How The Guillotine Execution Of Sophie Scholl Happened

Añadido: 2026-05-18

[00:00:00]On the 22nd of February 1943, a young German woman was led into the execution chamber of Stadelheim Prison for a date with her executioner.

[00:00:10]She was incredibly brave, and with every step she took towards the German guillotine, she was composed.

[00:00:17]Sophie Scholl knew that she would not be spared, and she knew she was being put to death by a horrific and brutal regime that would deal with any resistance to them with execution.

[00:00:29]Sophie Scholl is remembered today as one of the greatest young women of the 20th century, and she refused to give in to the Nazis.

[00:00:37]For all of this, she paid the ultimate price, and she was executed alongside her brother and other members of the White Rose resistance group. But why specifically was she guillotined? And also, how did her execution occur that fateful day in February 1943?

[00:00:55]Sophie Scholl was always destined to be written into the history books. She was a rather brave young woman, and she was very ahead of her peers at school with the literature she was reading.

[00:01:07]But at the age of 12, she did join the League of German Girls, the female youth group comparable to the Hitler Youth in Germany.

[00:01:15]In this, young girls were taught how to raise a family, and also how to keep a home and to cook. But eventually, Sophie realized what the truth was behind this group.

[00:01:25]Hitler and his Nazis were trying to brainwash millions of young women into their politics.

[00:01:31]Her brother Hans actually shone in sign of the Hitler Youth, and he was actually a standard-bearer at a number of high-profile rallies. But together, the Scholls became disillusioned and disenchanted with the Nazi youth groups.

[00:01:44]Together, they turned their backs on Nazism, and then began to seek like-minded people to form a group.

[00:01:51]Sophie actually found herself arrested by the Gestapo for the first time when she was just 16 years old after her brother was found to be working with anti-Hitler youth groups. She was suspected of being involved in this, but was then released.

[00:02:06]In 1940, she became a kindergarten teacher, but was then drafted into perform her compulsory work with the National Labor Service.

[00:02:15]She had to do this for 6 months so she would be admitted into university, but this helped shape her mindset to be further involved in resistance to the Nazis.

[00:02:25]In May 1942, she began to attend the University of Munich and studied biology and philosophy.

[00:02:33]Her brother was also there studying medicine, and along with friends, they began to form the White Rose movement.

[00:02:40]These like-minded Nazi resisters began to write anti-Nazi leaflets and pamphlets, and many of these were written by anonymous authors.

[00:02:49]Their work appealed to the German people to remember what life was like before they were living under a dictatorship, and it asked them to consider their humanity by supporting a regime which was causing such horror and bloodshed.

[00:03:02]They used quotes from the Bible, from Aristotle, and other teachers to appeal to the German intelligentsia, hoping that these arguments could spread.

[00:03:13]But of course, even possessing such a leaflet could be interpreted by the Nazis as treason, and this was something that someone could lose their life for or even lose their head.

[00:03:24]Sophie began herself to write for the White Rose, and it was considered that she was less likely to be randomly stopped by the SS or Gestapo as she was a woman.

[00:03:34]However, that would all change on the 18th of February 1943.

[00:03:39]Sophie and her brother Hans went to the University of Munich, and they were planning to hand out White Rose flyers to students.

[00:03:46]They brought with them a large suitcase filled with leaflets, and they dropped many of these in locations for students to pick up when they left their lecture theaters.

[00:03:56]But with a number of the leaflets left, Sophie then threw these from the top of a staircase.

[00:04:02]Of course, this was disseminating treasonous propaganda, and this was all witnessed by a janitor named Jakob Schmid. He was a virulent Nazi and was a member of the party, too, and he then informed the authorities about what had happened.

[00:04:17]Hans and Sophie Scholl were swiftly arrested by the Gestapo, the Nazi secret police, and another man, Christoph Probst, was arrested, too.

[00:04:26]Sophie tried her best to hide any evidence before her capture. However, the Gestapo had enough to try her.

[00:04:33]She was interrogated by Gestapo agent Robert Mohr, and he actually believed that she was innocent. However, when her brother confessed, Sophie, too, confessed to protect her friends and her family.

[00:04:45]She was then, on the 22nd of February 1943, taken to the People's Court.

[00:04:51]This was a heavily Nazified court, and the judge, Roland Freisler, became infamous during World War II for screaming and screeching in the faces of the Nazis' enemies as he condemned people to death. In front of the courtroom, Sophie stated, I quote, "Somebody after all had to make a start to resist. What we wrote and said is also believed by many others. They just don't dare express themselves as we did."

[00:05:17]Shortly after this declaration, Sophie Scholl was sentenced to death, as was her brother and their friend, Christoph Probst.

[00:05:25]They were immediately taken to Stadelheim Prison in Munich, and arrangements were quickly made for their executions, which would take place that evening.

[00:05:34]Inside of her prison cell, sitting on death row, Sophie's last few words were spoken to her cellmate. She said, I quote, "How can we expect righteousness to prevail when there is hardly anyone willing to give himself up individually to a righteous cause?

[00:05:49]It is such a splendid sunny day, and I have to go. But how many have to die on the battlefield in these days? How many young, promising lives? What does my death matter if by our acts thousands are warned and alerted? Among the student body, there will be certainly a revolt."

[00:06:07]As she made her way allegedly towards the execution chamber, she uttered "Eva, God my refuge into eternity, or the sun still shines."

[00:06:17]A few minutes before 5:00 p.m., Sophie Scholl was taken from her prison cell, and she was marched towards the execution chamber.

[00:06:24]The prison bell tolled and rang out, informing all other prisoners that one of them was due to be executed.

[00:06:31]Throughout the Third Reich's time in power, at least 1,035 people made their walk into the execution chamber of Stadelheim.

[00:06:39]The guillotine, the German guillotine, known as the Fallbeil, was waiting for Sophie Scholl.

[00:06:45]This was an all-metal device, which was smaller and compact compared to the public French device.

[00:06:51]The Fallbeil was portable and could be moved from one prison to another to complete executions.

[00:06:57]Executioners claimed it was so quick, they could take the head off someone within 10 seconds of them entering the execution chamber.

[00:07:04]But the executioner that day was a man named Johann Reichhart, and he would in total execute over 3,000 people in his career.

[00:07:13]When Sophie Scholl walked into the execution chamber, her identity was quickly confirmed by prison officials, and then Reichhart and his assistants seized her.

[00:07:22]He conducted his work on the Fallbeil quickly, and he didn't even strap his victims in, and his assistants just held Sophie Scholl under the blade.

[00:07:32]When she was in place, Reichhart released the blade, and this crashed straight down upon the young woman's neck.

[00:07:38]Instantly, her head was taken clean off, and this then fell into a bucket beneath the blade.

[00:07:44]The whole execution had taken a matter of seconds, and later Johann Reichhart, the executioner, would claim that she was the bravest person he'd ever seen go to the guillotine. The metal Fallbeil allowed quick execution, and as Reichhart was so experienced, he tailor-made his process to ensure the executions were quick.

[00:08:04]Just 2 minutes after Sophie had been executed, Reichhart released a slanted blade upon the neck of her brother, Hans, and 5 minutes later, her friend, Christoph Probst, had his head taken off, too. It was all incredibly rapid, and this was the nature that Reichhart completed his work in.

[00:08:22]The metal device also allowed the blade to fall quicker, and although it didn't fall a huge way, the weight of the blade was heavy enough to go straight through the neck.

[00:08:32]Sophie Scholl, within a matter of seconds of entering the execution chamber, was dead.

[00:08:37]Her legacy is one in which she is remembered for being one of the most remarkable women of the 20th century in Germany.

[00:08:44]She stood up for her beliefs and paid the ultimate price for it, dying inside a Nazi execution chamber after being brought in front of the incredibly humiliating People's Court.

[00:08:55]Her crime was distributing Nazi propaganda and for defying a regime which was responsible for the deaths of millions of people, and the Nazis caused a war which led to the suffering of millions of people all over Europe and the world.

[00:09:08]But inside of that Munich execution chamber, Sophie Scholl's execution was incredibly ruthless and was barbaric, and also was very historic.

[00:09:19]Thank you for watching.

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