rebelling against low expectations
“Somebody, after all, had to make a start.” On February 22, 1943, Sophie Scholl stood in a courtroom and spoke these words to the presiding judge. Looking at Sophie, one would never label her a hero, a revolutionary, or a resistant. She had an ordinary face, her features often framed by a quizzical frown that wrinkled her brow when she was deep in thought. She was a biology and philosophy student...
As I’ve been dealing with social distancing, canceled events, and the overarching fear and uncertainty engulfing our world, I’ve been thinking about Dietrich Bonhoeffer and the final two years of his life, which he spent in prison for suspected political resistance against the Nazi regime. While our circumstances and Bonhoeffer’s are very different, I believe there’s much...
At dawn, on February 27, 1943, the Gestapo rounded up several thousand Jewish citizens in an attempt to clean out the remainder of the Jews still living in Berlin, Germany. Two thousand men were separated from the others and taken to a Jewish welfare center on Rosenstrasse, to be temporarily held before transport to concentration camps. By this time, rumors had trickled in about the fate of those...
rebelling against low expectations
