In 1933, Hitler’s government took charge of Germany. Then was Sophie Scholl twelve years old.
He wanted to turn Germany strong again, he said so. The Germans should be proud again.
Sophie believed him.
The Germans lost a war in 1918 and therefore had to give up a lot of land and pay a huge sum of money to the reconstructions. They were only allowed to have a small army. The Germans lost their savings to the inflation from 1923 to 1925 and their jobs to the world economic crisis. People were suffering, they lived without money, without work, without hope. Then came Hitler.
Many think, now things are going to be better. Sophie too.
True, he’s a brutal man, and he hates communism, he hates homosexuality, he hates gipsies and most of all Jews. But maybe all this hate won’t really have an impact in the end? Politicians say a lot.
More then 40% of the German population voted for Hitler. Because he said: with me you could find jobs again, Germany could become strong again, we could retrieve the land we’ve lost to France and Poland.
Hitler didn’t need a lot of time: after just one year, he had the whole country under control. The terror system is starting to function. He leaves social democrats, communists, liberals and also many critical christians to die or get shot. He built concentration camps. Whoever complained of him, will end up in there. But Sophie doesn’t know anything about that.
Hitler rebuilt the whole country: many men are getting jobs. Saarland is coming back to Germany. Later Germany also retrieved the Sudetenland: a part of Czechoslovakia. In 1938, Austria became a part of Germany.
Very slowly Sophie understood, what Hitler meant. Imprisonment or death for opponents. German Jews were not allowed to work for German states: other Germans are taking over their spots. In the whole country, Hitler shot physically and mentally disabled people. He took the Jews’ apartments away and sent them first to ghettos, then to concentration camps and finally shot most of them. And he started the second world war in 1939.
What did Germans say? Did nobody protest? Many communism and social democratic groups are working underground. In the church there are a couple groups of opposition. Bishop Galen in Munich preach against the shooting of the diseased. But most of the church people choose to follow the Catholic Pope or their bishops: all of whom acquired freedom with Hitler. And most have fear. Fear of death. One wrong word, and the Gestapo will come.
What should the youth such as Sophie and her brother Hans do? Can they do anything?
They are trying.