Hans Scholl Biography
(Founder of the White Rose Resistance Movement)
Birthday: September 22, 1918 (Virgo)
Born In: Crailsheim, Germany
Hans Fritz Scholl was a German pacifist and the founder of the White Rose resistance movement that was active during the Nazi period. Originally from Baden-Württemberg, Scholl hailed from an affluent family. His father served as the mayor of Forchtenberg am Kocher. Although he grew up a Lutheran, he thought of converting to Catholicism at one point in his life. In 1933, he enrolled in the Hitler Youth organisation, but eventually became disillusioned. Later, he pursued a medical degree at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich. In the spring of 1941, he joined the military service as a medic in France against Russia. Scholl started the White Rose movement with his sister Sophie, Willi Graf, Kurt Huber, Christoph Probst, and Alexander Schmorell and put out six anti-Nazi Third Reich political resistance leaflets. In the ensuing months, they sent the leaflets to academics, scholars, doctors, and pub owners throughout Germany. In February 1943, Scholl and others were apprehended by the Gestapo. He, Sophie, and Probst were prosecuted for treason, found guilty, and sentenced to death. The beheading of the three activists took place on 22 February.