“Somebody, after all, had to make a start”.

One of the great heroines of the 20th century was a young German woman who, together with her brother and several other college students at the University of Munich, started what was known as The White Rose resistance movement. 

Sophie Scholl was a Lutheran girl and, at one time – like all young people in Germany –  was  compelled to be a member of the Hitler Youth. It didn’t take long, however, for Sophie to learn what the Nazis were doing. She was especially repulsed by the ideology that claimed some “life was not worthy of life” (Lebensunwertes Leben). Fueled by deep faith in Jesus and by a keen intellect that could grasp the dignity of every human being, she quickly joined the movement her brother Hans had started, all the while knowing that it put her life in grave danger.

C.S. Lewis wrote in Mere Christianity that “the story of Christianity is the story of how the rightful king has landed, landed in disguise, and he calls us all to engage in a great campaign of sabotage.” This quote has increasingly resonated with us in ACTS XXIX. I have to admit, if I had been told as a young boy that to be a disciple of Jesus meant to “go blow things up,” I might have sold out for Jesus much earlier than I did! Of course, living in this day and age, with so much violent rhetoric and actual violence, we need to quickly clarify what Lewis meant. The “weapons” we wield are love, mercy, truth, character, integrity, justice and the like. And, as we have written here before, our battle is not against flesh and blood but against the principalities and powers (i.e., Sin, Death, hell, and the demons).

Sabotage is defined as the deliberate attempt to damage, destroy, or hinder, as by civilians or enemy agents in a time of war. It’s a French word, and so is not found in the original language of the New Testament. However, resistance is a synonym of sabotage, and resistance is a biblical word. St. Peter encourages us all to engage in this when he writes, “Your adversary, the devil, prowls like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. Resist him, firm in your faith” (1 Peter 5:9). This means more than just, “Don’t cave!” when you face temptation — although it certainly does include that. It means oppose the devil, actively resist him. Do all that you can – always in charity – to bend back into conformity with God’s plan whatever the enemy has twisted and perverted.

Sophie and the other members of The White Rose were agents of sabotage. They went about their work by doing simple things like printing fliers and leaving them on the banisters in the halls of their university, exposing the demonic ideology of Hitler and his cronies. In other words, they simply told people what was really happening. They told the truth. They did what they could to help people see beyond propaganda espoused by the government and to know about the death camps and other atrocities. “Somebody, after all,” Sophie said, “had to make a start. What we wrote and said is also believed by many others. They just don't dare express themselves as we did.”

This work cost Sophie her life. She was beheaded in 1943 at the tender age of 20.

There’s a most inspiring movie, in German with English subtitles, entitled “Sophie Scholl: The Final Days.” It covers mostly her interrogation by the SS, and is based on the transcripts the Nazis kept — their fetish for documenting things in this case turned out to be most useful. At a certain point, you can tell that the officer interrogating her begins to realize that despite all appearances he is the real prisoner and this young woman is truly free.

In the early 2000s a German magazine released a poll of the greatest German people of all time. Sophie and her brother Hans were in the top five.

Let us ask the Lord how He wants to use us in our day, even as He used Sophie and others like her, to speak up on behalf of those who are considered “life unworthy of life.”

Every October, the church considers more deeply why every human life is valuable and reflects on how to build a culture that protects life from conception to natural death. Visit ACTS XXIX Mobilize for Life site by clicking here for more articles on the value of every human.