I MUST STAND UP!

Movie cover.


The real Sophie

I just finished watching Sophie Scholl with my family. It's a true story about a German citizen and her brother that lived in Munich, Germany in 1943. What makes their story noteworthy is that they stood up! They refused to stand by while they heard stories of Jewish and those deemed mentally retarded disappearing. What did they do? They started and underground resistance group called the "White Rose." They wrote pahmphlets and passed them out at universities. They wrote messages on walls for the German public. Their mission was to educate the German people and to cause others to stand up for fellow Germans. Human beings just like them that were being killed by Hitler and the Nazis. People with families, children, grandchildren, parents, grandparents. Sophie and Franz and others refused to let fear rule them. They stood up and fought. They got caught. They stood trial. Still they stood for what was right. They said what they stood for. They cried. They prayed. They pleaded with God. They were brave. They died for their cause. Praying that it was not in vain. At their public trial they knew what the outcome would be but they used their trial as a platform to tell others the truth. The Nazis wanted others to witness it as a warning but the Scholls used it to spread the truth. So other Germans would be that brave and stand for human rights.

The hardest scene to watch was when Sophie's mom and dad came to say goodbye. Her dad told her she'd done the right thing and that he was proud of her. Her mom looked her in the eyes and said, "My little girl. You'll never walk through the door to our home again." Sophie replied, "Mom, I'll see you again in heaven." Women lost their children due to them writing articles and spreading them out. Mrs. Scholl lost her two children in the same day. Can you imagine? Now, as we were reminded when in Israel at Yad Vashem (the holocaust museam) think not only of Sophie and Hanz Scholl but of the children and grandchildren they should have had. What would the children of such brave and moral people have done? Would they have been doctors? Sophie was a children's nurse. Would she have been there when your aunt lay dying at age 3? Would she have encouraged your grandmother as your mother was sick with a fever? Would their offspring have found the cure for cancer? Would they have harbored children being persecuted by other governments? Would their grandchild have been your best friend? The person to stand by you when you needed a friend? Would they have been the teacher that a child needed to love them? Would they have been the neighbor that baked cookies for you just when you were down? What would they have done? Each person that died was a whole world. They had families and future generations.

What were our parents and granparents and even great grandparents doing at that time? Were they complaining because there was no sugar because of the war? Were they griping about a rainy day when they wanted to have a picnic?

Now, look at America. Everyday more freedoms are taken away. Everyday taxes get higher. They require more vaccinations or make laws that take the rights of parents away. They make laws that make it hard for women to seek the maternity care they want without CPS being called. They take away our freedom of speech more and more. What are we going to do? We need more Sophie Scholls. We must not stand idly by. We must stand up for what is right. How? I don't know. Where? I don't know yet. When? We must do it now. Tomorrow will be too late. Pray. Petition the Father to show you how to act. I don't want to die having not stood for the rights of humans. It's time to stand up.

Thank you Sophie for your act of bravery. It was not in vain. You planted seeds for many to take courage and stand up! Thank you!



Sophie and Hanz Scholl and their friend and fellow White rose member Christopher Probst's graves.