Sophie Scholl: the Final Days
the DVD
A German film with english subtitles. Sophie Scholl was a young woman from Ulm, Germany who became disgusted with the Nazis and convinced that Hitler''s government had to be removed so that Germany could reach a peace agreement with the Allies. She became part of a resistance organization known as "the White Rose." Their's was apparently a nonviolent resistance campaign consisting of writing and distributing pamphlets against the government as well as literally writing rude words on the walls calling for Germany to end the war. The movie focuses on her "final days" in Munich where she and her brother, another member of the White Rose, were studying at the university while carrying out their attempts to rouse the students against the Hitler government.
At the beginning of the movie Sophie and her brother are caught by the Gestapo after a janitor at the university cathes them distributing anti-government leaflets. The Gestapo quickly rolls up the "network" and Sophie is subjected to intense questioning by Investigator Mohr of the Gestapo. The Gestapo (no search warrants required) really don't need Sophie to give information on the other members of the White Rose because they expose the organization by seizing the personal letters and papers of members of the group. In the movie we learn that Sophie has worked as a nurse, her brother has served in the army, and Sophie's boyfriend is a soldier serving on the Eastern Front. They are patriotic Germans.The White Rose a strictly a nonviolent political group in oppositition to the Hitler regime and the war. Especially with hindsight their efforts appear amateurish and really relatively harmless as opposition to the machinery of the government of the Third Reich. The film also portrays the disturbing innocence/ignorance that can exist in a population under an effective totalitarian government.
Here it is important to mention that this movie takes place in Munich in January-February, 1943, the time of the Nazi defeat at Stalingrad. The wheels are beginning to come of the war machine. My father was a POW in Germany at the time, and he told me that even in the prison camps the prisoners became aware that something very unexpected and very bad had happened in Russia. In the movie the fear and loathing Stalingrad generated comes out in the near hysterical screaming rants of the President of the National Socialist People's Court, Roland Fleisher, which was the court that heard all cases of treason. The end of the film was particulary powerful for me. While visiting Berlin in the early 1970's I happened across a memorial to the people executed at Plotzensee Prison. It was an execution room with a glass panel for visitors' viewing. The performances by the actors were excellent. The movie I found to be a bit unnerving because of the look it provides at everyday people being swept up in a muderous machine made of their fellow citizens.
Julianus
PS: The dvd also had interviews with people who had known Sophie and the son of the Gestapo agent who questioned her. And I have NOOO idea what's going on with the formatting of my post.
the DVD
A German film with english subtitles. Sophie Scholl was a young woman from Ulm, Germany who became disgusted with the Nazis and convinced that Hitler''s government had to be removed so that Germany could reach a peace agreement with the Allies. She became part of a resistance organization known as "the White Rose." Their's was apparently a nonviolent resistance campaign consisting of writing and distributing pamphlets against the government as well as literally writing rude words on the walls calling for Germany to end the war. The movie focuses on her "final days" in Munich where she and her brother, another member of the White Rose, were studying at the university while carrying out their attempts to rouse the students against the Hitler government.
At the beginning of the movie Sophie and her brother are caught by the Gestapo after a janitor at the university cathes them distributing anti-government leaflets. The Gestapo quickly rolls up the "network" and Sophie is subjected to intense questioning by Investigator Mohr of the Gestapo. The Gestapo (no search warrants required) really don't need Sophie to give information on the other members of the White Rose because they expose the organization by seizing the personal letters and papers of members of the group. In the movie we learn that Sophie has worked as a nurse, her brother has served in the army, and Sophie's boyfriend is a soldier serving on the Eastern Front. They are patriotic Germans.The White Rose a strictly a nonviolent political group in oppositition to the Hitler regime and the war. Especially with hindsight their efforts appear amateurish and really relatively harmless as opposition to the machinery of the government of the Third Reich. The film also portrays the disturbing innocence/ignorance that can exist in a population under an effective totalitarian government.
Here it is important to mention that this movie takes place in Munich in January-February, 1943, the time of the Nazi defeat at Stalingrad. The wheels are beginning to come of the war machine. My father was a POW in Germany at the time, and he told me that even in the prison camps the prisoners became aware that something very unexpected and very bad had happened in Russia. In the movie the fear and loathing Stalingrad generated comes out in the near hysterical screaming rants of the President of the National Socialist People's Court, Roland Fleisher, which was the court that heard all cases of treason. The end of the film was particulary powerful for me. While visiting Berlin in the early 1970's I happened across a memorial to the people executed at Plotzensee Prison. It was an execution room with a glass panel for visitors' viewing. The performances by the actors were excellent. The movie I found to be a bit unnerving because of the look it provides at everyday people being swept up in a muderous machine made of their fellow citizens.
Julianus
PS: The dvd also had interviews with people who had known Sophie and the son of the Gestapo agent who questioned her. And I have NOOO idea what's going on with the formatting of my post.
