl.
Sophie was one of the noblest human beings to ever walk this earth.
Tomorrow marks 78 years since the 21-year-old was murdered by the Nazis
Sophie was a member of the anti-Hitler underground the White Rose.
Convicted of treason for distributing anti-war pamphlets, she was executed in 1943 under the guillotine along with her brother Hans.
After several months of going out at night, distributing leaflets and smearing anti-Hitler slogans on building walls in Munich, the two siblings were eventually caught after Jakob Schmid, a janitor at the University of Munich turned them in.
Sophie was interrogated for seventeen hours.
Four days later, when she appeared at the “People’s Court” in the Munich Palace of Justice, she had a broken leg.
The ‘Judge’ at this show trial did not allow her to talk.
But Sophie would not be silence, shouting, “Somebody had to make a start! What we said and wrote are what many people are thinking. They just don’t dare say it out loud!”
If she had recanted, she would have been allowed to live.
Instead, she walked tall, without a shred of fear, and put her head down on the steel.
The executioner recalled that he had never seen anyone die so bravely.
Then followed Hans, 24.
Just before the execution, his final words were “Long live freedom”.
I carry in my heart this statement from Sophie: “Stand up for what you believe in even if you are standing alone.”
Remembering the Holocaust and fighting antisemitism so the neo-Nazis don’t sleep at night is the bare minimum we should demand.
From Jews and non-Jews.