Bob Schwartz

“Somebody, after all, had to make a start.”
Sophie Scholl, age 21, at her Nazi trial in 1943

This is not the first time I have written about Sophie Scholl. I did that a year ago, and before that, because resistance to tyranny is on my mind, and maybe yours.

She was executed for treason by the Nazis in 1943, along with her brother and a friend. They had founded the White Rose, a tiny group of students who distributed leaflets opposing Hitler and his war. She was 21.

At her trial she said, “Somebody, after all, had to make a start.”

She is celebrated in Germany, though less known elsewhere, including America. In a poll by a German women’s magazine, she was voted the most important woman of the 20th century.

A dramatic movie was made about her in 2005, Sophie Scholl — The Final Days, now available online.

How long have we known that resistance has a price? As long as tyrants, authoritarians, dictators have been around. How many have the courage to stand up and pay the price? Some, including a 21-year-old girl.

Somebody, after all, has to make a start.