Let us now speak of Great Germans

I read Frank Rich's column this morning and the diary associated with it. I now feel compelled to write my Very First Diary on some other Germans who are worthy of our attention, and this time, our respect.

Imagine that it is 1943, and you are not one of the Good Germans. You stand alone, or you have too few friends with you to matter. You have a mob of crazed fanatics baying for your blood, and they will have it.

Well, imagine no more:

The White Rose Society

For those of your with a Netflix subscription, I recommend the following:

Sophie Scholl, Die Letzen Tage

Also available at Amazon.com and most well-stocked video centers.

I don't have much to add here. The Wiki entry explains it better than I could. This started as a comment on the Frank Rich Diary, and I realized that there was precious little in D Kos that was available on the White Rose and their doomed attempt to dissent against the German state. At the time, their pamphleteering seemed futile and even foolish. Today they are looked upon as heroes.

•  from the Wikipedia entry

  The White Rose resistance group consisted of five students and their philosophy teacher, who distributed leaflets in 1942 and 1943 calling for active resistance to Hitler. The group, which was captured by Gestapo (and beheaded), included a brother and sister, Hans and Sophie Scholl. Thanks in part to a movie, the siblings have become popular heroes among German youth:

  In an extended German national TV competition held in the autumn of 2003 to choose "the ten greatest Germans of all time" (ZDF TV), Germans under the age of 40 catapulted Hans and Sophie Scholl of the White Rose to fourth place, selecting them over Bach, Goethe, Gutenberg, Willy Brandt, Bismarck, and Albert Einstein. Not long before, young women readers of the mass-circulation magazine "Brigitte" had voted Sophie Scholl to be "the greatest woman of the twentieth century".

  In February 2005, a movie about Sophie Scholl's last days, Sophie Scholl – Die letzten Tage (Sophie Scholl: The Final Days), featuring actress Julia Jentsch as Sophie, was released. 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.

  by QuickSilver on Sun Oct 14, 2007 at 02:10:24 PM PDT

•  Thank you for this.

  Somewhat serendipitously, I just learned about Sophie Scholl last night while reading Clive James' excellent Cultural Amnesia.

  by slksfca on Sun Oct 14, 2007 at 02:18:34 PM PDT

  •  Several other diaries about her at

    the tag above: White Rose Society. bellatrys did a series on the pamphlets 2 /12 years ago.

    Thanks for the reminder.

    by Halcyon on Sun Oct 14, 2007 at 02:21:23 PM PDT

    •  Thanks for the information

      I searched back two years and couldn't find anything obviously pertaining to them. Given Rich's column today I thought it was time for a refresher.

      by LaFajita on Sun Oct 14, 2007 at 02:55:24 PM PDT

•  germans are so confusing

  I was raised in a heterogeneous, tolerant part of the USA, surrounded by people with lots of different ethnicities, primarily but not exclusively European, from every part of the continent.

  I never had any problems with germans or anybody else, until after I grew up, when I had the misfortunte of running into some authentic, honest to goodness, german-from-germany type germans, and oh. my. god. Seriously, please, BEFORE you leave germany, please take some lessons on how NOT to behave like cruel, selfish, arrogant, authoritarian sons-of-Nazis. Please?

  Thankfully not all germans are like that. I've also had the pleasure of interacting with lots of germans, primarily from the western region close to France, who are utterly adorable people.

  As best I can tell, germany is a large, diverse country, just like the USA, and just like the USA, it's got its share of angels, and its share of shitheads. It's unfair to stereotype all germans as sons-of-Nazis, although it's historically inaccurate and even perilous to ignore the fact that plenty of them are.

  by Positronicus on Sun Oct 14, 2007 at 02:35:00 PM PDT

  •  how is it perilous?

    and should we warn poland?

    reading this post, it's hard not to see you as a Glen Beck wannabe.

    "Don't think all Germans are sons of Nazis, but only at your own risk."

    by guyermo on Sun Oct 14, 2007 at 03:05:42 PM PDT

    •  It's hard not to see myself that way

      I'm still struggling with it. If you're mugged in a dark alley by a person with certain characteristics, your brain tells you to avoid dark alleys and people with certain characteristics. I was abused by a certain group of germans. Hopefully I'll avoid getting myself into a position like that in the future. Hopefully I'll also get over the unfortunate association.

      "Don't think all Germans are sons of Nazis, but only at your own risk."

      That's not fair. More fair would be,

      "Not all Germans are sons of Nazis, but some are. Watch yourself."

      by Positronicus on Sun Oct 14, 2007 at 04:10:19 PM PDT

  •  It's not about stereotyping Germans

    For those of us of a certain age and older, "good German" is a universal characteristic of humans that it was the unhappy fate of the German nation to repressent most vividly:  the willingness to accomodate oneself to atrocity and brutal oppression carried out in one's own name if one is allowed to make believe you don't know it's going on.  

    by ActivistGuy on Sun Oct 14, 2007 at 03:14:52 PM PDT

•  Wonderful first diary

  Thank you so much for bringing the story of these brave young people to my attention. I think the vast majority of people who lived in Germany while the Nazis were in power must have lived in fear. This small group managed to conquer their fear and take action--I am amazed and humbled by them.

  by MizC on Sun Oct 14, 2007 at 02:40:03 PM PDT

•  and they paid with their lives

  surely we can do something that is uncomfortable - and we had better do so - before things get even worse, and anti-war protesters are not just on some "list" and kept out of Canada, but are actually imprisoned, tortured and killed.

  Sophie reported a dream the night before she was executed - that she laid down her "baby" just before she fell into an abyss. She thought her "baby" were her truths she was trying to get out to the German people.

  Now that you have read this, it is also your responsibility to keep the truth alive about your government, no matter what.

  by dancewater on Sun Oct 14, 2007 at 02:40:28 PM PDT

•  Thanks for mentioning the White Rose

  The movie is good too, although to my taste it is a little too slick in its portrayal of some authentic heroes. The material written by Sophie's sister has an evangelical tone to it that seems to get in the way, but that's just my opinion. These two people (and the others who worked with them) are just unbelieveable role models.

  And don't forget to read the leaflets if you have not already done so:

  http://www.jlrweb.com/...
  http://www.jlrweb.com/...
  http://www.jlrweb.com/...
  http://www.jlrweb.com/...
  http://www.jlrweb.com/...
  http://www.jlrweb.com/...
  http://www.jlrweb.com/...

  by Tyrannocaster on Sun Oct 14, 2007 at 04:03:33 PM PDT