WEBVTT - Hans and Sophie Scholl: A Call to Action

0:00:00.440 --> 0:00:04.960
<v Speaker 1>The construction of American exceptionalism would have us believe that

0:00:05.040 --> 0:00:09.000
<v Speaker 1>America has always taken the moral high ground, and that

0:00:09.119 --> 0:00:12.479
<v Speaker 1>it has always acted flawlessly in its pursuit of liberty.

0:00:13.119 --> 0:00:17.119
<v Speaker 1>I believe in American exceptionalism with every fiber of my being.

0:00:18.239 --> 0:00:21.279
<v Speaker 1>But what makes us exceptional is not our ability to

0:00:21.400 --> 0:00:24.439
<v Speaker 1>flout international norms and the rule of law. It is

0:00:24.440 --> 0:00:29.160
<v Speaker 1>our willingness to affirm them through our actions. The ideals

0:00:29.240 --> 0:00:33.440
<v Speaker 1>of American greatness and superiority require us to believe in

0:00:33.440 --> 0:00:38.479
<v Speaker 1>an America that is good, just, and benevolent. That America

0:00:38.600 --> 0:00:42.720
<v Speaker 1>is unique in that it's built differently. I, an American,

0:00:43.320 --> 0:00:47.600
<v Speaker 1>have seen the myths of exceptionalism unraveled by the realities

0:00:47.640 --> 0:00:53.920
<v Speaker 1>of American injustices, America's similarities to other countries, American hypocrisy,

0:00:53.960 --> 0:00:59.680
<v Speaker 1>and American distortions of history. Slavery happened in the United States.

0:01:00.320 --> 0:01:04.480
<v Speaker 1>Eugenics programs in the United States inspired ones in Nazi Germany.

0:01:05.319 --> 0:01:09.400
<v Speaker 1>Concentration and interment camps have been sites of persecution for

0:01:09.480 --> 0:01:14.880
<v Speaker 1>Indigenous people, black people, Japanese people, immigrants, and dissidents in

0:01:15.000 --> 0:01:20.399
<v Speaker 1>US history. The exaltation of America's values, status, and rarity

0:01:20.480 --> 0:01:23.440
<v Speaker 1>does it not change the truth of the history and

0:01:23.720 --> 0:01:28.640
<v Speaker 1>present of the United States. America's redeeming qualities cannot paper

0:01:28.720 --> 0:01:31.960
<v Speaker 1>over the crimes and moral failings the country has been

0:01:32.000 --> 0:01:36.119
<v Speaker 1>complicit in. The U S is very good at leaving

0:01:36.160 --> 0:01:41.240
<v Speaker 1>misdeeds unacknowledged. It's perfected the art of saying we're not

0:01:41.360 --> 0:01:45.120
<v Speaker 1>as bad as them or better, yet saying what we

0:01:45.240 --> 0:01:49.840
<v Speaker 1>did was justified and we're still above everyone else. A

0:01:49.880 --> 0:01:52.880
<v Speaker 1>lot of Americans have no problem saying that the past

0:01:53.040 --> 0:01:55.680
<v Speaker 1>stays in the past and we can only get better

0:01:55.720 --> 0:02:02.480
<v Speaker 1>by looking forward completely ignoring causality, denialism, and revisionism keeps

0:02:02.520 --> 0:02:07.800
<v Speaker 1>folks in states of ignorance or comfort. America is so

0:02:07.960 --> 0:02:12.280
<v Speaker 1>often unexceptional. There have been many instances where people have

0:02:12.360 --> 0:02:16.760
<v Speaker 1>had to pressure America into being exceptional. There will never

0:02:16.800 --> 0:02:19.720
<v Speaker 1>be a time when the US or whatever country you

0:02:19.800 --> 0:02:23.639
<v Speaker 1>live in, will be perfect or above making poor decisions.

0:02:24.520 --> 0:02:28.520
<v Speaker 1>There will always be a need for dissenters, for protesters

0:02:28.520 --> 0:02:31.400
<v Speaker 1>and rebels who hold a mirror up to society and

0:02:31.480 --> 0:02:42.600
<v Speaker 1>remind us that we are capable of choosing differently. I'm

0:02:42.639 --> 0:02:45.960
<v Speaker 1>each deaf coote and this is unpopular A show about

0:02:46.000 --> 0:02:49.240
<v Speaker 1>people who didn't let the threat of persecution keep them

0:02:49.240 --> 0:02:54.519
<v Speaker 1>from speaking truth to power. Germany was under the oppressive

0:02:54.600 --> 0:02:57.960
<v Speaker 1>rule of Adolf Hitler and his Nazi Party from nineteen

0:02:58.000 --> 0:03:01.880
<v Speaker 1>thirty three to nineteen forty five. During this period, called

0:03:02.000 --> 0:03:05.600
<v Speaker 1>Nazi Germany or the Third Reich, the country was subject

0:03:05.639 --> 0:03:11.240
<v Speaker 1>to totalitarianism, propaganda, militant and racist foreign policy, suppression of

0:03:11.320 --> 0:03:15.720
<v Speaker 1>rights and opposition, and genocide. Millions of people died in

0:03:15.760 --> 0:03:20.519
<v Speaker 1>the Holocaust and many more were persecuted, displaced, and traumatized.

0:03:21.160 --> 0:03:24.440
<v Speaker 1>The scale and reach that the Holocaust had was huge.

0:03:25.160 --> 0:03:28.640
<v Speaker 1>The Nazis doled out terror and depravity in so many

0:03:28.680 --> 0:03:35.440
<v Speaker 1>different ways, but anti Nazi resistance was strong too, and

0:03:35.560 --> 0:03:39.680
<v Speaker 1>it came from many different angles. People protested and fought

0:03:39.720 --> 0:03:44.120
<v Speaker 1>the Nazi regime on spiritual, economic, political, or moral basis.

0:03:44.800 --> 0:03:48.120
<v Speaker 1>Some helped Jewish people hide from the Nazis and took

0:03:48.200 --> 0:03:52.680
<v Speaker 1>risks to rescue Jewish people. Some focused on raising awareness

0:03:52.760 --> 0:03:57.400
<v Speaker 1>about the vileness and cruelty of the regime. Others planned

0:03:57.440 --> 0:04:02.560
<v Speaker 1>to assassinate Hitler. Resistance forts were active inside Germany and beyond.

0:04:03.160 --> 0:04:08.080
<v Speaker 1>The totalitarian state was powerful, fearsome, and brutal, and survival

0:04:08.240 --> 0:04:11.800
<v Speaker 1>alone was hard enough for the many people being persecuted

0:04:11.800 --> 0:04:16.920
<v Speaker 1>in Europe at the time, but organized and disorganized action

0:04:17.040 --> 0:04:21.360
<v Speaker 1>against the Nazis did happen, from the efforts of individuals

0:04:21.400 --> 0:04:25.640
<v Speaker 1>like Otto and Alisa Hampel, who left postcards denouncing the

0:04:25.680 --> 0:04:29.360
<v Speaker 1>regime in public places, to the resistance of White Rose,

0:04:29.760 --> 0:04:33.080
<v Speaker 1>a non violent anti Nazi resistance group that formed in

0:04:33.200 --> 0:04:38.120
<v Speaker 1>nineteen forty two. This is where today's resistors Hans and

0:04:38.240 --> 0:04:43.320
<v Speaker 1>his younger sister's official come in. The brother and sister duo,

0:04:43.520 --> 0:04:48.599
<v Speaker 1>along with Christoph Props, Billy Groth, and Alexander Schmarrill, founded

0:04:48.640 --> 0:04:53.080
<v Speaker 1>the so called White Rose movement. The group disseminated leaflets

0:04:53.120 --> 0:04:56.760
<v Speaker 1>that denounced the Nazis and attempted to renew the quote

0:04:56.800 --> 0:05:01.800
<v Speaker 1>severely wounded German spirit. The some groups did aspire to

0:05:01.880 --> 0:05:06.200
<v Speaker 1>overthrow Hitler's regime, many others were not as revolutionary, and

0:05:06.279 --> 0:05:09.559
<v Speaker 1>we're sure only military might could topple the current order.

0:05:12.360 --> 0:05:16.120
<v Speaker 1>The Shoals have become disillusioned with the regime and recognized

0:05:16.160 --> 0:05:20.240
<v Speaker 1>the necessity of opposing it. So they did just that,

0:05:20.800 --> 0:05:23.080
<v Speaker 1>and they called on other people to do the same.

0:05:25.120 --> 0:05:32.599
<v Speaker 1>Here's how their awareness turned into action. Zophie and Hans

0:05:32.640 --> 0:05:36.320
<v Speaker 1>were born to Robert and Magdalena Shoal. Robert was a

0:05:36.440 --> 0:05:39.479
<v Speaker 1>mayor at the time of Zophie's birth, though he later

0:05:39.560 --> 0:05:44.200
<v Speaker 1>lost that position. Both he and Magdalena opposed Hitler, who

0:05:44.200 --> 0:05:46.760
<v Speaker 1>put the propaganda machine to work and was able to

0:05:46.800 --> 0:05:50.039
<v Speaker 1>get a bunch of people behind him and his image

0:05:50.240 --> 0:05:54.720
<v Speaker 1>by drawing division, taking advantage of people's vulnerabilities and prejudices,

0:05:55.120 --> 0:05:58.760
<v Speaker 1>and making people believe that he was putting Germany first

0:05:59.120 --> 0:06:03.120
<v Speaker 1>and that they could win World War Two. Beyond all

0:06:03.160 --> 0:06:07.400
<v Speaker 1>the enthusiastic support he received from adults, Hitler also strove

0:06:07.480 --> 0:06:12.120
<v Speaker 1>to indoctrinate young Germans with allegiance to National Socialism a

0:06:12.279 --> 0:06:17.080
<v Speaker 1>k a. Nazism, So, despite their parents encouragement of critical

0:06:17.120 --> 0:06:20.960
<v Speaker 1>thinking and opposition to the regime, Hans ended up joining

0:06:20.960 --> 0:06:25.279
<v Speaker 1>the Hitler Youth, the Nazi Party's youth organization designed to

0:06:25.400 --> 0:06:29.520
<v Speaker 1>brainwash boys and young men with Nazi ideology and send

0:06:29.560 --> 0:06:33.799
<v Speaker 1>them to war, and Sophie joined the League of German Girls,

0:06:34.160 --> 0:06:38.800
<v Speaker 1>the equivalent indoctrinating body for girls and young women. They

0:06:38.839 --> 0:06:42.200
<v Speaker 1>were part of the Nazi bandwagon, believing that Hitler and

0:06:42.360 --> 0:06:46.800
<v Speaker 1>his ideology would advance the nation. Hans even became a

0:06:46.839 --> 0:06:50.400
<v Speaker 1>squad leader of his young Vaulk Unit something to keep

0:06:50.400 --> 0:06:53.839
<v Speaker 1>in mind. Hitler was at this time espousing the idea

0:06:53.880 --> 0:06:57.479
<v Speaker 1>of a master race, its superiority and its entitlement to

0:06:57.520 --> 0:07:01.960
<v Speaker 1>expand into more territories. But their involvement in the Nazi

0:07:02.000 --> 0:07:05.640
<v Speaker 1>Party did not last long. They had grown distrustful of

0:07:05.680 --> 0:07:09.760
<v Speaker 1>the Nazis and frustrated with the forced discipline and conformity.

0:07:09.960 --> 0:07:13.840
<v Speaker 1>A book by hans favorite author Stefan Zwag was banned

0:07:13.880 --> 0:07:17.360
<v Speaker 1>by the Nazis. Hans even broke off from the Nazi

0:07:17.400 --> 0:07:21.440
<v Speaker 1>youth organization Informed, one of his own, which was later

0:07:21.520 --> 0:07:28.000
<v Speaker 1>banned because its activities were considered subversive. His discontent was growing. Also,

0:07:28.280 --> 0:07:32.000
<v Speaker 1>Zophie was unhappy with school curriculum, which was centered around

0:07:32.040 --> 0:07:37.760
<v Speaker 1>promoting Nazi ideology. She once wrote, sometimes school seems like

0:07:37.800 --> 0:07:40.440
<v Speaker 1>a film to me. I look on, but for all

0:07:40.520 --> 0:07:46.080
<v Speaker 1>intents and purposes, I'm excluded from performing. Zophie, Hans, and

0:07:46.120 --> 0:07:50.240
<v Speaker 1>their siblings Inga and Verner were all either questioned, arrested,

0:07:50.360 --> 0:07:54.320
<v Speaker 1>or jailed for taking actions that were forbidden by the Nazis,

0:07:54.360 --> 0:07:59.600
<v Speaker 1>like freely exchanging opinions, and the siblings father Robert, continued

0:07:59.640 --> 0:08:03.600
<v Speaker 1>to push back against Nazi policy through small acts of resistance,

0:08:03.720 --> 0:08:07.560
<v Speaker 1>like listening to outlawed radio stations that gave war reports

0:08:07.800 --> 0:08:12.360
<v Speaker 1>that nationalized stations did not. Sophie was required to serve

0:08:12.520 --> 0:08:15.520
<v Speaker 1>six months in the Reich National Labor Service, and in

0:08:15.600 --> 0:08:18.840
<v Speaker 1>nineteen forty one she began working as an attendant in

0:08:18.840 --> 0:08:23.920
<v Speaker 1>a kindergarten attached to a munitions factory. While there, she

0:08:24.040 --> 0:08:28.760
<v Speaker 1>had to go to ideological training sessions. Hans was also

0:08:28.880 --> 0:08:32.400
<v Speaker 1>losing faith in the regime's commitment to bettering Germany. He

0:08:32.480 --> 0:08:35.800
<v Speaker 1>built roade for the Autobahn under the National Labor Service,

0:08:36.240 --> 0:08:39.400
<v Speaker 1>and he went on to join the army in study medicine.

0:08:40.040 --> 0:08:43.520
<v Speaker 1>While a soldier on the Eastern Front, he witnessed Nazi

0:08:43.640 --> 0:08:47.600
<v Speaker 1>terrorism of Jewish people and heard of the massive deportations

0:08:47.640 --> 0:08:52.040
<v Speaker 1>to concentration camps. On top of this, in nineteen forty two,

0:08:52.400 --> 0:08:55.280
<v Speaker 1>his father was sentenced to four months in prison for

0:08:55.480 --> 0:08:58.800
<v Speaker 1>professing to a colleague his hatred of the Nazi regime.

0:09:00.520 --> 0:09:04.920
<v Speaker 1>By the time Hans returned from war, his disillusionment, dislike

0:09:04.960 --> 0:09:09.439
<v Speaker 1>of Nazi ideology, and consciousness of the horrors of concentration

0:09:09.480 --> 0:09:13.040
<v Speaker 1>camps all piled on one another to inspire his anti

0:09:13.160 --> 0:09:17.840
<v Speaker 1>Nazi resistance. The Grand Facade of Hitler's better Germany and

0:09:18.000 --> 0:09:23.040
<v Speaker 1>better world had dissolved for Zophie too. When we get

0:09:23.080 --> 0:09:25.640
<v Speaker 1>back from the break, we'll get into Hans and Zophie's

0:09:25.760 --> 0:09:40.920
<v Speaker 1>risky resistance efforts. Tons of Germans supported Hitler and wrote

0:09:40.920 --> 0:09:44.840
<v Speaker 1>the Nazi wave right into the Holocaust. Those were not

0:09:45.000 --> 0:09:49.679
<v Speaker 1>just extremists and power hungry politicians, but your regular townsfolk

0:09:49.760 --> 0:09:58.440
<v Speaker 1>to shop owners, doctors, teachers. Hitler gained support through indoctrination, terror, propaganda, coercion,

0:09:58.760 --> 0:10:04.760
<v Speaker 1>ideological pandering, personality, cult building, and exploiting and dismantling systems.

0:10:05.679 --> 0:10:10.960
<v Speaker 1>People who are already vulnerable, impressionable, polarized, or disillusioned can

0:10:11.000 --> 0:10:19.000
<v Speaker 1>be easily influenced into taking a morally questionable stance. The

0:10:19.080 --> 0:10:22.240
<v Speaker 1>status quo can change in an instant, even if it's

0:10:22.280 --> 0:10:25.560
<v Speaker 1>taken years to get to a point, say one where

0:10:25.600 --> 0:10:29.040
<v Speaker 1>gay marriage is legal or children are being forcefully separated

0:10:29.040 --> 0:10:32.600
<v Speaker 1>from their parents by the state. Major changes will happen

0:10:32.840 --> 0:10:36.679
<v Speaker 1>during our lifetime and will be presented with an opportunity

0:10:36.760 --> 0:10:41.680
<v Speaker 1>to either embrace the change or not. Hans and Zophie

0:10:41.880 --> 0:10:45.319
<v Speaker 1>at first joined the masses who were receptive of Nazism

0:10:45.400 --> 0:10:49.200
<v Speaker 1>and supported Hitler's vision as they dove deeper into the

0:10:49.200 --> 0:10:53.760
<v Speaker 1>ideology and were exposed to the horrible, brutal reality of

0:10:53.800 --> 0:10:57.280
<v Speaker 1>its extremity. They realized that it did not align with

0:10:57.360 --> 0:11:02.760
<v Speaker 1>their worldview, and they chose to rejected. And then they

0:11:02.760 --> 0:11:06.840
<v Speaker 1>went beyond rejecting the new status quo of fascism, racism

0:11:06.880 --> 0:11:11.199
<v Speaker 1>and extreme nationalism to raise others awareness and push them

0:11:11.240 --> 0:11:17.240
<v Speaker 1>toward resistance. The degeneration of Germany under Nazism is a

0:11:17.360 --> 0:11:21.920
<v Speaker 1>serious and drastic shift in society. It's the type of

0:11:22.000 --> 0:11:25.839
<v Speaker 1>change that seems impossible before it's happening, and then you're

0:11:25.880 --> 0:11:28.120
<v Speaker 1>in the middle of figuring out how to deal with it.

0:11:30.760 --> 0:11:34.840
<v Speaker 1>But as history has proven, these kinds of unfathomable changes

0:11:35.080 --> 0:11:38.840
<v Speaker 1>do happen. They happen all over the world. There is

0:11:38.880 --> 0:11:45.160
<v Speaker 1>no place that is above reproach. In early twentieth century Germany,

0:11:45.520 --> 0:11:50.880
<v Speaker 1>the status quo quickly became genocide and oppression. There were

0:11:50.880 --> 0:11:55.000
<v Speaker 1>those who welcomed or condoned the new normal, and then

0:11:55.040 --> 0:11:57.679
<v Speaker 1>there were those who chose to challenge and disrupt it.

0:11:59.440 --> 0:12:03.600
<v Speaker 1>Hans was studying medicine at the University of Munich. There

0:12:03.679 --> 0:12:06.720
<v Speaker 1>he linked up with other people who questioned Nazi ideology,

0:12:07.120 --> 0:12:13.040
<v Speaker 1>including Christoph Popes Alexander Schmorell and Billy Groth Court Ubert,

0:12:13.240 --> 0:12:16.960
<v Speaker 1>a professor at the university, inserted veiled criticism of the

0:12:17.040 --> 0:12:20.800
<v Speaker 1>Nazis and his lectures and his classes also became a

0:12:20.840 --> 0:12:27.920
<v Speaker 1>point of congregation for students who opposed the regime. The

0:12:27.960 --> 0:12:31.400
<v Speaker 1>group of students that held anti Nazi discussions and meetings

0:12:31.440 --> 0:12:35.840
<v Speaker 1>became known as the White Rose. For reasons that remain unclear,

0:12:36.520 --> 0:12:40.240
<v Speaker 1>Hans emerged as a leader of the group Tauta. The Friends,

0:12:40.559 --> 0:12:45.600
<v Speaker 1>Lela Ramdar and Jesula Schertling also soon became involved in

0:12:45.640 --> 0:12:53.440
<v Speaker 1>the White Rose group. But facilitating political and intellectual discussion

0:12:53.520 --> 0:12:57.319
<v Speaker 1>groups was not enough in the face of Nazi persecution

0:12:57.679 --> 0:13:01.959
<v Speaker 1>and execution of Jewish people, Pish people, gay people, people

0:13:01.960 --> 0:13:07.120
<v Speaker 1>with disabilities, and others deemed unfit or inferior to the

0:13:07.120 --> 0:13:13.040
<v Speaker 1>so called Master race. The Nazis were also executing communists

0:13:13.040 --> 0:13:16.920
<v Speaker 1>and people who resisted the regime. Though the group was

0:13:17.000 --> 0:13:22.079
<v Speaker 1>at first about the Friends shared interests in things like art, music, literature,

0:13:22.160 --> 0:13:27.000
<v Speaker 1>and philosophy, the oppression, crimes and atrocities perpetrated by the

0:13:27.040 --> 0:13:31.920
<v Speaker 1>government were unavoidable. The Friends could not ignore the deterioration

0:13:32.040 --> 0:13:35.840
<v Speaker 1>of society under Nazi rule. In favor of remaining loyal

0:13:35.920 --> 0:13:41.760
<v Speaker 1>to Germany. In n years after World War Two and

0:13:42.000 --> 0:13:46.280
<v Speaker 1>the end of the White Rose, Jurgen Wittenstein said that

0:13:46.360 --> 0:13:48.920
<v Speaker 1>it was not good enough to keep to oneself one's

0:13:48.920 --> 0:13:52.200
<v Speaker 1>beliefs and ethical standards, but that the time had come

0:13:52.240 --> 0:13:57.040
<v Speaker 1>to act. The group got ahold of a secondhand duplicating machine,

0:13:57.320 --> 0:14:01.120
<v Speaker 1>a typewriter, printing paper, and stencils. In June of nineteen

0:14:01.160 --> 0:14:04.800
<v Speaker 1>forty two, they began producing leaflets called Leaves of the

0:14:04.800 --> 0:14:08.600
<v Speaker 1>White Rose that called out the regime for brutality and

0:14:08.880 --> 0:14:12.800
<v Speaker 1>encourage people to resist. Here's a translation of part of

0:14:12.840 --> 0:14:17.560
<v Speaker 1>the first leaflet. If the German people are already so

0:14:17.640 --> 0:14:20.680
<v Speaker 1>corrupted and spiritually crushed that they do not raise a

0:14:20.760 --> 0:14:24.720
<v Speaker 1>hand frivolously trusting in a questionable faith in lawful order

0:14:24.760 --> 0:14:28.920
<v Speaker 1>of history, If they surrender man's highest principle, that which

0:14:29.000 --> 0:14:32.360
<v Speaker 1>raises him above all other God's creatures, his free will,

0:14:33.040 --> 0:14:36.040
<v Speaker 1>If they abandoned the will to take decisive action and

0:14:36.120 --> 0:14:39.320
<v Speaker 1>turn the wheel of history, and thus subjected to their

0:14:39.320 --> 0:14:44.400
<v Speaker 1>own rational decision, If they are so devoid of all individuality,

0:14:44.560 --> 0:14:48.000
<v Speaker 1>have already gone so far along the road towards turning

0:14:48.280 --> 0:14:53.120
<v Speaker 1>into a spiritless and cowardly mass, then yes, they deserve

0:14:53.200 --> 0:15:00.440
<v Speaker 1>their downfall. The leaflet also urged people to offer passive

0:15:00.480 --> 0:15:04.640
<v Speaker 1>resistance to quote forestall the spread of this atheistic war

0:15:04.720 --> 0:15:08.960
<v Speaker 1>machine before it is too late. There were literary and

0:15:09.160 --> 0:15:13.080
<v Speaker 1>historical allusions in the text. They wanted people to recognize

0:15:13.080 --> 0:15:17.680
<v Speaker 1>the catastrophe that was Nazism, to reject indifference in silence,

0:15:18.000 --> 0:15:22.280
<v Speaker 1>and take action against Nazi ideology and warfare. And the

0:15:22.320 --> 0:15:25.600
<v Speaker 1>text asked people to make copies of the leaflet and

0:15:25.680 --> 0:15:30.280
<v Speaker 1>distribute them. After Zophie enrolled at the University of Munich

0:15:30.320 --> 0:15:33.440
<v Speaker 1>in mid nineteen forty two, she found out about the

0:15:33.480 --> 0:15:37.040
<v Speaker 1>leaflets and White Rose and decided to join the effort.

0:15:37.760 --> 0:15:40.320
<v Speaker 1>The first four leaflets were written in June and July

0:15:40.440 --> 0:15:43.920
<v Speaker 1>of nineteen forty two. The White Rose mailed the leaflets

0:15:43.920 --> 0:15:47.200
<v Speaker 1>to people in Germany, put them in telephone boxes, and

0:15:47.240 --> 0:15:51.600
<v Speaker 1>took them via train two cities outside of Munich. Many

0:15:51.640 --> 0:15:54.440
<v Speaker 1>of the leaflets were turned over to the Gestapo or

0:15:54.600 --> 0:15:58.680
<v Speaker 1>the secret State police, who were becoming more concerned about

0:15:58.680 --> 0:16:02.520
<v Speaker 1>the effect the content have on Germans. The people in

0:16:02.600 --> 0:16:06.080
<v Speaker 1>the White Roads were also using graffiti to express their

0:16:06.120 --> 0:16:10.280
<v Speaker 1>opposition to the regime, Painting graffiti on buildings in Munich

0:16:10.600 --> 0:16:17.360
<v Speaker 1>that said things like freedom and down with Hitler. Students

0:16:17.360 --> 0:16:21.840
<v Speaker 1>in Berlin, Friburg, Hamburg and Vienna heated the call to

0:16:21.920 --> 0:16:27.800
<v Speaker 1>protest the regime and helped spread the resistance. After the break,

0:16:28.040 --> 0:16:31.640
<v Speaker 1>Hans and Sophie, like many others in the Nazi resistance,

0:16:32.200 --> 0:16:51.400
<v Speaker 1>are caught. The last two leaflets were labeled as leaflets

0:16:51.480 --> 0:16:55.080
<v Speaker 1>of the Resistance Movement of Germany and written in early

0:16:55.200 --> 0:17:00.240
<v Speaker 1>nine By this point, the Gestapo considered the leaflet a

0:17:00.400 --> 0:17:04.560
<v Speaker 1>huge problem and we're investigating involvement in the White Rose.

0:17:05.520 --> 0:17:08.440
<v Speaker 1>But at the University of Munich there was an apparent

0:17:08.560 --> 0:17:14.439
<v Speaker 1>spirit of rebellion. So on February eighth, nineteen, Hans and

0:17:14.480 --> 0:17:18.440
<v Speaker 1>Sophie took a big risk in deciding to distribute leaflets

0:17:18.440 --> 0:17:22.480
<v Speaker 1>throughout the university. They put stacks of the sixth leaflet

0:17:22.520 --> 0:17:26.000
<v Speaker 1>in the school's hallways and through the leftover leaflets off

0:17:26.040 --> 0:17:29.120
<v Speaker 1>the top of a staircase and into the entrance hall.

0:17:30.600 --> 0:17:33.720
<v Speaker 1>Thousands of copies of White Rose leaflets had been passed

0:17:33.760 --> 0:17:37.080
<v Speaker 1>out by this point, but this action was the one

0:17:37.480 --> 0:17:41.840
<v Speaker 1>that would get Hans and Sophie captured. Jacob Smid, a

0:17:41.960 --> 0:17:46.600
<v Speaker 1>janitor at the university spotted them distributing the leaflets, and

0:17:46.640 --> 0:17:50.680
<v Speaker 1>they were turned into the Gestapo. Christoph Props was also

0:17:50.840 --> 0:17:53.639
<v Speaker 1>arrested when a draft of a leaflet he wrote was

0:17:53.680 --> 0:17:58.640
<v Speaker 1>found in Hans's pocket. Hans, Sophie, and Christoph stood trial

0:17:58.760 --> 0:18:03.879
<v Speaker 1>at Munich's Palace of Justice on February, just four days

0:18:03.960 --> 0:18:07.640
<v Speaker 1>after they passed out the leaflets at the university. They

0:18:07.640 --> 0:18:14.840
<v Speaker 1>were all found guilty of high treason. Judge Holland Freisler

0:18:14.920 --> 0:18:20.160
<v Speaker 1>sat the following. The accused have, by means of leaflets,

0:18:20.160 --> 0:18:23.080
<v Speaker 1>in a time of war, called for the sabotage of

0:18:23.119 --> 0:18:26.520
<v Speaker 1>the war effort and armaments, and for the overthrow of

0:18:26.520 --> 0:18:29.639
<v Speaker 1>the national socialist way of life of our people, have

0:18:29.880 --> 0:18:34.000
<v Speaker 1>propagated defeatist ideas, and have most vulgarly to fame the

0:18:34.080 --> 0:18:37.359
<v Speaker 1>for thereby giving aid to the enemy of the Reich

0:18:37.600 --> 0:18:41.320
<v Speaker 1>and weakening the armed security of the nation. On this

0:18:41.359 --> 0:18:45.440
<v Speaker 1>account they are to be punished by death. Their honor

0:18:45.520 --> 0:18:51.399
<v Speaker 1>and rights as citizens are forfeited for all time. The

0:18:51.400 --> 0:18:55.480
<v Speaker 1>two show siblings and Christoph were executed by guillotine hours

0:18:55.520 --> 0:18:59.159
<v Speaker 1>after they were sentenced to death. Other people involved in

0:18:59.200 --> 0:19:03.160
<v Speaker 1>the White Rose for Existance were arrested and executed, including

0:19:03.200 --> 0:19:08.080
<v Speaker 1>court uber Billy Groff and Alexander Schmorell. After the sixth

0:19:08.080 --> 0:19:11.800
<v Speaker 1>White Rose Leaflet was smuggled out of Germany, Allied forces

0:19:11.880 --> 0:19:17.080
<v Speaker 1>intercepted them and dropped copies over Germany. Germany didn't surrender

0:19:17.080 --> 0:19:22.879
<v Speaker 1>in World War Two until May of nineteen Hans Zophie

0:19:23.000 --> 0:19:25.800
<v Speaker 1>and the White Rose Leaflets were a small part of

0:19:25.800 --> 0:19:30.159
<v Speaker 1>the larger resistance to Nazi domination. Their denouncement of the

0:19:30.200 --> 0:19:34.880
<v Speaker 1>regime and exposure of its atrocities helped create a network

0:19:34.960 --> 0:19:39.280
<v Speaker 1>of agitators who refused to stay silent while Germany descended

0:19:39.320 --> 0:19:44.400
<v Speaker 1>into depravity. The White Roses sixth leaflet proclaimed a day

0:19:44.440 --> 0:19:50.640
<v Speaker 1>of reckoning. It said this freedom and honor. For ten

0:19:50.720 --> 0:19:55.600
<v Speaker 1>long years, Hitler and his coadjutor have manhandled, squeezed, twisted,

0:19:55.640 --> 0:19:58.760
<v Speaker 1>and debased these two splendid German words to the point

0:19:58.800 --> 0:20:03.639
<v Speaker 1>of nausea, as only dilettants can casting the highest values

0:20:03.680 --> 0:20:07.960
<v Speaker 1>of a nation before swine. They have sufficiently demonstrated in

0:20:07.960 --> 0:20:12.160
<v Speaker 1>the ten years of destruction of all material and intellectual freedom,

0:20:12.200 --> 0:20:15.520
<v Speaker 1>of all moral substance among the German people what they

0:20:15.600 --> 0:20:20.320
<v Speaker 1>understand by freedom and honor. The frightful bloodbath has opened

0:20:20.320 --> 0:20:23.600
<v Speaker 1>the eyes of even the stupidest German. It is a

0:20:23.640 --> 0:20:27.080
<v Speaker 1>slaughter which they arranged in the name of freedom and

0:20:27.200 --> 0:20:30.840
<v Speaker 1>honor of the German nation throughout Europe, in which they

0:20:30.960 --> 0:20:35.040
<v Speaker 1>daily start anew. The name of Germany is dishonored for

0:20:35.119 --> 0:20:38.760
<v Speaker 1>all time. If German youth does not finally rise, take

0:20:38.800 --> 0:20:42.479
<v Speaker 1>revenge and a tone, smash its tormentors and set up

0:20:42.520 --> 0:20:46.639
<v Speaker 1>a new Europe of the spirit. Students, the German people

0:20:46.720 --> 0:20:50.320
<v Speaker 1>look to us, as in eighteen thirteen the people expected

0:20:50.400 --> 0:20:53.800
<v Speaker 1>us to shake off the Napoleonic yoke, so in nineteen

0:20:53.920 --> 0:20:56.840
<v Speaker 1>forty three they look to us to break the national

0:20:56.880 --> 0:21:01.840
<v Speaker 1>socialist terror through the power of the spirit. Berezina and

0:21:01.880 --> 0:21:05.159
<v Speaker 1>staling Grod are burning in the east. The dead of

0:21:05.160 --> 0:21:08.879
<v Speaker 1>Stalin Grod implore us to take action. Up up by people,

0:21:09.200 --> 0:21:20.560
<v Speaker 1>Let smoke and flame be our sign. It is clear

0:21:20.640 --> 0:21:24.680
<v Speaker 1>that beyond being motivated by the restriction of their personal freedoms,

0:21:24.680 --> 0:21:28.800
<v Speaker 1>Hans and Zophie felt responsible to help in the horror

0:21:28.880 --> 0:21:33.200
<v Speaker 1>of Nazi rule for the sake of people's futures. Society

0:21:33.200 --> 0:21:36.159
<v Speaker 1>had reached a tipping point, and they were compelled to

0:21:36.200 --> 0:21:40.359
<v Speaker 1>act and call others to action. Zophie and Hans risked

0:21:40.400 --> 0:21:44.560
<v Speaker 1>their lives to dissent and sadly died young. Though their

0:21:44.600 --> 0:21:48.080
<v Speaker 1>lives were cut short before their activism could incite widespread

0:21:48.080 --> 0:21:51.600
<v Speaker 1>and active opposition against the regime, they left behind a

0:21:51.720 --> 0:21:55.360
<v Speaker 1>legacy of resisting despite odds, and a model for encouraging

0:21:55.400 --> 0:22:00.919
<v Speaker 1>collective action. Hans Zophie and White rose you direct action

0:22:00.960 --> 0:22:05.320
<v Speaker 1>tactics to affect change from where they stood. The message

0:22:06.040 --> 0:22:09.280
<v Speaker 1>find a way to contribute to the resistance rather than

0:22:09.320 --> 0:22:11.560
<v Speaker 1>sit back and find out what the world will become

0:22:11.640 --> 0:22:17.640
<v Speaker 1>if you do nothing at all. Our producer is Andrew Howard.

0:22:18.080 --> 0:22:22.320
<v Speaker 1>Holly Fry and Christopher Hasiotis are our executive producers, and

0:22:22.440 --> 0:22:25.399
<v Speaker 1>you can subscribe to the show on Apple Podcasts, the

0:22:25.480 --> 0:22:28.720
<v Speaker 1>I Heart Radio app, or wherever you get your podcasts.

0:22:29.240 --> 0:22:32.679
<v Speaker 1>We'll be back next week with another episode of Unpopular