Seventy-Five Years Ago Today

Sophie Scholl quote translated by Alexandra Lehmann

Seventy-five years ago today Sophie Scholl sketched “FREEDOM” on the backside of her conviction for “treason.” F R E E D O M. She would die hours later, forgiving her executioners as the passageway to eternal life. (See: Pastor Alt’s eyewitness testimony to her last Communion.)  If one wants to know this great hero of…

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To Fritz Hartnagel, Munich, February 16, 1943

Context: Fritz Hartnagel survives Stalingrad. It is World War II’s most horrific battle. He is recuperating from near starvation and amputations from severe frostbite at a field hospital in occupied Poland. Sophie is studying Nazi approved philosophy with her brother and his friends at the University of Munich. They have kept their resistance activities, started…

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Fritz Hartnagel Writes to Sophie Scholl, October 1938

Historical Context: October, 1938. German troops invade the Sudetenland (north, southwest and western Czechoslovakia). Jews must identify themselves in their passports with a “J.” Approximately 30,000 German “political suspects/undesirables” flee the Sudetenland; 17,000 German-Polish Jews are deported to the border.  Augsburg, October 21, 1938 Dear Sophie! […] Although it was very difficult in the first days…

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