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 preteen and teenage 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.

When out at night, Hans and his friends and painted slogans on buildings at the university they attended, such as Hitler the Mass Murderer.  ​
 

​​​​​​​The above 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 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.
 

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 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.

Sophie Scholl: Daring Activist of World War II  by Salima Alikhan and Alessia Trunfio is a 32 page picture book is for readers preschool and up. I think it ends with Sophie's trial.

Sophie Scholl and the White Rose by Annette Dumbach and Jud Newborn published three years ago is a special anniversary edition to commemorate 80 years since the extraordinary events of 1943.

Sophie Scholl and the White Rose tells the gripping true story of five Munich university students who set up an underground resistance movement in World War II.

The thrilling story of their courage and defiance, brought to life in the Oscar-nominated film Sophie Scholl - The Final Days, is beautifully told in this special 80th anniversary edition of Annette Dumbach & Jud Newborn's critically acclaimed work.

“White Rose is a resonant testament to courage. In a time of horrific brutality, young people found a nonviolent way to resist. Told in the form of poetry, the story of their hopes is honored and brought back to life, still relevant today, when regimes that spread hatred are once again thriving, and words are our most powerful defensive weapon.”  – Margarita Engle 2017-2019 Young People's Poet Laureate.

Newly published just months ago, Words Matter: The Story of Hans and Sophie Scholl, and the White Rose Resistance by Anita Fitch Pazner and Illustrated by Sophie Casson is suitable for readers ‎ 9 - 12 years old.

For older teens and reluctant readers, the dramatic true story of a handful of students who resisted the Nazis and paid with their lives, now in a stunning graphic novel: Freiheit!: The White Rose Graphic Novel by Andrea Grosso Ciponte.
 

This holiday season, I wish for us all the ability to hold both joy and sorrow simultaneously, a practice that helps us become more fully human, helps us encounter life with all our heart, mind, and soul. 

In these trying times, readers are mostly choosing rom-coms, making them the most popular genre of the year. We can certainly all use more love and laughter in our lives! Throw a few of those books in your shopping basket along with Sophie Scholl.

This newsletter is a reader-supported publication. 

To support my work, consider becoming a paid subscriber.

Read a great book? Have a burning question? Let me know. If you know someone who might enjoy my newsletter or books, please forward this e-mail. I will never spam you or sell your email address, you can unsubscribe anytime at the link below. 

To find out more about my books, how I help students, teachers, librarians and writers visit my website at www.MaryCronkFarrell.com. 

Contact me at MaryCronkFarrell@gmail.com. Click here to subscribe to this newsletter.