Just finished watching a newly released (on DVD) film titled: "Sophie Scholl..The Final Days." It is a true story, based on the student underground organization known as The White Rose, which distributed anti-Nazi literature on the Munich Campus in 1943. I tell you, it left me with a large lump in my throat. I don't know if I would have had the courage of my convictions as these young people did...to speak out against the horrors and brutaliy of Hitler's regime and to pay the price for it. If you are like me, and have wondered why more Germans didn't speak out...this is a humbling movie to watch. I'll leave it at that. 

A bit under the weather today, but it gave me the chance to watch the movie. I loved it and watched the flip side too with the interviews. My opinion; this is a MUST see for ALL. I knew there was dissent in Germany, but did not realize the scope of it. As my husband said, what brave, brave souls.

Lee was working in the store while I was watching it and he asked about the premise. Before I could finish he said, White Rose? Yeah I replied. Told him I didn't know much about it until tonight. I was very moved and saddened to. I am so proud though of Sophia, her brother and there friends. I really can't say enough.

Thank you for enlightening me.

I sat this morning for about an hour and watched the behind the scenes parts. This like the rest of the DVD was very riveting. They not only interviewed and showed the actors, gaffers, writers, extras, etc., but interviewed the locals who were living in the areas where they did the filming. That really gave me an insight on how the people still feel today.

Some were saying how creepy and eerie it was to have SS men running around. Some said it was TOO REAL. It would give me the creeps too.

One gentlemen they interviewed that as a child at the time in the 40's, said he had many memories, but even though he was so young, knew that you could not say anything against the Nazi regime without severe consequences. His one sentence really got to me. He said that, "All of Germany was a concentration camp." He and others said that no one was FREE in Germany, not even the German people.

They stated that many of the German people were too afraid to speak out against all the wrongs. Said the German people were cowards. Said in 1933 it could have been stopped, but by the time Sophie was murdered, it was way too late.

I have decided to do some study into The White Rose. I will place my findings here. In the meantime, look at some of these links about the film and about Sophie. More to come.

http://www.sophieschollmovie.com/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sophie_Scholl

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/GERschollS.htm

http://www.jlrweb.com/whiterose/

I really hope that more than a handful of people on this forum take the time to read this, really read all of this. This is the stuff that dreams are made of. This is our history. These are the real heroes who walk the face of the earth and are willing to give all and even die for their beliefs. I can't say enough about this.

Here is a great quote from the First Pamphlet. It speaks across countries and boundaries and generations. It is timeless!

Do not forget that every people deserves the regime it is willing to endure!

Marion,

I thank you for taking the time to post these very interesting links about Sophie. She, and others like her should be an inspiration to freedom-loving people everywhere. I was notified by Amazon.com of the release of this wonderful movie...only because I order so many related books and DVDS about Nazi Germany.

I have told you about my friend who's 74 year-old mother still clings to her Nazi Beliefs....this is the one person who really needs to see the movie but would never even allow it in her home, I'm sure! We have discussed this (my friend and I) many times, and concluded that her mother is still clinging to the fear she had as a little girl in Germany. What other reason could there be for hanging on to such an unpopular worldview? Again, I am so glad you benefitted from this movie and enjoyed it as much as I dcid. I hope more people will see it!

Jim DD

I must thank you again for touching my heart and my mind. Movies like this one and real life stories just reaffirm my convictions. I've always been one to speak my mind and not be afraid because the idea was unpopular or new. I too truly feel that apathy is sometimes the worst disease of all. Just sitting back and doing nothing not only condemns you but condemns the rest of us.

I see enough apathy in this small town where I live. Guess it's the same as everywhere, a failing of human nature. It makes me sad. But I know that there will always be people like Sophie and Hans and their friends and colleagues, who won't put up with injustice in the name of so called higher goals.

So here's to White Rose and all those who stand up for the whole human race.

So to all our readers - If you can take two hours out of your week, do it please. I'm glad I took the time out of my very busy schedule to watch it.

Thank You for returning the movie so prompty Mare! I was really wanting to see it again this weekend, so having it arrive in today's mail was a great stroke of luck!

Jim

You're very welcome Jim. Thank you again for thinking of me. Friends like you are rare treasures.

Mare,

Did you notice in the film how the interrogator (Mohrs) washed his hands (ala Pontius Pilate) after the final interview with Sophie? A great piece of filmaking to add that, IMO... I watched it again tonight, but had to turn it off before the executions this time....

D

Oh I did catch that! And that is what I thought of too. Great minds think alike. Sometimes you really hope Sophie will take the last minute offer...

Sometimes you really hope Sophie will take the last minute offer...

You sound like me.....Every time I watch "The Alamo" I keep hoping that maybe Davy Crockett will accept the offer to pull out, but people of that ilk (Sophie and Davy) were both people of strong conviction...and that's what makes them heros.

Jim

"El Alamein: The Line of Fire" is an Italian movie with English sub-titles that is available on DVD.

Very good quality. (Better than the other Italian movie "The Fallen", directed by Ari Taub, which is about a small German, American and Italian units at the Gothic Line).

An Italian student joins the entrenched Pavia Division that is defending El Alamein, Egypt. The story follows a company of Italian soldiers as they fight the desert and thrist while waiting for the British to attack. Has some parallels to "Platoon" and other similiar war themes. Good quality but not a big-budget film; no more than 50 actors on the screen. Accurate in uniforms and historical setting. One problem is that it has several night scenes and it is so-o dark you can't follow the action. The biggest battle was one of these night scenes.

The uniforms included infantry of the Pavia Division, some Bersaglieri troops and a few of the Folgore paratroopers, plus a few generals thrown in. It has one uniform of a soldier wearing the color insignia of Transport Corps, as seen on Jim's uniform in the Militaria Collectibles thread. Equipment looked good for me, except for one US M-3 half-track marked as a German half-track.

Great photography, but of course, most of the scenery is desert. It won an Italian Academy Award for Photography, Best Editing & Sound Deisgn. I recommend you see it.

Steve -- {excuse me if I have already posted this review elsewhere on the forum.}

I think you should add reviewer to your list of jobs. You do a great job. Will of course add your recommendation to my long, long list...

Steve's review sold me....I have ordered it from Amazon.

Jim

Since I compared this movie to another foriegn film, I guess I better describe it also.

"The Fallen" directed by Ari Taub. Released 2006.

Official Website with photos and trailers: http://www.thefallenmovie.com/

This movie relates to the battle of the GOTHIC LINE in Italy in the fall of 1944. The story views the battle a few participants from these four groups: Italian Army, German Army, American Army and Italian civilians, some of which are partisans. Each group is introduced during the lull in the battle and follows them as their lives converge in the final battle. The group of German soldiers is lead by a Captain. Their ally is a group of Italian Alpini soldiers who feel as though they are being mis-treated by the Germans, which results in a confrontation. At the beginning the Americans suffer from an battle and one platoon has to return for a replacement radio. They are befriended by some civilians but are soon back in the battle. An American armored unit also arrives on the scene for support, as the Germans are ordered to fall back.

You can look up reviews of this movie by googling "The Fallen" and "ari taub". One reviewer said it was obviously a low-budge film that distracts from the content. The actors are not very good. If you watch the extra behind-the-scenes part of the DVD, you will see that they really were not actors at all. One even quite the project before their part was finished. They did actually hire Germans to play Germans---probably re-enactors. No scene contained more than 30 actors.

The uniforms are accurate. The equipment---tanks, vehicles---are good. The pyrotechnics are not anything like "El Alamein". But the story line was just too slow and you really didn't get to know any one of the characters. (I'm having a difficult time recalling all of the story.)

Okay to rent. I decided not to buy it.

Steve

Anyone seen "Letters from Iwo Jima" yet? Once again the small town where I live is not going to pick it up I don't think, and it's showing at only one theater within 50 miles of here . I've been interested in seeing it since viewing the trailers, although part of me (the part I don't like) is resisting the urge to see it because it will put a human face on an enemy that commited so many acts of inhuman cruelty against Allied POWS, as well as the Phillipino & Chinese civilians.

DD