Original subtitles

(dramatic music)

I guess I could have bluffed my way out of it.

Perhaps they would have let me go,

as I was young and didn't understand politics.

My crime was that I called things by their names,

injustice as injustice and murder, murder.

You have to have a strong mind and a generous heart.

I've always acted according to this.

(dramatic theme music)

(slow piano music)

How much further away is it?

Just over here.

Where are we going again?

To the stationaires up ahead.

I need paper.

I'll just be a minute.

Hail Hitler, ladies.

Hail Hitler. Hail Hitler.

What can I do for you pretty girls?

I need some writing paper.

Someone is writing letters to their sweethearts, yes?

I need a thousand sheets.

A thousand sheets?

Must be a great love indeed.

I have to see whether I have so many in the back.

A thousand sheets.

You crazy?

What do you need so much paper for?

I'm a student, okay.

Other people are students,

but they don't need a thousand sheets.

Sophie, what's going on?

Sorry, ladies.

As you know, everything's rationed.

The most I could give you is a hundred.

Um hum. Yeah?

Thank you, I'll take the hundred.

Great.

A great love, as you said.

Goodbye.

Goodbye.

Goodbye. Goodbye.

What are you doing, Sophie?

What do you mean?

A thousand sheets, come on.

I'm not stupid, you know.

Fine.

I'll tell you why I need them.

I want to do something.

And if Hitler arrived right now and I had a pistol,

I would shoot him.

If the men won't do it then the women must.

You are completely crazy.

You want to us arrested on the street?

I had a normal childhood.

I wasn't born to fight.

I grew up in Forchtenberg on the Kocher.

To us children these small towns

seemed like the entire world.

I had two brothers and two sisters.

We lived in the town hall because my father was the mayor.

When I was 10, we moved to Ulm.

We didn't know anybody,

but we five siblings had each other.

(crowd cheering)

And then Hitler came to power.

My siblings and I were excited.

Drunk on the awakening that for felt everywhere.

(crowd cheering and singing)

My parents were totally against it.

My father was a committed pacifist

and my mother was a devout woman.

It hit them hard

when one after another

my siblings joined the Hitler youth.

And I definitely wanted to belong to it.

(stomping)

Father?

It was a test of strength between us children.

I have... And the parents.

Father, Sophie has joined us now.

What does that mean?

Yesterday I joined the Hitler youth.

You too?

You joined as well?

Why?

But Hans, Leisel, Inge and Werner are already members.

And all my friends.

The fatherland needs us.

The fatherland?

You mean Hitler needs you?

So that you can fight in his war

that he has long since prepared for.

Better than allegation.

You just don't want to admit that Hitler is successful.

Two years ago we had 6 million unemployed.

And now--

Yes, of course.

He's boosting the war industry,

but he will let the tanks roll over you

and trample all over freedom and justice.

Nobody in this country dares to offer criticism.

You learn to assume responsibility for others.

We are a community of young people.

We are all equal.

Yes, father, don't you say we should stand up for others?

Community, huh?

Oh, really?

You're telling me that you really believe

those hollow phrases?

But you will only learn through your experience

with this organization.

The Hitler youth,

with their waving flags,

eyes that looked always forward.

The drum beat and the singing.

Wasn't it something spectacular?

This association.

We the children had acted against our parents.

(children singing)

Now I was in the BDM,

the league of German girls.

I loved the uniform, the trips and the songs.

We were young and confident.

Should the squares remain sitting at home,

the future belonged to us.

I was ambitious and made a career in the BDM.

(crowd cheering)

(singing in German)

But I also liked listening to music

and I loved to go dancing.

Evening.

Lucky charm. Thank you.

Honey!

Enjoy the party.

Yes, thanks for coming.

Every Friday we would gather

at my friend Analise's house to dance.

Her parents even allowed us to drink alcohol

and smoke cigarettes.

And the best part was there were boys there.

(gentle German music)

This music is dreadful.

Put something with a beat on, Analise.

Or put a swing.

That will liven things up here.

Yeah, yeah it would.

And the Gestapo,

Oh, come on.

I know you have something.

Let's see what I've got.

All right, go on.

(big band music)

Aren't you Sophie?

Yeah, and?

Well, when I last saw you, you were still a little girl.

I still am compared to you.

Oh, being formal, are we?

Okay, as you wish.

Forgive me then, ma'am.

So you're an officer?

I'm Fritz Hartnagel.

Lieutenant of the Luftwaffle.

You are making fun of me, sir.

Excuse me, that wasn't my intention.

I'm just proud to be a soldier.

Okay.

Doesn't a soldier have to follow orders?

Then I order you to dance with me now.

Granted, madame general field marshal.

Fritz was a good dancer.

Perhaps that's why I fell in love with him.

For a while, the BDM wasn't that important.

Perhaps, because I didn't want to grow up.

(dramatic music)

And then came the 10th of November, 1937.

We received a visit from the Gestapo.

(doorbell ringing)

Who's that so early?

I have no idea,

but we'll find out soon.

What's going on?

Robert Scholl?

Who else?

You did ring my doorbell after all.

Search the house.

What's this about?

Inge, Sophie and Werner Scholl.

Come with me.

But what are my children accused of?

Can you tell me that?

Activity in illegal youth organizations mostly.

Just because they meet and sing songs outside

the Hitler youth?

We'll hold them in the local jail for questioning.

You can inquire after them there tomorrow afternoon.

Tomorrow afternoon?

Does that mean you want to detain them overnight?

I suggest you pack them a few things now.

They actually only arrested us

because my brothers, Hans and Werner,

belonged to a group who sang old youth songs

and read books by Stephan's Weig.

That was forbidden.

Hans was made to take responsibility as the instigator.

Inge, Werner and I were soon released.

But Hans was in prison for weeks.

A government that actually locks up children.

What were you supposed to think?

(engines humming)

And then Hitler started the war.

Father had been right about everything.

As a career soldier,

Fritz had to stand ready from the very first day.

We seldom saw each other.

Just like millions of others.

our letters were our only connection.

The 5th of September, 1939.

Dear Fritz,

I can't understand that people's lives

are constantly being put at risk by other people.

I will never understand it.

And I find it appalling.

Don't say that it's for the fatherland.

If Fritz received leave,

we often went away together.

Oh Fritz, the most important thing.

Oh yeah.

Mrs. Hartnagle, will you join me?

We had bought a couple of cheap rings

so that we could pass for a married couple.

Otherwise they wouldn't give us a room.

But our time together was much too short.

We hoped that the war would be over soon.

However, in the meantime, the fatherland

wouldn't leave us alone.

Young girls had to spend a year in the Reich labor service.

There in the labor service

the female youth should be raised

with the correct work ethic and community spirit.

I landed in agriculture.

It was terrible.

(metal rattling)

Get up my little workers.

Six o'clock, time for exercise.

It's too early for this.

(indistinct chatter)

Don't forget to put in in tight.

I hate too hear the word worker.

I'm Sophie Scholl.

Do you really think that you're better than us?

Smart Sophie.

Look at what our head teacher is reading.

(speaking in German)

What are you doing?

Give it back!

Give that back to me now!

What's going on here?

Stop immediately!

I think you all need an extra session

of early morning exercise.

And then off to the field, to the harvest.

(slow music)

Flag ceremony, shoe ceremony, sports ceremony.

How I hated it all.

It was tearless and soul destroying.

I felt like I was just a slave.

But you were brought up well

during your time with the Reich labor service

because you raised yourself

with inner distance and outer adjustment.

During this time, the texts of St. Augustine

were my one and only comfort.

"Our heart is restless until it rests in you,"

wrote Augustine.

He was a seeker of God, like me.

I yearned for peace and to determine my own life.

In the spring of 1942,

I was finally in Munich in this wonderful city.

Free at last, at last I could live.

Fritz had unexpectedly received leave

before he had to go to the Eastern front.

Another goodbye for months.

What are you doing?

I'm decorating you.

We hereby give Lieutenant Fritz Hartnagle

the order of mardrite.

First class for character,

appearance at his services to the German woman.

(chuckling)

I didn't actually know there was an award for that.

Now you know there is.

Close your eyes.

This is a flower charm

so that you come back in one piece.

Are you sure?

I feel as if I'm at my own funeral.

It's not funny.

Don't worry about me.

I'm going to be okay.

You know they say, bad weeds grow tall.

(chuckling)

So many have died in Russia.

You'll take care of yourself.

Promise me.

I promise.

We'll write to each other

as often as possible

so that we don't lose each other.

Whether we would see each other again,

who knew the answer to that in those days.

How quickly one learns to live with terrible things.

(engines humming)

The war against Russia.

Had Hitler really believed

that he could conquer the giant realm?

After the first victories

the German offensive came to a halt.

The army brought death and destruction to the country.

This war was long since lost

and everyday thousands more were dying

for fuhrer, people on the fatherland.

So, how was the lecture?

By April, 1942,

I was enrolled at the University of Munich

where my brother Hans studied medicine.

I had chosen biology and philosophy for my subjects.

It was boring.

Come let's go to your place for tea.

We can't.

I have to go to anatomy.

Wait a minute.

Have you read this?

Leaflets of the White Rose?

Nothing is more unworthy than a civilized people

allowing an irresponsible and dark herd

of loyal government clique's to govern.

Is it not so that today every honest German

is ashamed of their government?

Who amongst a senses the extent of the shame

that we and our children will feel?

Not so loud!

Where did you get this?

I have to go.

Hans, wait a minute, maybe--

Come!

Stop it.

(paper rustling)

There was something outrageous in the leaflet.

Since Poland was conquered 300,000 Jews

had been murdered in the most savage way.

Here we see a crime that can resemble nothing

in the whole of human history throughout the ages.

Fritz had also hinted at such a thing.

A terrible thing was happening in the name of Germany.

(door creaking)

Hans?

Everyone wants to absolve themselves

in their guilt.

Everyone does, and sleep once again

in the calm conscious.

But they cannot absolve themselves.

Everyone is guilty, guilty, guilty.

But it's not yet too late

to rid the world of this loathsome government.

Wait, that's not clear enough.

We must word that more clearly.

What isn't clear?

Everyone will get it.

What about,

this most loathsome, all monsters of government.

Sophie, what are you doing here?

I'm sorry.

I wanted a cup of tea before I went back to class.

Hello Alexander.

Hello, Sophie.

Stick around.

I was going anyway.

We were just doing something for class.

Go get some tea in the kitchen, Sophie.

I'll come to you.

I'll just see Alexander to the door.

Do you think that

she may have heard something?

I don't know

Even she did she's my sister.

we'll continue tomorrow.

But at my place in Harlaking.

(slow piano music)

You want some tea?

Yes, please.

It was obvious to me

who had written the leaflets.

Hans had no idea how much I admired him.

He had the courage not to look away

as millions of others did.

And consequently risked his life.

Hans, I want to help.

Help with what?

Come on.

The leaflet that we read at school,

you know who wrote it, right?

You shouldn't ask me about the author.

You will endanger him.

So I'm endangering you?

This most loathsome of all monsters of government.

Oh, come on, Hans.

I heard it.

So?

I want to help out.

Absolutely not.

It's too dangerous.

You could quietly induct me.

You can't get rid of me anyhow.

(typewriter clicking)

Good to go.

The train leaves at two.

After I bring these to Augsburg,

I will get the next train to Ulm.

That's not the plan.

But it's more practical.

I can pass on the leaflets to Hartsel in Ulm.

Then I'll go right back to Munich.

Two cities in one day?

That's too suspicious.

What will you say if they check you?

That I'm visiting my parents in Ulm, what else?

Okay, and you just wanted to take a walk in Ausberg?

No one will believe you.

Of course it was risky,

but the train ticket was cheaper than sending a parcel.

We led the Gestapo on a wild goose chase.

They would think that the White Rose

was a wide network of resistance fighters.

We distributed leaflets not only in Munich,

but also in Ausberg, Stutgart, Frankfurt,

and even in Austria. (suspenseful music)

(door creaking)

(door creaking)

We were only a handful of students,

but our leaflets made the regime nervous.

Because we told the truth.

(knocking on door)

Yes, come in.

We won't do that under any circumstances.

Got it, bye.

Hail Hitler.

These leaflets were transferred to us from Ausberg.

It would appear that they are the same

as the ones that have appeared in Munich.

Determine whether they are written on the same machine.

We will find out who is behind this rabble rousing

and flush them out.

Yes, sir.

And then there was the thing with Giesler,

Paul Giesler, Gauleiter of Munich

and Bavarian first minister

at the mercy of Hitler.

A Nazi of the most disgusting sort.

He was supposed to give a speech at the university

and had had too much to drink.

It was clear that it would be embarrassing,

but nobody thought that he would go on for so long.

(microphone feedback squealing)

Ladies and gentlemen,

to my wonderful surprise

I see quite a few soldiers

and students, of course,

filling this beautiful room.

An unpleasant surprise, however,

are the many female students I'm looking at here.

Intellectual vols.

My ladies, I hope that you won't be able to find happiness

in the form of a strong man with a lot of spunk.

Instead of wasting all your time in a lecture hall.

(indistinct chatter)

Give the fuhrer a child instead.

And if you should be too ugly

to try and find yourself a man,

I would like to offer you my handsome assistants here.

He'll be sure to give you a good time.

It was unbelievable with Geisler had said.

The chief of propaganda, Goebbels,

is meant to have raged when he heard of it.

(furniture clattering)

(typewriter clicking)

Conversely, we were delighted.

At last resistance seem to be growing against the regime.

Perhaps now our leaflets

would be able to fall on fertile ground.

Calling all Germans.

With mathematical certainty,

Hitler is leading the German people into the abyss.

Hitler cannot win the war.

Only prolong it.

He and his helper's guilt has exceeded every measure

ever thought possible.

Alexander had organized a photocopier.

And we were able to produce thousands of leaflets.

But this also increased the risk of being discovered.

(gun firing)

And yet still the deaths continued on the fronts.

In Stalingrad an entire army was fighting for survival.

(gun firing)

Hitler's delusion had led to around 250,000 soldiers

becoming completely encircled in the city of Volga.

Hitler was prepared to sacrifice them all.

(dramatic music) (booming)

Fritz was there too.

"We have very bad days behind us," he wrote to me.

"We have been in constant retreat for eight days.

My battalion is completely worn out.

I don't know how it all will go.

I want to pray and still pray in these times."

(gun firing)

But then I received a message.

Fritz had been unbelievably lucky,

a blessing in disguise.

He came out of the Stalingrad cauldron

with frostbitten fingers

in one of the last airplanes.

But hundreds of thousands were not as lucky as he was.

Stalingrad, mass grave.

At the end of January

the Nazi leadership prepared the Germans for catastrophe.

Hermann Goring delivered a mendacious speech on the radio.

(shouting in German)

What an intolerable fat ass.

To serve such lies!

But Hans, no one will believe

that there's a final victory.

Everyone knows that the war is lost.

This is our best chance.

(dramatic music)

We were getting braver.

It was my idea to write slogans on the walls of buildings.

Even at the entrance to the the university.

There, all the students walking past

would be able to read it.

Okay.

This is unbelievable.

They are so bold,

but who would do something like that?

Madness.

After Stalingrad

the population's mood threatened to change.

The fuhrer and the Nazis were really afraid.

Shaffer here,

I need you to send Moore over to me straight away.

It's urgent.

Now there was a 1000 Reich's Mark reward

for our heads.

Our nocturnal activities

had triggered a large-scale manhunt.

(knocking on door)

Come in.

Hail Hitler, you wanted to speak to me, sir?

Hail Hitler.

These leaflets and the graffiti tonight,

are they the same perpetrators?

We assume that's the case.

We are currently closely analyzing the texts

and the writing.

Our lab tests have confirmed that the printer paper

that was used was in fact bought in Munich.

So we're looking for the perpetrators here in the city.

Listen to me Moore,

these leaflets have made some serious waves among the people

and are even being felt at the highest level.

You must absolutely catch these people.

There is nothing more important.

Of course.

Thank you, sir.

Fritz was now in hospital in Lumbergh.

I was so happy that he was alive

and was looking to the future.

My dear Fritz,

if I was too tired to make plans

because they were all ruined by the war.

Now they are beginning to shoot like forest flowers

along a long, warm rainfall.

So colorful and outrageous.

But they don't want to happen outrageously,

but very practically.

As soon as the war was over,

I wanted to start living with Fritz somewhere,

to start living at last.

When will you get home?

(dramatic music)

We still had 1,500 leaflets

we wanted to distribute at the university.

In daylight, between lectures.

Let's go.

We're done, let's go.

Shoot, we have some left.

Go back.

First and second floor.

I don't know why I threw the leaflets down,

cockiness or was it just lack of consideration?

It just simply happened.

(alarm blaring)

What is going on?

Stop, stop!

You are under arrest.

Give me a break, let me go!

Both of you are coming to the rector.

Why didn't we run away

when the caretaker approached us?

Why did we let ourselves be led away?

Perhaps we just imagined that nothing bad

would happen to us.

(camera clicking)

What could the Gestapo actually have on us?

Hans and I had agreed,

admit to nothing for which there was no evidence.

(suspenseful music)

Today you distributed this leaflet

at the university with your brother Hans Scholl.

They were lying on the second floor

and I brushed them over the ballas straight in passing.

In passing?

Yes, exactly.

I understand that I did a stupid thing,

but I can't change that now.

You had a case with you which was completely empty.

My brother and I wanted to visit our parents in Ulm.

On the way back I wanted to put the laundry,

which our mother had washed for us, in the case.

At first, I really thought we'd get away with it.

(crowd cheering)

In the evening

when we were being questioned by the Gestapo

propaganda minister Goebbels spoke

at the Berlin sport class.

He knew that the loss of Stalingrad

couldn't be glossed over.

Instead he whipped up the masses.

(shouting in German)

(crowd cheering)

(shouting in German)

(crowd cheering)

(shouting in German)

(crowd cheering)

We had actually thought that the Germans

would rise against Hitler and his regime.

For it was now clear to everyone that the war was lost.

How naive of us.

(crowd chanting)

Sir, we found the typewriter that wrote the letter

in his apartment,

and he has admitted everything.

You've done excellent work on this matter, dismissed.

(suspenseful music)

Your brother has admitted to everything.

Our officers have discovered the typewriter

with which the leaflets were written, in your flat.

And hundreds of stamps and addresses.

Perhaps I could have bluffed.

I could have claimed that I didn't know anything.

I could have played the clueless girl.

I want to tell you the truth.

It is our belief that the war is lost

and that every human life

which is sacrificed for this lost war

is a needless victim.

We wanted to do something against the awful bloodshed.

Now there was no way back.

I had chosen the truth

Hans and I submitted a full and complete confession

and took all of the blame

in order to protect our friends.

There was nothing more we could do,

except wait for our trial.

(door creaking)

They have brought you something.

The indictment?

Yes, that as well. (mysterious music)

You would have had to have been aware of the consequences

of your actions, Miss Scholl.

I would have done it again,

no regrets.

(door slamming)

Creating a highly treacherous enterprise,

abetting the enemy,

sub version of nationals.

They want to kill us.

Ah, come child.

Perhaps they'll only send you to prison.

You're still so young. (intensifying music)

But they sent Roland Friezler,

the top Nazi judge.

He came from Berlin by the night train for our trial.

He didn't come to judge us.

Hail Hitler.

He came to execute us.

Hail Hitler.

Our friend, Christoph Probst,

had also been charged.

Material had been found at Hans's,

which implicated him.

In this hard fight for the fate of our people,

you can think of nothing better

than to guiltlessly stab our soldiers

who look death straight in the eye every day,

in the back like yellow belly cowards.

The state enables you to study

and to lead a privileged kind of life.

And you use that to shameless create

disgraceful lies and horrible slander.

You are therefore blackouts.

Disgusting, unpatriotic scum!

I will not tremble when the time comes.

I won't give them the satisfaction.

They shall not think that they have won.

The following judgment is given on behalf of the people,

the defendants have repeatedly

called for the sabotage of war equipment

in the fall of our people's national socialist

way of life, by using leaflets,

which have propagated defeatist thoughts

and insulted the fuhrer,

and have consequently aided and abetted enemies

of the Reich, and reduced our military strength.

They gave us hardly half an hour

to say goodbye to our parents.

Therefore you have been sentenced to death.

(slow piano music)

Whether you feel the ax

when it cuts through your throat,

whether you see your own head fall.

I'm not dying in vain.

I am on the right side.

There is a higher justice.

(door clicking)

Right, it is time.

(somber music)

Today they kill us, but tomorrow they will die.

The Lord is my shepherd.

I shall not want,

he makes me to lie down in green pastures.

And He leadeth me beside the still waters.

And though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,

I will fear no evil

for thou preparest a table before me

in the presence of mine enemies.

Oh nurse.

(moaning)

I have a letter for you, lieutenant.

Can you do me a favor and open the letter?

(paper rustling)

My dear Fritz, Thank you.

yesterday I bought a nice flowering plant.

I put it right on my desk in the light of the window.

Its graceful tendrils are covered

with delicate purple petals.

It brings a real joy to both my eyes and my heart.

And I only wish that you could come before it withers.

When will you come home?

Perhaps we can soon start somewhere together.

Best wishes

from your Sophie.

(somber music)