This is an accepted version of this page Sophia Magdalena Scholl[a] (9 May 1921 – 22 February 1943) was a German student and anti-Nazi political activist, active in the White Rose non-violent resistance group in Nazi Germany.

At the age of 12, she joined the female branch of the Hitler Youth, Bund Deutscher Mädel (League of German Girls), as did most of her classmates.

All of the Scholl children had a deep interest in art, and befriended many artists of the time, particularly controversial ones who stood against National Socialism and explored such themes in their work.

[9] Sophie was first arrested by the Gestapo at the age of 16, after her brother Hans was discovered to be active in an anti-Hitler Youth group called Deutsche Jungenschaft vom 1.11.1929.

The quasi military regimen of the Labor Service caused her to rethink her understanding of the political situation and to begin practising passive resistance.

Although this group of friends eventually became known for their political views, they were initially drawn together by a shared love of art, music, literature, philosophy, and theology.

[11] Between 1940 and 1941, Sophie Scholl's brother Hans, a former member of the Hitler Youth, began questioning the principles and policies of the Nazi regime.

[12] As a student at the University of Munich, Hans met two Roman Catholic men of letters who gave him a new orientation in life, inspiring him to turn from studying medicine to the pursuit of religion, philosophy and the arts.

[12] Together with like-minded friends, Alexander Schmorell, Willi Graf and Jurgen Wittenstein, he eventually adopted a strategy of passive resistance toward the Nazis by writing and publishing leaflets that called for the overthrow of National Socialism.

[14] Sophie is believed to have first learned about the White Rose in July 1942, but Fritz Hartnagel remembers her asking him in May 1942 if he could get her a pass to buy a duplicating machine (which could not be obtained in Nazi Germany except by permit),[15] which suggests that she may have known about the activities earlier.

The Scholls brought a suitcase full of leaflets to the university main building, and hurriedly dropped stacks of copies in the empty corridors for students to find when they left the lecture rooms.

While Sophie Scholl was able to hide incriminating evidence in an empty classroom just before being captured, Hans tried to destroy the draft of the last leaflet by tearing it apart and swallowing it.

[6] After Scholl's death, a copy of the sixth leaflet was smuggled out of Germany through Scandinavia to England by the German jurist Helmuth James Graf von Moltke, where it was used by the Allied Forces.

"[24] In the same issue of Newsday, the Holocaust historian Jud Newborn observed, "You cannot really measure the effect of this kind of resistance in whether or not X number of bridges were blown up or a regime fell ...

The Institute is home to the university's political science and communication departments, and is housed in the former Radio Free Europe building close to the Englischer Garten.

Voters under the age of 40 helped Scholl and her brother Hans to place fourth, above Bach, Goethe, Gutenberg, Bismarck, Willy Brandt, and Albert Einstein.

[28] In April 2021, the German Ministry of Finance issued a commemorative sterling silver €20 coin celebrating the 100th anniversary of Scholl's birth.

The first TV film Der Pedell [de] (1971) focused on the university maintenance man Jakob Schmid, who denounced Scholl and the other White Rose members.

Drawing on interviews with survivors and transcripts that had remained hidden in East German archives until 1990, it was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in January 2006.

We Will Not Be Silent, a dramatization by David Meyers of Scholl's imprisonment and interrogation, premiered at the Contemporary American Theater Festival in Shepherdstown, West Virginia in July, 2017.

[34][35][36] In later life Whitney Seymour, his wife Catryna, and their daughters Tryntje and Gabriel, co-wrote and produced Stars in the Dark Sky, a one-act play about Hans and Sophie Scholl and their role in the White Rose resistance group in Nazi Germany in the 1940s.

[37][38] Mickey 3D, a French rock band, wrote a song called "La Rose Blanche" on an album titled Sebolavy (2016).

American rock band Sheer Mag recorded a song called "(Say Goodbye to) Sophie Scholl" on its 2017 debut album Need to Feel Your Love.

[40] Under the title @ichbinsophiescholl the German broadcasters Südwestrundfunk and Bayerische Rundfunk began in May 2021 an Instagram project to commemorate Scholl's 100th birthday.

The actress Luna Wedler plays Sophie Scholl and illustrates the last year of her life in the style of a modern digital influencer.

[43] Followers identified themselves with Scholl and contributed in the comments sentimental stories of their grand parents that were portrayed mainly as victims and not as Hitler's supporters.