In 1943 Allied aircraft swooped over Nazi Germany, raining tens of thousands of leaflets on people below. Written by anonymous Germans, the leaflets urged readers to renounce Hitler, to fight furiously for the future and to never give up hope.
Their call to action rippled through homes and businesses and news of their message even reached concentration camps and prisons. It was only after the war had ended that the authors' identities, stories, and tragic fate would come to light.
When Hitler seized power 10 years earlier, Hans and Sophie Scholl were teenagers in the town of Forchtenberg. At that time, fear, propaganda, and surveillance kept all aspects of life for the Scholl family and millions of other Germans under Nazi control.
The government specifically targeted young people, setting up institutions to regulate their behavior and police their thoughts. As teenagers, Hans was a member of the Hitler Youth and Sophie joined The League of German Girls.
Hans rose through the ranks and oversaw the training and indoctrination of other young people. In 1936, he was chosen to carry the flag at a national rally.
But when he witnessed the zeal of Nazi rhetoric, he began to question it for the first time. Meanwhile, Sophie was also starting to doubt the information she was being fed.
Their parents Robert and Magdalena, who had feared they were losing their children to Nazi ideology, encouraged these misgivings. At home, Robert and Magdalena listened to foreign radio stations that the government first discouraged and later banned.
While the government churned out national broadcasts which denied Nazi atrocities, the Scholls learned shocking truths. And yet, they were still subject to the rules of life in Hitler's Germany.
After the outbreak of war, Sophie reluctantly worked for the national effort, and Hans had to take on army duties while attending medical school in Munich. That was where Hans met Christoph Probst, Willi Graf and Alexander Schmorell.
Day by day, each grew more sickened by Nazi ideology. They longed to share their views.
