Sophie Scholl

Executed anti-Nazi activist who symbolized youth resistance through the White Rose movement

Sophie Scholl (1921–1943), a German student, co-founded the White Rose resistance group during WWII. With her brother Hans, she distributed leaflets exposing Nazi atrocities at Munich University.

Arrested in 1943 for tossing anti-war pamphlets, Sophie defiantly told her Gestapo interrogators: 'Somebody had to make a start'. Her trial and execution at 21 became a symbol of moral resistance against tyranny.

Memorials like Munich's Geschwister-Scholl-Institut keep her legacy alive. Films such as Sophie Scholl: The Final Days (nominated for an Academy Award) dramatize her courage.

Scholl's final words—'The sun still shines'—resonate as a call for ethical courage. UNESCO posthumously added her letters to its Memory of the World Register in 2021.