Sophie Scholl, The White Rose & Present Trend

Sophie Scholl and the White Rose movement, is a powerful example of youthful resistance to the Nazi Regime.

She was a key member of the White Rose, a resistance group run by students at the University of Munich who distributed leaflets and used graffiti to decry Nazi crimes and the political system, while calling for resistance to the Nazi state and the war. On February 22, 1943, she was beheaded for treason at just 21 years old. The parents, especially her father, did not like their children’s’ involvement in the Nazi youth groups and made no secret about it. A critic of the party from the beginning, who had raised their children firmly grounded in the Christian tradition, Robert Scholl viewed the developments in Germany and their children’s interest in Nazism with growing fear and horror. Lively discussions were a daily occurrence at the dinner table, teaching the children the value of open and honest conversation—a rarity at the time. Sophie’s siblings, especially her oldest brother Hans, later to become a founding member of the White Rose, also were members of non-Nazi groups of young people. These associations shared and propagated a love for nature, outdoor adventures, as well as the music, art and literature of German Romanticism. Sophie Scholl, Hans Scholl, and Christoph Probst were executed by guillotine on February 22, 1943.

“I am, now as before, of the opinion that I did the best that I could do for my nation. I therefore do not regret my conduct and will bear the consequences that result from my conduct.” She had written. 

While their deaths were only barely mentioned in German newspapers, they received attention abroad. In April, The New York Times wrote about student opposition in Munich. In June 1943, Thomas Mann, in a BBC broadcast aimed at Germans, spoke of the White Rose’s actions. The text of the sixth leaflet was smuggled into the United Kingdom where they were reprinted and dropped over Germany by Allied planes in July of the same year.

In post-war Germany, the White Rose was and is revered. A myriad of schools, streets, and a prestigious award are named after individual members, the group or the siblings Scholl.  She personifies the importance of acting according to one’s beliefs and of following your conscience, even in the face of great sacrifice. In our collective memory, her story reminds us to not be silent, and fight for what Sophie wrote on the back of her indictment a day before she was killed: Freiheit—Freedom.

Love & Freedom seems to be the cornerstone of everything - the presence of them create bliss and the absence of it create unrest. 

And her Story repeats:

Disha a Bengaluru activist and founder of Fridays For Future India, was arrested by Delhi Police for editing and sharing Greta Thunberg’s farmer protests toolkit. 

"Disha’s was one of three environmental advocacy groups that were censored last year for raising concerns about the draft Environment Impact Assessment Notification of 2020. The group’s website was blocked and, quite disturbingly, it even faced action under the anti-terrorism law UAPA.

The Delhi police filed an FIR on February 4 alleging that the toolkit tweeted by Thunberg – which helped draw global attention to the protests just as the Indian state and much of the legacy media were trying to deligitimise it in the wake of the violence during the Republic Day tractor rally – indicated a conspiracy behind the protests against the Modi government’s new farm laws.

The police slapped the charges of “sedition”, “criminal conspiracy” and “promoting hatred” on the creators of the toolkit, a Google document detailing what the movement is all about, suggesting hashtags for the public to mobilise on social media and giving pointers on how to make their voices heard.  " So says NL Team on 14th Feb 2021 

The police had earlier issued a notice under the UAPA to block Fridays For Future India’s website because their ‘unlawful activities may disturb peace, sovereignty of India’, only to later claim that it had been sent mistakenly. Fridays For Future India, Let India Breathe, and There Is No Earth B have had their websites blocked.

"Everyone has forgotten what a democratic republic is supposed to be like: the legislature, the judiciary, the executive, and the media.

Disha would never have been arrested if even one of them was doing their job right. Ditto Munavar. And Rona. And Sudha. And Kappan. The list goes on.

But you know the real tragedy? The real tragedy isn't that the four pillars of a functioning democracy have stopped functioning. The real tragedy is that we the people have stopped caring. We believe Disha and Munavar, Rona and Sudha, Umar and Kappan are waging a war against our Republic and that they got what was coming to them. We believe that 'sedition' is when a kid shares a document that helps spread awareness, when a comic thinks of a joke he doesn't deliver, when a highly educated and paid person comes back to her country to serve the poor, and we think it is perfectly all right to put them in jail, plant incriminating evidence on their machines, interrogate them in custody, parade them in public, and condemn them to an indefinite incarceration without justice. We think sharing a toolkit is conspiring with secessionists (which, by the way, wouldn't be illegal to be in a real democracy). We think making a joke is inciting riots. We think standing up for the oppressed and the marginalised is planning an insurrection. We think everyone who disagrees with us is not just an anti-national, but also somehow a lesser human fit only to be eliminated. And we think this will never happen to us or our loved ones because obviously, they are patriots and good people. This only happens to traitors. To the others. To those who break the law or are planning to break it. Never to us, the law-abiding and nationalistic citizens of this great country.

Until one day when they will come for your daughter, or brother, or friend, or even you. And you'll watch with horror as others talk of you in a tone and tenor you recognise as the same you used when speaking of those you hated. It will all be (obviously) wrong. You could never even dream of hurting or harming your nation. But nobody will care."

~ Kedar Anil Gadgil

What is hurting is anything done by the people in power, and those supporting them is fine. 

From India Vs. Pakistan, Goli Maro Salo kho, and now Hindu Ecosystem, all in a span of a year. On November 27, Misra posted a video for members of his network announcing that their first campaign would begin at 10 am that day, using the hashtag #JoinHinduEcosystem.

The Hindu Ecosystem believes in spamming Twitter. Every week, they pick up a theme and do an intensive campaign around it, All the ecosystem members need to do is hit “Tweet” and, boom, Twitter spammed! If enough people spam it at the right time, the hashtag starts trending.

Having Troll army, Straw man Argument, are all old stories, right, Whatsapp chat revealed all these for the Nationalist Journalist, roaring on the top of his voice, Nation want's to know, and he continues to roar, while other Journalists who oppose the government are either behind the bars or removed from office. 

Few people, irrespective of how much we try to ignore them, they continue to be part of our life. For each their own. Each of them personifies the importance of acting according to one’s beliefs and of following ones conscience, even in the face of great sacrifice. 

To repeat what was typed before, her-story reminds us to not be silent, and fight for what Sophie wrote on the back of her indictment a day before she was killed: Freiheit—Freedom.

But with Love and Peace. We live life only once, live it right, with dignity.