My rating: 4 of 5 stars
I recently finished this moving account of the life of Sophie Scholl, a German student who bravely resisted the Nazis. The book does a good job of telling the story of Sophie’s life and the events that propelled her into speaking out against the Nazis.
The White Rose group of which she was a part published leaflets trying to stir the consciences of German people to resist what the Nazis were doing. They did not have clearly defined political objectives – it was a moral and philosophical protest, motivated for many of the group, including Sophie, by their Christian faith. Sophie and her brother Hans were eventually caught, in the end due to recklessness, but faced their death sentences with courage and hope.
The main weakness of this account is that I didn’t really feel it got inside Sophie’s head that well – the biographer keeps saying that the White Rose group had these in-depth theological and philosophical discussions about what to do. But McDonough doesn’t give as clear a sense of how Sophie’s thinking and Christian faith developed and informed her actions as much as I would like – though it does include translations of the White Rose leaflets.
I’d like to find an account the White Rose group that focuses in much more depth on what they believed and how that shaped their actions – any recommendations?