Free Republic

The past offers us many lessons. And cause for alarm. And inspiration, too. Seventy-two years ago today, three young Germans — 21-year-old Sophie Scholl, her older brother by three years, Hans, and their friend 24-year-old Christoph Probst — were put to death by the Nazis. They were decapitated — guillotined — within hours of being found guilty in a sham trial conducted by “Raving Roland,” a typical Nazi lunatic. Their crime? Standing up against the most evil crime imaginable. The charge was treason — treason committed courageously against the Third Reich. The Scholls had a history of standing up to...

The Russian-Orthodox Church canonised one of the founders of the anti-fascist group the "White Rose," Alexander Schmorell, over the weekend in Munich, nearly 70 years after his execution by the Nazis. Schmorell, who was born in Russia, was celebrated as a new martyr in the church during a special service in the Cathedral of the Holy New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia in Munich on Saturday. He was 25 at the time of his death. The White Rose, or Weiße Rose, was founded by a group of Munich students and their philosophy professor Kurt Huber, all of whom actively voiced...