SOPHIE SCHOLL: THE FINAL DAYS
Film Screening
February 10, 2006
Summary by Phoebe Hoss
On Friday, February 10, 2006, the Adult Education Committee and the Peace Task Force gave a large audience the extraordinary privilege of watching the soon-to-be-released German film Sophie Scholl: The Final Days.
Sophie Scholl was both one of the youngest (at 21) and one of the few women in the White Rose, an underground group of college students and veterans of the Nazis' eastern front who opposed Hitler and whose aim it was, as Sophie said, "to make people think." She had been encouraged to think for herself by her father, who said to her and her brother, Hans, "I want you to live honest and free lives even though it may be difficult."
How difficult it was for her in Nazi Germany in 1943 when she was caught distributing anti-Nazi leaflets with her brother, Hans, is movingly portrayed by the actress Julia Jentsch: from the opening scene of a carefree Sophie gaily singing popular songs with a girlfriend, through her four days of interrogation by the Gestapo, through her defiance of the Nazis at the show trial, to her execution. The heart of the film is her interrogation, during which she dares to argue with the Gestapo interrogator about her allegiance to the rule of conscience over that of law, which he urges on her. She also refuses to take the way out he offers her that would save her from death. No overwrought heroine, Sophie is a thoughtful sweet young woman – with "a strong spirit and a tender heart," as her brother said -- trapped by history who, though ultimately its victim, at the same time ultimately escapes Nazi corruption through her own integrity.
This film is not only powerful as an artistic production; it is also wholly authentic – as we learned from its director, Mark Rothemund, who spoke after the filming. He dedicated himself to ensuring that authenticity: every action and word in the film was drawn from unpublished documents, a long letter from her cellmate, actual transcripts of the interrogation, and interviews with her sister, survivors of the White Rose, and even the son of the Gestapo interrogator.
As the purpose of the White Rose was to make people think, so too can this film. Though Sophie's ordeal ended over sixty years ago, this film about it has moments that reverberate for us now: Goebbels's voice on the radio speaking of the "danger facing us"; the Nazis' view of a reality they established and that everyone had to abide by; the totalitarian notion of a war to achieve "Final Victory."
Sophie Scholl: The Final Days, distributed by Zeitgeist Films, has already won numerous awards and been nominated for an Oscar as best foreign language film. You can find out more about it on its website www.sophieschollmovie.com or – better yet – go and see it.
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