Dark History by BethShelby Conversation with the Past contest entry |
Characters:Sophia Scholl- 20 year old German Girl (Nazi War Prisoner) Interviewer Tru Seeker: Young man in his 30’s -Time-traveler and corespondent from USATV TODAY Setting: Stadelheim Prison Cell, Munich, Nazi Germany. Date: February 20, 1943. Tru is seated beside Sophia on her cot. The cell has a small table and chair and toilet. The floor is stone. There is a high barred window behind the cot. Tru has explained to Sophia, that he is from the future. He’s told her that a time machine, yet unveiled to the public, has allowed him to be transported into her cell undetected. She has agreed to the interview. *********** Interviewer: Sophia, you understand this interview will have no effect on what may happen to you. I can tell you that Hitler will go down in defeat, and that you and your brother will be hailed as heroes for standing up to this dictator. Sophia: I understand. It’s comforting to know that there will be an end to this regime, and that my life will not have been lived in vain. Interviewer: Would you please tell me a bit about your background? Sophia: I’m from a middle class German family. I was twelve when Hitler took over. My parents felt he would be the thing Germany needed to bring us out of the depression caused by WWI. He claimed he wasn’t a politician, and he could make Germany into the power it once was. Things did improve economically, and he took all the credit, but I’m sure he didn’t have much to do with it. Other countries were coming out of their depression also. Interviewer: Why weren’t you happy with the way things were going? Sophia: I joined the League of German Girls and was elected as their squad leader. Hitler was a racist. He wanted everyone who wasn’t of Aryan descent out of our country. I had two close friends, who were born here, but they were Jewish. He passed laws so that they wouldn’t be allowed to join. Then I got in trouble for reading something out loud in class written by a Jewish poet. Hitler started burning books and stopping publishers from publishing anything that didn’t agree with his thinking. He hated the press. Interviewer: What about your parents. Were they Christians? Sophia: Yes, our family was devout Lutherans. That didn’t matter though. Most Christians had voted for him. He was Catholic. In the beginning, he claimed to be a Christian. He said he’d thought of becoming a priest. People believed he was almost like some kind of God, and no one but him could fix our country. My family tried not to make waves. If you said anything against him, he’d come after you. Interviewer: I don’t get it. How did this man manage to get people excited about him? Sophia: Most people believed the government was corrupt, and there was a lot of fear. He played on that fear and made people believe things would get worse if he wasn’t elected. He divided our political parties and accused the other party of becoming too socialistic. He said communism would take over. He believed in Nationalism. Germany could be the greatest country in the world with him as our leader. Interviewer: The world is different now. We have things you wouldn’t believe--like television, internet, live streaming broadcasts. You live in simpler times. It couldn’t have been easy for him to sway so many followers. Sophia: Oh, we’re not that backward. We have radio, movies, posters and pamphlets. Believe me, he’s flooded Germany with his fascist message. He and his public relations man, Goebbels, have repeated the same lies over and over until they’ve tapped into the deep-seated bigotry that people grew up with. Anything he doesn’t agree with, he claims is fake. Interviewer: Surely Christians, seeing his actions, must realize that he is no Christian. There must be enough good people in Germany who could turn against him and take him down. Sophia: You would think, but even Christianity can be put aside for the greater good. They say we didn’t elect a religious leader. We need a strong leader. Put your values aside. We all think bad thoughts in private. If God didn’t want him here, he wouldn’t be here. Interviewer: But he’s slaughtering people. Surely people must be repelled at what he is doing. Sophia: He’s made people fear those unlike themselves. Especially Jews and migrant Gypsies. He says they’re criminals, dangerous, even sub-human. He claims they’re causing riots and destruction. People aren’t aware of what he is doing to them. They don’t want to know. It’s dangerous to know too much. Interviewer: Is he in the public a lot, or does he stay behind the scenes? Sophia: Oh yes, He loves big crowds. The more flags and cheering crowds, the better. He demands deference to his leadership only. He considers the opposition to be traitors. Interviewer: Sophia, thank you for your time. This horrible chapter in history will soon come to an end. Good luck in your trial tomorrow. I’m thankful that I live in America where something so horrific could never happen. Now, I must travel back to the future. Tru Seeker pushes a button concealed in his coat and disappears. Epilogue: Sophia, her brother, Han Scholl, and fellow student, Christopher Probst founded the White Rose, an informal group opposed to the Hitler regime. They traveled through Munich distributing pamphlets suggesting ways Germans could peacefully resist the government.They were arrested by the Gestapo and ordered to stand trial for treason. The trial lasted one day. The following day they were executed by guillotine at Munich’s Stadelheim Prison on February 22, 1943.
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