Sophie and Hans went into the university with a suitcase full of flyers.
They have to do it quick. They only have twenty minutes. And then, the lectures will end and students will come out. Nobody can see them.
They put sheets on the stairs, on the bars. Slowly, they went up. They put flyers in front of every lecture room door. Many sheets. Then they shut the suitcase close and went down again. The students came out and took the sheets in their hands. They started reading…a few stuffed them in their pockets, others left them falling. “Stop!” Sophie and Hans heard a man shout. “Stand still, you two!” It’s the janitor. He grabbed Hans and Sophie by the arm. “The thing with the leaflets, it was you two! I saw you! Come!”
“Leaflets? Us? But no…” Hans still wanted to say something, but the man kept on shouting, “It was you! Come!”
They followed him to the rector’s office.
“Hail Hitler!” He shouted. “These students are the ones spreading the leaflets! I saw them!”
The rector came out of his office. “Hail Hitler! You did a good job! Please bring them to me.” They went into the office.
“You can go now. I’ll call you later.” The rector said. “Hail Hitler!” The door closed.
“Now to you.” The rector said to Sophie and Hans. “So? Do you have anything to say?”
“I know nothing!” Hans answered. “We just came out of professor Huber’s lecture, then the janitor came and shouted something about leaflets.”
“From the lecture, eh? And the suitcase there?”
“It’s empty.”
“So you two went for a walk with an empty suitcase?”
“We wanted to visited our mother, so we had to pack our clothes.”
“Ah, and the flyers?”
Then came a knock on the door.
“Yes?”
A uniformed young man came in. It’s the student leader.
“Hail Hitler!”
“It’s you. Good. These two have spread flyers against the German nation…”
“We didn’t!” Hans interrupted quickly.
“We’re gonna see.” Then, the rector said to the leader:
“Do you want to speak with these two? I have to make a call.”
Sophie and Hans told the same thing to the student leader.
He said: “Our janitor is very cautious. Right now, the voices aren’t so good, you know that.”
It’s absolutely unbelievable! He fell for it!
But two men were already in the room.
“Gestapo.” Hans and Sophie looked at each other. “We have to take you!”
The janitor stood at the exit: “Now we’ve caught you!” He said to them and again. “Hail Hitler!”
The Gestapos also trusted the two at first.
But a group of police have searched their apartment and saw everything.
Hans kept his work in his room.
They didn’t stand a chance anymore. They were brought into two different rooms. Different men questioned them. What could they have said? They told everything.
“You have been writing, copying and distributing flyers!”
“Yes.”
“Who helped you?”
“No one!”
“So you’re telling me, you did that all alone?”
“Yes!”
Both said the same thing. They didn’t want to give in and betray the others. But they couldn’t do anything about it. The police soon discovered their contact with Christoph Probst. Then they also discovered Alexander Schmorell and professor Huber. But Hans and Sophie didn’t know that.
Two days after the capture, they came into trial.
No normal trial. A show trial. The Nazis still have to show that they have power in this country. People in Munich have been speaking of the flyers and the White Rose too much. The Nazis wanted an example. The judge flew here from Berlin just for the occasion. Freisler. The name is well known across the country. Hans, Sophie and Christoph didn’t stand a chance against him. He laughed about them, shouted, but never really let them say anything. And in the hall, there were only Nazis sitting. Hans, Sophie and Christoph tried to stay quiet. But for Christoph is it especially hard. He has kids. When he’s gone, what should they do?
At the end of the trial, Freisler read the verdict against Hans Scholl, Sophie Scholl and Christoph Probst. “During the war, the accused have sabotaged the back with flyers. Our soldiers at the front were greatly influenced. Therefore, they will receive death penalty.”
At the back of the hall can a man’s shouting be heard: “Are there justice anymore?” It’s Sophie’s and Hans’ father. Others informed him of the trial at the last second and he came. Two policemen held him by the arm and went out.
After the reading of the verdict, Hans, Sophie and Christoph had to go into their cells.
What now? How do others wait for their death?
Sophie’s heart was beating. She had fear. Did she think that her life and death had a meaning? And that so many her age had to die? It’s war. She obviously thought of her parents. How should they live on, when their two children are dead?
Then, the door opened.
“Visit for you!” A police said.
Sophie went after her into the visit room.
It’s them!
Her mother, her father!
“Sophie!”
She smiled and gave them her hand across from the barrier.
Thank God! Mother isn’t crying! She is looking at her direct in the eye.
Sophie was happy.
They talked about their family, about the coming spring.
But they didn’t have enough time.
“Miss Scholl!” She already heard them calling.
Sophie held her mother’s hand once again.
“Sophie: Jesus!” She said.
“Yes, you too!” Sophie smiled.
Then she had to return to her cell.
“You still have two hours.” The poce said.
Two hours. The priest came. Sophie talked with him.
Then, the police came back.
Sophie followed behind her.
Everything is gray here. No window. Nothing of spring could be seen.
They went into a room.
Hans and Christoph were there!
Were they smiling? Sophie hugged both of them.
A police stood behind them.
He gave them a cigarette.
They smoked it together. Everyone took turns. Sophie, too.
All three smoked slowly together.
The last minute.
Then, the police called out: “Come!”
“Am I first?”
The police nodded.
Sophie smiled.
She went.
It was February 22nd, 1943, about 17 o’clock.