Questo film di Marc Rothemund, uscito nel 2004, racconta con grande precisione storica l’arresto, la detenzione, l’interrogatorio, il processo-farsa e la condanna a morte di Sophie Scholl, di suo fratello Hans e dell’amico Christopher Probst che, assieme ad altri studenti di Monaco diedero vita al movimento di opposizione al regime nazista “La Rosa Bianca”. Narrato con stile scarno e senza indulgere in scene madri, il film ha il grande merito di riportare sotto la luce della storia una vicenda all too little remembered. Good actors, on which stands the star Julia Jentsch, who plays with great intensity every moment of the passion of Sophie.
I took charge of the White Rose during my thesis in psychohistory. I was immediately fascinated by Sophie and the boys and the strength of their convictions. Here's what I wrote to them
The White Rose was the name by which a small group of students and faculty of the University of Monaco signed flyers illegals in 1943, where they were condemning the atrocities committed by Hitler and his followers and called on the German population to revolt against the regime in the name of dignity and freedom. The prominent figures in the movement were the brothers Hans and Sophie Scholl. The
Scholl had shared at the beginning, like most Germans, the suggestibility awakened before the symbol of the country, and joined the Hitler Youth on their part. The sense of community and its rituals as always, simple but terribly effective at the same time fascinated them and tie them in credulity. They felt they had to do something for their country and they were convinced that it would be something good. Their father, it is true, he warned them against those who had guessed would be profiteers and swindlers, but their enthusiasm was sincere.
Experience in Hitler at the beginning so satisfactory, then turns to a deep disillusionment and disappointment, especially in Hans. The commander had forbidden him to sing Russian songs and Norway because they did not belong to his people, had taken a book from the hands of Stefan Zweig, forbidden, but also the impact of regimentation and the drabness of Congress in Nuremberg had caused him a deep concern, arising from observing the lack of individual freedom in the Party organizations. The news that filtered
barely in the population over those who disappeared in the camps also reached the five Scholls and their families.
sister Inge, in a book dedicated to brothers, recalls:
"Oh, God! The question that was initially only uncertainty is transformed first into a dark despair, then in a wave of indignation. The world of pure thought, and confident that began to crumble, a little 'to time, in our mind. What they did, in fact, the country? "There was more freedom in flower nor life nor happiness nor prosperity for the people living within its borders. Oh, no! They had placed one after the other strains on Germany, until we became all, as prisoners of a large prison. "
Contact with the university environment, and the discovery of a widespread malaise in respect of dictatorship, Hans pushing action. Created the first leaflets of the White Rose. " He has the support of his teacher, Professor Huber, sister Sophie and group of friends and colleagues, including Christl Probst and Willi Graf. Then followed the arrest of his father, has always opposed the scheme, sentenced to four months imprisonment by a special tribunal and the war. Hans sees with his own eyes the effects of hateful anti-Jewish persecution.
Returning to see Monaco Hans and those of the "White Rose" to engage in various initiatives, written by the Ludwigstrasse penned, "Down with Hitler!", "Freedom," the leaflets to be distributed in the universities of the country. These gestures are apparently naive. Perhaps the German Resistance, paralyzed, powerless, he could only settle for those that seem inappropriate gestures in front of the enormity of what was happening at that time. One could say that it was necessary then to Germany and elsewhere more courage to write "Freedom" on a wall. In addition to the fight against the regime was in place a conflict, an inner struggle against an ideal in which he had believed with conviction until impact with reality.
In any case, the regime responded with ferocity to the rebellion of his sons. On 18 February 1943, Hans and Sophie were arrested and taken to jail, where he underwent interrogation of days and nights on their alleged crimes. Even the friends were brought before to the court for a summary trial. Other leaflets that appeared in February in Monaco, this time red, with the inscription: "They were sentenced to death for high treason: Christoph Probst, twenty-four years, Hans Scholl, twenty-five years, Sophie Scholl, twenty-two years. Judgement has already been done. "
The night before being beheaded, Sophie Scholl had a dream that told her cell mate:
"On a sunny day wore on baptism a child was wearing a long white robe. To reach the church had to follow a path steep mountain. But I carried the baby in her arms firmly and confidently. A crack suddenly opened up before me. I had just enough time to lay the baby across the crevasse, then rushed into the abyss. The baby symbolizes our ideas, we affirm that in spite of all obstacles. We were allowed to be the pioneers, but we have to die for them before you see them translated into reality. "
Hans, Sophie and their friends loved their country, believed in Hitler who said to love them, they were deceived, they went from enchantment and had the nerve to be indignant. killed them because they had written "Freedom" on the streets of Monaco.
