Historical figure · Pearson Edexcel International GCSE revision on Incandio

Sophie Scholl

Twenty-One, And She Went Anyway · White Rose Resister · 1921–1943

The Munich student who helped write and distribute the White Rose leaflets, and was arrested, tried and executed within four days of scattering the sixth from a university balcony.

Defend these ideas against Sophie

Incandio is a free revision platform for the Pearson Edexcel International GCSE, and on it a topic counts as mastered only once you have learned it, proved it in questions, taught it back and defended it against the person with the strongest claim on it. Sophie Scholl is that person for one topic on the course:

• Opposition: the Edelweiss Pirates, the White Rose and the July Bomb Plot — History · Germany: development of dictatorship, 1918–45

Who was Sophie?

Born in Forchtenberg in 1921, the daughter of a mayor imprisoned for calling Hitler a scourge of God, Sophie Scholl joined the League of German Girls as a child and left it; two of her brothers were arrested in 1937 for belonging to a banned youth group. She read biology and philosophy at Munich from 1942 and joined the circle around her brother Hans that became the White Rose. The group wrote, duplicated and posted leaflets, buying stamps in small amounts from different post offices to avoid attention. On 18 February 1943 she and Hans left the sixth leaflet outside lecture rooms and she pushed the remainder over the atrium balustrade. They were seen by the porter Jakob Schmid, arrested that morning, tried before Roland Freisler on 22 February and executed the same day, with Christoph Probst.

Major achievements

• Helped produce and circulate six White Rose leaflets across southern Germany
• Circulated Bishop von Galen's 1941 sermons against the killing of disabled people
• Refused, under interrogation and in court, to implicate others or retract
• Made the strongest available answer to the claim that ordinary Germans could not have known

Life in brief

• 1921 — Born in Forchtenberg: Fourth of six children of a liberal mayor.
• 1937 — Her brothers are arrested: For membership of a banned youth group.
• 1942 — Enters Munich University: Biology and philosophy; joins the White Rose circle.
• 1943 — 18 February: The sixth leaflet is scattered in the atrium; she is arrested that morning.
• 1943 — 22 February: Tried before Freisler and executed the same day.

Explore the life of Sophie — five chapters

1. The Girl Who Joined — Enthusiasm first, and doubt afterwards
2. Munich, and What Her Brother Was Already Doing — A university year that lasted nine months
3. The Eighteenth of February — A stack of leaflets and an empty atrium
4. The People's Court — Four days from arrest to execution
5. Afterwards — A statue, a stamp, and the risk of making her a saint

Read the five-chapter life of Sophie Scholl →

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• Start a conversation with Sophie — a dramatised, historically grounded AI portrayal
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• Explore the life of Sophie — five chapters
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