One: Killing terrorists only turns them into martyrs. Nope. Killing terrorists turns them into dead terrorists. Of all the terrorists we've killed since 9/11, how many are celebrated as martyrs in the Muslim world today? Remember the Butcher of Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi? The Left solemnly warned us that killing him would turn him into a martyr and mobilize the Muslim world against us. Didn't happen. Instead, his fellow Arabs spit upon his grave.

Three: Terrorists have rights. Sorry, that isn't true, either. Legally, an insurgent who does not wear a distinguishing uniform, emblem or badge is an "unlawful combatant" under the much-cited, but rarely read, Laws of Land Warfare, including the Geneva and Hague Conventions. An unlawful combatant may be executed on the spot.

The date was February 22, 1943. Hans Scholl and his sister Sophie, along with their best friend, Christoph Probst, were scheduled to be executed by Nazi officials that afternoon. The prison guards were so impressed with the calm and bravery of the prisoners in the face of impending death that they violated regulations by permitting them to meet together one last time. Hans, a medical student at the University of Munich, was 24. Sophie, a student, was 21. Christoph, a medical student, was 22.


This is the story of The White Rose. It is a lesson in dissent. It is a tale of courage, of principle, of honor. It is detailed in three books, The White Rose (1970) by Inge Scholl, A Noble Treason (1979) by Richard Hanser, and An Honourable Defeat (1994) by Anton Gill.
Hans and Sophie Scholl were German teenagers in the 1930s. Like other young Germans, they enthusiastically joined the Hitler Youth. They believed that Adolf Hitler was leading Germany and the German people back to greatness.



Their parents were not so enthusiastic. Their father, Robert Scholl, told his children that Hitler and the Nazis were leading Germany down a road of destruction. Later, in 1942, he would serve time in a Nazi prison for telling his secretary: “The war! It is already lost. This Hitler is God's scourge on mankind, and if the war doesn't end soon the Russians will be sitting in Berlin.” Gradually, Hans and Sophie began realizing that their father was right. They concluded that, in the name of freedom and the greater good of the German nation, Hitler and the Nazis were enslaving and destroying the German people.



They also knew that open dissent was impossible in Nazi Germany, especially after the start of World War II. Most Germans took the traditional position, that once war breaks out, it is the duty of the citizen to support the troops by supporting the government. But Hans and Sophie Scholl believed differently. They believed that it was the duty of a citizen, even in times of war, to stand up against an evil regime, especially when it is sending hundreds of thousands of its citizens to their deaths.



The Scholl siblings began sharing their feelings with a few of their friends, Christoph Probst, Alexander Schmorell, Willi Graf, as well as with Kurt Huber, their psychology and philosophy professor.
Hans Scholl (left), Sophie Scholl (center), and Christoph Probst (right), leaders of the White Rose resistance organization. Munich, Germany, 1942 (USHMM Photo).

One day in 1942, copies of a leaflet entitled “The White Rose” suddenly appeared at the University of Munich. The leaflet contained an anonymous essay that said that the Nazi system had slowly imprisoned the German people and was now destroying them. The Nazi regime had turned evil. It was time, the essay said, for Germans to rise up and resist the tyranny of their own government. At the bottom of the essay, the following request appeared: “Please make as many copies of this leaflet as you can and distribute them.”



The leaflet caused a tremendous stir among the student body. It was the first time that internal dissent against the Nazi regime had surfaced in Germany. The essay had been secretly written and distributed by Hans Scholl and his friends.



Another leaflet appeared soon afterward. And then another. And another. Ultimately, there were six leaflets published and distributed by Hans and Sophie Scholl and their friends, four under the title “The White Rose” and two under the title “Leaflets of the Resistance.” Their publication took place periodically between 1942 and 1943, interrupted for a few months when Hans and his friends were temporarily sent to the Eastern Front to fight against the Russians.


The members of The White Rose, of course, had to act cautiously. The Nazi regime maintained an iron grip over German society. Internal dissent was quickly and efficiently smashed by the Gestapo. Hans and Sophie Scholl and their friends knew what would happen to them if they were caught.



People began receiving copies of the leaflets in the mail. Students at the University of Hamburg began copying and distributing them. Copies began turning up in different parts of Germany and Austria. Moreover, as Hanser points out, the members of The White Rose did not limit themselves to leaflets. Graffiti began appearing in large letters on streets and buildings all over Munich: “Down with Hitler! . . . Hitler the Mass Murderer!” and “Freiheit! . . . Freiheit! . . . Freedom! . . . Freedom!”



The Gestapo was driven into a frenzy. It knew that the authors were having to procure large quantities of paper, envelopes, and postage. It knew that they were using a duplicating machine. But despite the Gestapo's best efforts, it was unable to catch the perpetrators.
One day, February 18, 1943, Hans' and Sophie's luck ran out. They were caught leaving pamphlets at the University of Munich and were arrested. A search disclosed evidence of Christoph Probst's participation, and he too was soon arrested. The three of them were indicted for treason.



On February 22, four days after their arrest, their trial began. The presiding judge, Roland Freisler, chief justice of the People's Court of the Greater German Reich, had been sent from Berlin. Hanser writes:
He conducted the trial as if the future of the Reich were indeed at stake. He roared denunciations of the accused as if he were not the judge but the prosecutor. He behaved alternately like an actor ranting through an overwritten role in an implausible melodrama and a Grand Inquisitor calling down eternal damnation on the heads of the three irredeemable heretics before him. . . . No witnesses were called, since the defendants had admitted everything. The proceedings consisted almost entirely of Roland Freisler's denunciation and abuse, punctuated from time to time by half-hearted offerings from the court-appointed defense attorneys, one of whom summed up his case with the observation, “I can only say fiat justitia. Let justice be done.” By which he meant: Let the accused get what they deserve.



Freisler and the other accusers could not understand what had happened to these German youths. After all, they all came from nice German families. They all had attended German schools. They had been members of the Hitler Youth. How could they have turned out to be traitors? What had so twisted and warped their minds?



Sophie Scholl shocked everyone in the courtroom when she remarked to Freisler: “Somebody, after all, had to make a start. What we wrote and said is also believed by many others. They just don't dare to express themselves as we did.” Later in the proceedings, she said to him: “You know the war is lost. Why don't you have the courage to face it?”
In the middle of the trial, Robert and Magdalene Scholl tried to enter the courtroom. Magdalene said to the guard: “But I'm the mother of two of the accused.” The guard responded: “You should have brought them up better.” Robert Scholl forced his way into the courtroom and told the court that he was there to defend his children. He was seized and forcibly escorted outside. The entire courtroom heard him shout: “One day there will be another kind of justice! One day they will go down in history!”



Robert Freisler pronounced his judgment on the three defendants: Guilty of treason. Their sentence: Death.



They were escorted back to Stadelheim prison, where the guards permitted Hans and Sophie to have one last visit with their parents. Hans met with them first, and then Sophie. Hansen writes:



His eyes were clear and steady and he showed no sign of dejection or despair. He thanked his parents again for the love and warmth they had given him and he asked them to convey his affection and regard to a number of friends, whom he named. Here, for a moment, tears threatened, and he turned away to spare his parents the pain of seeing them. Facing them again, his shoulders were back and he smiled. . . .



Then a woman prison guard brought in Sophie. . . . Her mother tentatively offered her some candy, which Hans had declined. “Gladly,” said Sophie, taking it. “After all, I haven't had any lunch!” She, too, looked somehow smaller, as if drawn together, but her face was clear and her smile was fresh and unforced, with something in it that her parents read as triumph. “Sophie, Sophie,” her mother murmured, as if to herself. “To think you'll never be coming through the door again!” Sophie's smile was gentle. “Ah, Mother,” she said. “Those few little years. . . .” Sophie Scholl looked at her parents and was strong in her pride and certainty. “We took everything upon ourselves,” she said. “What we did will cause waves.” Her mother spoke again: “Sophie,” she said softly, “Remember Jesus.” “Yes,” replied Sophie earnestly, almost commandingly, “but you, too.”



She left them, her parents, Robert and Magdalene Scholl, with her face still lit by the smile they loved so well and would never see again. She was perfectly composed as she was led away. Robert Mohr [a Gestapo official], who had come out to the prison on business of his own, saw her in her cell immediately afterwards, and she was crying. It was the first time Robert Mohr had seen her in tears, and she apologized. “I have just said good-bye to my parents,” she said. “You understand . . .” She had not cried before her parents. For them she had smiled.



No relatives visited Christoph Probst. His wife, who had just had their third child, was in the hospital. Neither she nor any members of his family even knew that he was on trial or that he had been sentenced to death. While his faith in God had always been deep and unwavering, he had never committed to a certain faith. On the eve of his death, a Catholic priest admitted him into the church in articulo mortis, at the point of death. “Now,” he said, “my death will be easy and joyful.”



That afternoon, the prison guards permitted Hans, Sophie, and Christoph to have one last visit together. Sophie was then led to the guillotine. One observer described her as she walked to her death: “Without turning a hair, without flinching.” Christoph Probst was next. Hans Scholl was last; just before he was beheaded, Hans cried out: “Long live freedom!”



Unfortunately, they were not the last to die. The Gestapo's investigation was relentless. Later tried and executed were Alex Schmorell (age 25), Willi Graf (age 25), and Kurt Huber (age 49). Students at the University of Hamburg were either executed or sent to concentration camps.



Today, every German knows the story of The White Rose. A square at the University of Munich is named after Hans and Sophie Scholl. And there are streets, squares, and schools all over Germany named for the members of The White Rose. The German movie The White Rose is now found in video stores in Germany and the United States. Richard Hansen sums up the story of The White Rose:



In the vogue words of the time, the Scholls and their friends represented the “other” Germany, the land of poets and thinkers, in contrast to the Germany that was reverting to barbarism and trying to take the world with it. What they were and what they did would have been “other” in any society at any time. What they did transcended the easy division of good-German/bad-German and lifted them above the nationalism of time-bound events. Their actions made them enduring symbols of the struggle, universal and timeless, for the freedom of the human spirit wherever and whenever it is threatened.
Mr. Hornberger is founder and president of The Future of Freedom Foundation.

* * *

* * *

# # #

The Patriot-News
Letter to the editor,
27 April 2012
An old adage states, “Truth is the first casualty of war.” A perfect example is, “Repeating History?” of 10 March which falsely compared our intervention in Bosnia to today’s situation in Syria , a comparison that works only if you believe the one-sided, pro-Bosnian, anti-Serbian reporting by the U.S.media for the past two decades. Before accepting the premise of “Repeating History.” consider the following:
The myth of the Safe Areas: Mr. Yasushi Akashi, former UN Representative in Bosnia admitted that “It is a fact that Bosnian government forces have used the ‘safe areas’ of Srebrenica, [as well as other cities,] for training, for recuperation and refurbishing their troops.” In other words, the so called “safe-areas” were used as military posts to train Mujahedin fighters from the whole Islamic world, free to commit their treachery by attacking Serbian villages and returning back to the safety of their UN protectors who conveniently looked the other way to these violations.
Srebrenica was the excuse for NATO to bomb the Serbs, but to understand Srebrenica, it is necessary to know what occurred prior to the Serbian attack on that city when Nasir Oric, the dreaded Muslim commander in Srebrenica mounted commando raids against surrounding Serbian villages whose remaining population were mainly elderly Serbs who refused to leave their homes. Bill Schiller of The Toronto Star described Oric “as blood-thirsty a warrior as ever crossed a battlefield.” Even a Muslim member of the Bosnian Parliament testified that the betrayal of Srebrenica” was consciously prepared . . . to sacrifice Srebrenica in order to gain the sympathy of the West.”
And it worked!

Wilderness, BATTLE OF THE. At midnight on May 3, 1864, the Army of the Potomac, fully 100,000 strong, fresh and hopeful, and with an immense army train, began its march towards Richmond. The right was composed of the corps of Warren and Sedgwick, and the left of that of Hancock. Warren's cavalry, preceded by that of Wilson, crossed the Rapidan at Germania Ford on the morning of the 4th, followed by Sedgwick. The left, preceded by Gregg's cavalry, and followed by the entire army train of wagons, 4,000 in number, crossed at Ely's Ford at the same time. Burnside's 9th Corps, left behind in anticipation of a possible move of Robert E. Lee on Washington, crossed the Rapidan and joined the army on the 5th, when the whole force had pushed on into the region


MAP OF THE WILDERNESS BATTLEFIELD
known as "The Wilderness," beyond Chancellorsville, and well on the right flank of the Confederate army lying behind strong entrenchments on Mine Run. The whole force of the National army was now about 130,000 men, of whom a little more than 100,000 were available for battle. When Lee discovered this movement he pushed forward nearly his whole army to strike the flanks of the Nationals on their march. This movement failed. On the 5th, Warren, who was followed by Sedgwick, sent the divisions of Griffin and Crawford to make observations. The former was struck by General Richard Ewell's corps, and the latter by General A. P. Hill's a little later.

The march was suspended. Crawford was withdrawn, and Griffin, reinforced by Wadsworth's division, with Robinson's in support, soon defeated the advance of confederate general Richard Ewell; but, being continually reinforced, the Confederates soon defeated the Nationals. It was now past noon. Grant was satisfied that Robert E. Lee's troops were near in full force. The country was so covered with shrub oaks, bushes, and tangled vines that no observations could be made at any great distance. Grant ordered up Sedgwick's corps to the support of Warren; while Hancock, who was nearly 10 miles away, on the road to the left, marched back to join Warren. Getty's division of Sedgwick's corps was posted at the junction of two roads, with orders to hold the position at all hazards until the arrival of Hancock. The fighting, where it was begun in the morning, continued fierce until 4 P.M., when both armies fell back and entrenched within 200 yards of each other. Getty held his ground against severe pressure by A. P. Hill until Hancock's advance reached him at three o'clock.


BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS.
He then made an aggressive movement, and fighting was kept up until dark, with heavy losses on both sides. Burnside's corps was brought up in the night and placed between Hancock and Warren.

Meanwhile General Robert E. Lee brought up General James Longstreet's corps to the support of A. P. Hill. And now each party in the contest was strengthened by an addition of 20,000 men. Just before 5 A.M. Ewell attacked the National right, and was repulsed. A very little later Hancock advanced his force against the Confederate right; while Wadsworth, who had prepared to strike Hill's left the night before, assailed him heavily. The Confederates were driven back a mile and a half, passing Lee's headquarters in the retreat. The flight was checked by James Longstreet's advancing column. Hancock, expecting to be assailed by Longstreet, had attacked with only half his force. The latter's advance having been checked, he resumed his flank movement; but at that moment he was wounded and carried from the field, and his command devolved on Gen. R. H. Anderson. In the afternoon Robert E. Lee projected the entire corps of Longstreet and Hill against Hancock, who had been reinforced and was strongly defended by breastworks. He stood firm until about four o'clock, when a fire in the woods attacked the brush and pine logs of his breastworks. The wind blew the heat and smoke in the faces of his troops and drove them from their defenses, when the Confederates dashed forward and penetrated their lines.

But they were almost instantly repulsed, and Lee was compelled to abandon what he intended as a decisive assault. Night came on, and after dark Lee threw Ewell's corps forward against Sedgwick. There was some hard fighting and much confusion. Confederate General Richard Ewell captured the most of two brigades, and then fell back. So ended the battle in the Wilderness, without decisive results on either side, and with a mutually heavy loss. In the two days the Nationals lost about 18,000 men, of whom 6,000 were made prisoners. Generals Hays, Wadsworth, and Webb were killed. Longstreet's wounds disabled him for several months. The Wilderness is a wild plateau, covered with a dense growth of dwarf trees and vines and brambles, and sloping every way to cultivated fields. It is along the south bank of the Rapidan River, about 10 miles in width and 15 in length.