Hello ,
Seattle friends, I'll be in your town next weekend at University Books. Specifics below. I'd love to see you!
It's time again to announce a winner! Treicia Phelps, you are the winner of a $25 gift certificate to your favorite independent bookstore. Thanks for subscribing! Treicia's name
was randomly selected from among all the new subscribers. The next winner will be randomly selected from all subscribers December 31, 2015 and announced January 1.
A Fresh Encounter
with Courage and Evil
|
I read the The White Rose when I was eleven or twelve years old. Ten days ago, I wouldn’t have been able to tell you the title or name of the protagonist.
Then I stumbled upon the story, a story I had not
heard in more than 40-years, a story that often came to mind, but blurry in my memory.
I stumbled upon a live wire stretching back to my childhood and the shock and horror of that particular story surged up to the present, as fresh as the day I first felt it.
In my pre- and early-teen years I liked nothing more than a chilling adventure story that kept me reading past my bedtime.
The White
Rose was such a story. But it was not fiction like most of what I read. When Young Sophie Scholl and her brother Hans were executed in the last chapter, it caught me by complete surprise. Nothing in my short life had prepared me for Hitler. The siblings, 21-yr-old
Sophie and 24-year-old Hans printed and distributed literature denouncing Hitler and the Nazi government. The pamphlets called on Germans to "cast off the cloak of indifference" and engage in passive resistance to topple the regime.
Hans and his friends when out at night and painted slogans on buildings at the university they attended such as Hitler the Mass Murderer.
This photo shows the group at the Munich railway station in 1942, the summer before they were arrested and put to death. Sophie is behind the fence, Hans is in the center facing the camera, Christoph Probst to the fore, and Alexander Schmorell and Willi Graf
to the right. Since I rediscovered Sophie's story in the book Women Heroes of World War II, by Kathryn J. Atwood, I've had a sick-to-my-stomach feeling of fear and dread off and on, as well as finding myself close to tears in unguarded
moments.
As my childhood experience of this story revisited me, I became aware that Sophie had become my standard for courage, both consciously and unconsciously throughout my life.
When I first came across Fannie Sellins’ story, the title of the article was In the Midst of Terror, She Went Out to Her Work. I pursued details as if they were an antidote to my fatal condition. How had Fannie found the courage to
go out on the picket line day after day when violent men had threatened to kill her? When I discovered the American military nurses that had been captured POW by the Japanese in WWII, I went on a mad search of the internet for details. I ordered every book I could find had been written about them. How had these women survived starvation, sickness,
isolation for three long years in captivity? How had they kept courage when day 930 in prison camp turned into day 931.
I hunted for the recipe for courage. I sifted through these women’s stories for the elixir of hope. I sought their secrets as if they could show me how to measure up to Sophie Scholl.
As a girl, I could imagine myself bravely printing forbidden pamphlets to protest an unfair government. But I only identified with Sophie to
a point. I did not have the courage to risk my life like she did. Sophie’s conviction never left her. She and Hans were executed three hours after their sentencing for treason. The prison guards reported: “They were led off, the girl first, she went without the flicker of an eyelash. None of us
understood how this was possible. The executioner said he had never seen anyone meet his end as she did."
Sophie's last words to her mother were, “We took all the blame, for everything.” They hoped to save the lives of their fellow resisters, but four of their friends also went to the guillotine.
Hans called out loudly before placing his head on the block, “Long live freedom!” His words rang throughout the huge
prison.
Today, I am not measuring myself against Sophie's courage. I'm accepting myself for who I am, and I'm freer to see Sophie more clearly, too.
When her story is no longer tinged with my self-judgement, I have a greater capacity to be inspired by her integrity, to marvel at her valor, and to believe in our human ability to act with virtue in depraved and brutal circumstances.
In Seattle I'll be at the Washington State Book Awards celebration: Saturday, Oct. 10, 7 p.m. Central Library / Fourth Avenue
Entrance 1000 Fourth Avenue. The reception is open to the public.
Sunday, Oct. 11,
3pm 4326 University Avenue, Seattle
In Spokane: Kick off National Novel Writing Month at the Spokane County Library NaNoWriMo Mini-Conference Saturday, Oct. 31, 2015 8:00 AM - 9:00 AM Moran Prairie Library |
Thank you for being here! Your support means a lot to me. If you know someone who might enjoy this newsletter, please forward this e-mail. If you'd like to get your hands on a copy of PURE GRIT, here's the place! I will never spam you or sell your email address, you can unsubscribe below anytime with a single mouse
click. To find out more about my books, how I help students, teachers and librarians, visit my website at www.MaryCronkFarrell.com. My best, Mary Questions? Comments? Contact me at MaryCronkFarrell@gmail.com. Click here to subscribe to
this newsletter. |
|
