CHAPTER 1 RISKING ALL On On February 18 1943 Sophie Scholl and her older brother Hans entered the University of Munich in Germany They headed for the university’s main building Although Sophie and Hans were students they weren’t going to class Hans carried a suitcase If they got caught its contents could get them both killed The suitcase was filled with leaflets or flyers calling students to rise up against the Nazi Party Sophie Scholl was a teenager during the rise of Nazi Germany 5
This political party controlled the German government as a dictatorship Anyone who tried to resist the Nazis risked arrest In fact the Nazi secret police or Gestapo were already looking for the people who were making the leaflets The Scholls and their friends had created the leaflets They had heard stories of the Nazis killing hundreds of thousands of people And they had seen Nazis treat Jewish people horribly Despite the danger of resistance they felt the need to speak out At the university students were attending classes Sophie and Hans knew they had to work fast They placed piles of leaflets in front of doors on windowsills and along staircases As the classes ended the siblings had only a small pile of leaflets left Sophie hurried to the top level of the building She tossed the leaflets over an open 6
This scene from the film Sophie Scholl The Final Days shows Sophie and Hans leaflets floating to the ground area at the building’s center Paper rained down on the students below as they left their classes Sophie and Hans turned to leave Suddenly one of the school’s janitors appeared He had seen Sophie and Hans distributing the leaflets They tried to blend in with the other students but the janitor caught them He turned them over to the Gestapo 7
