Thursday, March 09, 2006

Long Live Freedom

In the last week, the Patriot Act passed in a Congress that, once again, refused to investigate another crime committed by the White House. Funny, investigate the entire population for no reason, but not the obvious threat to the Constitution and this Nation. Well, here is something positive to think about: Someday there will be Justice, it is inevitable...


Hornberger on "The White Rose"
1996*

Hans and Sophie Scholl were German teenagers in the 1930s. Like other young Germans, they enthusiastically joined the Hitler Youth. They believed that Adolf Hitler was leading Germany and the German people back to greatness.
Their parents were not so enthusiastic. Their father - Robert Scholl - told his children that Hitler and the Nazis were leading Germany down a road of destruction. Later - in 1942 - he would serve time in a Nazi prison for telling his secretary: "The war! It is already lost. This Hitler is God’s scourge on mankind, and if the war doesn’t end soon the Russians will be sitting in Berlin."
Gradually, Hans and Sophie began realizing that their father was right. They concluded that, in the name of freedom and the greater good of the German nation, Hitler and the Nazis were enslaving and destroying the German people.
They also knew that open dissent was impossible in Nazi Germany, especially after the start of World War II. Most Germans took the traditional position - that once war breaks out, it is the duty of the citizen to support the troops by supporting the government.
But Hans and Sophie Scholl believed differently. They believed that it was the duty of a citizen, even in times of war, to stand up against an evil regime, especially when it is sending hundreds of thousands of its citizens to their deaths.
The Scholl siblings began sharing their feelings with a few of their friends - Christoph Probst, Alexander Schmorell, Willi Graf - as well as with Kurt Huber, their psychology and philosophy professor.
One day in 1942, copies of a leaflet entitled "The White Rose" suddenly appeared at the University of Munich. The leaflet contained an anonymous essay that said that the Nazi system had slowly imprisoned the German people and was now destroying them. The Nazi regime had turned evil. It was time, the essay said, for Germans to rise up and resist the tyranny of their own government. At the bottom of the essay, the following request appeared: "Please make as many copies of this leaflet as you can and distribute them."
The leaflet caused a tremendous stir among the student body. It was the first time that internal dissent against the Nazi regime had surfaced in Germany. The essay had been secretly written and distributed by Hans Scholl and his friends.
Another leaflet appeared soon afterward. And then another. And another. Ultimately, there were six leaflets published and distributed by Hans and Sophie Scholl and their friends - four under the title "The White Rose" and two under the title "Leaflets of the Resistance." Their publication took place periodically between 1942 and 1943 - interrupted for a few months when Hans and his friends were temporarily sent to the Eastern Front to fight against the Russians.
The members of The White Rose, of course, had to act cautiously. The Nazi regime maintained an iron grip over German society. Internal dissent was quickly and efficiently smashed by the Gestapo. Hans and Sophie Scholl and their friends knew what would happen to them if they were caught.
People began receiving copies of the leaflets in the mail. Students at the University of Hamburg began copying and distributing them. Copies began turning up in different parts of Germany and Austria.
Moreover, as Hanser points out, the members of The White Rose did not limit themselves to leaflets. Graffiti began appearing in large letters on streets and buildings all over Munich: "Down with Hitler! . . . Hitler the Mass Murderer!" and "freiheit!
. . . freiheit! . . . Freedom! . . . Freedom!"
The Gestapo was driven into a frenzy. It knew that the authors were having to procure large quantities of paper, envelopes, and postage. It knew that they were using a duplicating machine. But despite the Gestapo’s best efforts, it was unable to catch the perpetrators.
One day - February 18, 1943 - Hans’ and Sophie’s luck ran out. They were caught leaving pamphlets at the University of Munich and were arrested. A search disclosed evidence of Christoph Probst’s participation, and he too was soon arrested. The three of them were indicted for treason.
On February 22 - four days after their arrest - their trial began. The presiding judge, Roland Freisler, chief justice of the People’s Court of the Greater German Reich, had been sent from Berlin. Hanser writes:
"He conducted the trial as if the future of the Reich were indeed at stake. He roared denunciations of the accused as if he were not the judge but the prosecutor. He behaved alternately like an actor ranting through an overwritten role in an implausible melodrama and a Grand Inquisitor calling down eternal damnation on the heads of the three irredeemable heretics before him. . . . No witnesses were called, since the defendants had admitted everything. The proceedings consisted almost entirely of Roland Freisler’s denunciation and abuse, punctuated from time to time by half-hearted offerings from the court-appointed defense attorneys, one of whom summed up his case with the observation, "I can only say fiat justitia. Let justice be done." By which he meant: Let the accused get what they deserve.
Freisler and the other accusers could not understand what had happened to these German youths. After all, they all came from nice German families. They all had attended German schools. They had been members of the Hitler Youth. How could they have turned out to be traitors? What had so twisted and warped their minds?
Sophie Scholl shocked everyone in the courtroom when she remarked to Freisler: "Somebody, after all, had to make a start. What we wrote and said is also believed by many others. They just don’t dare to express themselves as we did." Later in the proceedings, she said to him: "You know the war is lost. Why don’t you have the courage to face it?"
In the middle of the trial, Robert and Magdalene Scholl tried to enter the courtroom. Magdalene said to the guard: "But I’m the mother of two of the accused." The guard responded: "You should have brought them up better." Robert Scholl forced his way into the courtroom and told the court that he was there to defend his children. He was seized and forcibly escorted outside. The entire courtroom heard him shout: "One day there will be another kind of justice! One day they will go down in history!"
Roland Freisler pronounced his judgment on the three defendants: Guilty of treason. Their sentence: Death.
They were escorted back to Stadelheim prison, where the guards permitted Hans and Sophie to have one last visit with their parents. Hans met with them first, and then Sophie. Hansen writes:
"His eyes were clear and steady and he showed no sign of dejection or despair. He thanked his parents again for the love and warmth they had given him and he asked them to convey his affection and regard to a number of friends, whom he named. Here, for a moment, tears threatened, and he turned away to spare his parents the pain of seeing them. Facing them again, his shoulders were back and he smiled. . . .
"Then a woman prison guard brought in Sophie. . . . Her mother tentatively offered her some candy, which Hans had declined. "Gladly," said Sophie, taking it. "After all, I haven’t had any lunch!" She, too, looked somehow smaller, as if drawn together, but her face was clear and her smile was fresh and unforced, with something in it that her parents read as triumph. "Sophie, Sophie," her mother murmured, as if to herself. "To think you’ll never be coming through the door again!" Sophie’s smile was gentle. "Ah, Mother," she said. "Those few little years. . . ." Sophie Scholl looked at her parents and was strong in her pride and certainty. "We took everything upon ourselves," she said. "What we did will cause waves." Her mother spoke again: "Sophie," she said softly, "Remember Jesus." "Yes," replied Sophie earnestly, almost commandingly, "but you, too." She left them, her parents, Robert and Magdalene Scholl, with her face still lit by the smile they loved so well and would never see again. She was perfectly composed as she was led away. Robert Mohr [a Gestapo official], who had come out to the prison on business of his own, saw her in her cell immediately afterwards, and she was crying. It was the first time Robert Mohr had seen her in tears, and she apologized. "I have just said good-bye to my parents," she said. "You understand . . ." She had not cried before her parents. For them she had smiled."
No relatives visited Christoph Probst. His wife, who had just had their third child, was in the hospital. Neither she nor any members of his family even knew that he was on trial or that he had been sentenced to death. While his faith in God had always been deep and unwavering, he had never committed to a certain faith. On the eve of his death, a Catholic priest admitted him into the church in articulo mortis - at the point of death. "Now," he said, "my death will be easy and joyful."
That afternoon, the prison guards permitted Hans, Sophie, and Christoph to have one last visit together. Sophie was then led to the guillotine. One observer described her as she walked to her death: "Without turning a hair, without flinching." Christoph Probst was next. Hans Scholl was last; just before he was beheaded, Hans cried out:
"Long live freedom!"
Unfortunately, they were not the last to die. The Gestapo’s investigation was relentless. Later tried and executed were Alex Schmorell (age 25), Willi Graf (age 25), and Kurt Huber (age 49). Students at the University of Hamburg were either executed or sent to concentration camps.
Today, every German knows the story of The White Rose. A square at the University of Munich is named after Hans and Sophie Scholl. And there are streets, squares, and schools all over Germany named for the members of The White Rose. The German movie The White Rose is now found in video stores in Germany and the United States.
Richard Hansen sums up the story of The White Rose:
"In the vogue words of the time, the Scholls and their friends represented the "other" Germany, the land of poets and thinkers, in contrast to the Germany that was reverting to barbarism and trying to take the world with it. What they were and what they did would have been "other" in any society at any time. What they did transcended the easy division of good-German/bad-German and lifted them above the nationalism of time-bound events. Their actions made them enduring symbols of the struggle, universal and timeless, for the freedom of the human spirit wherever and whenever it is threatened. "
Jacob Hornberger [send him mail] is founder and president of The Future of Freedom Foundation.
Copyright © 1996 Future of Freedom Foundation
*4 years before Bush was appointed President by the Supreme Court. So the answer is; No, this was not written as "Slam President Bush Propaganda".

14 comments:

Hellpig said...

investigate the entire population for no reason

The entire population?c'mon Rev you don't seriously believe this bullshit do you?

you can't compare Hitler to Bush.
Hitler's people loved him,Hitler wasn't on a limited term appointment,Hitler killed 11,000,0000 Jews,Hitler lost his war,enslaved and tortured 150,000,000 people.Hilter built his war machine with the blood of jews.

In 3.5 years Bush will be outta office,and with the state of the democratic party,Cheney will be our next President.Why don't you use this Blame the Bush for everything energy and help your party secure a worthy Presidential canidate.They could sure use you.

Reverend X said...

Hellpig,
you saw "Joint Resolution 24 0of the 109th Congress" repeals the 22nd amendment. It will go thru congress on an appropriations bill soon enough. For the rest. rtead the new patriot act.

Hellpig said...

What the hell does this have to do with Hitler?

Bush if allowed will never be the next President,I was right about the Port Deal I am right on this one too

Reverend X said...

Bush did not win the last two elections!!!!!! The proof is right here or Here for everything. And this is not about Hitler! It is about you, me, everyone we care about and the rest of our society going giddily along with history's recursive loop. If we are alive 20years from now and someone asks how the Germans went along with the Nazi's, we will be able to explain having walked the same ourselves.
The Germans did not know they were committing evil, killing off the Jews, or losing a war. We are losing 2 of those and when the final numbers come out on our holocaust, the numbers will be higher than Hitler, Stalin and Mao Tse motherfuckin' Tung combined. Hitler allowed the Red Cross to inspect his prisons. Bush does not.

Hellpig said...

Reverend X said...
Bush did not win the last two elections!!!!!!


here we go again,so what you are saying is that 300,000,000 people are being fooled by the dimwitted George Bush?you belive this ?so all the highly educated,all the Polititians,everybody is being dooped by Bush?

if all your conspiracy theories were true do you think for a minute the average american would allow this to happen?

for every one of your conspiracies,I can find one that discredits it.It is an endless cycle,for every Bush breaking law I can find another president did as well.

Our Holocaust?which Holocaust is this? Appearently it is the one happening in full veiw of the entire WORLD,why are they so silent?

and the Red Cross did not visit one Death Camp in Germany not one!

Bush does not have any prisons The United States of America has prisons,as I have reported before detainee's are treated better in the US system then anywhere in the World,don't make me re-link it!

Reverend X said...

Helly,
I have one conspiracy theory. For the most part it begins in 1996 with a group called "the project for the New American Century". Nothing you have linked has discredited it. The 2000 election was corrupted by Key Election officials. To be brief I will list one of them, which alone was capable of altering the outcome.
Florida's Secretary of State, Kathryn Harris, also head of elections and Chairman of Bush 2000 campaign hired a private (also partisan) company to "scrub" felons from the voter registration. They did, removed 400 or so. She made them do it again, several times, each time adding variables to the searches which she has never fully disclosed. In the end, she had them remove 56,000 registered voters, almost all democrats, from the list of registered voters. None of these people were informed of this action. On election day over 50,000 registered democrats were not allowed to vote. If they had been, Gore would have won with a sizable majority. As ism the Supreme Court has absolutely no Constitutional Authority to appoint anyone to the Office of the President. There is not even arguable penumbra or precedence.
2004 they pulled the same trick, this time in Ohio to the sum of 308,000, with 300k+ being democrats. Secretary of State, Head of Elections and Chairman of Bush2004, Ken Blackwell.

In each instance mentioned there was sufficient change in the overall state vote to transfer that state's delegates to Bush and give him the win.
Add to that the proven, documented evidence of Electronic voting machines making millions of errors, not one of which altered a vote in favor of a Democrat candidate, and the voter suppression tactics experienced in North Carolina, Ohio, and almost everywhere large populations of lower economic or minority voters reside, and you have "Election Fraud"
Refute any of that, I dare you! You will not be able to.

Then, as questions continued to mount about the legality of the 2000 election, an Army Intelligence group code named "Able Danger" uncovered a terrorist plot to use commercial airliners as missiles against the Continental US. They reported this plot to "high ups" in the Pentagon. The report was to be shared with the FBI and the CIA, but somewhere right near the top, it disappeared. A few months later 9-11 happened. The FBI suddenly had a version of that report to assign guilt from. Unfortunately, their report based theory does not in any way hold validity under scrutiny. 7 of the individuals alleged to be in the plot as Hijackers are still alive.
There is not even enough credible evidence supporting the Official explanation to indict any of the hijackers. The only evidence which holds up is atta being involved. That can be shown from intelligence reports on his activities, Able Danger had been tracking him for a year before 9-11, A significant wire transfer of money to him from the Head of the Pakistani intelligence Agency, ISI, and an edited camera shot from an airport in Maine showing Atta Boarding a plane. No other footage has ever been uncovered showing any other hijackers boarding planes. If there was anything like that, it would have been published by now.

OK, I will stop there for now. Your turn... refute any of those facts with credible evidence to the contrary. One Caveat, make sure to back link check anything you might find. The 9-11 Comission has been thoroughly debunked as has Popular Mechanics, the NIST Report, and FEMA's report.
The vote scrubbung, electronic vote manipulation, and voter suppression has also been proven and released by multiple NGOs and the General Accounting Office.

Hellpig said...

2morrow,I will try my best...Tonite I am going to enjoy the 4 vicodine and pint of whiskey I consumed............

Hellpig said...

check out my sites

you like the new color?

Anonymous said...

seriously x you have got to post some articals on shoutwire. i saw that rightiouschops had one. i never got to see the debate you had with him but it can get hard to find anything in the older posts. keep up the good work until the day we destroy ourselves or we all learn to cooperate

Reverend X said...

Warry,
Repost anything you want from here. At the moment, I don't have the time to pick up a whole forum of arguments. Honestly, I have faith in you to handle it. Here's a few resources you will need. For up to the minute 9-11 facts, analysis and evidence, click here
Election Fraud More Election Fraud

Hellpig said...

Rev......You converted me I am now on the side of Truth and Accountability......Bush stole both elections and he has put the US in a illegal war,I also belive there to be a coverup in 9/11,........although I still believe that Clinton was by far the worst President in the history of the United States.And that Liberals are Americas worst enemy.

Reverend X said...

Hellpig,
Has anyone ever told you that you suck at sarcasm?
-X

Hellpig said...

I am totally sincere......why must you look for a angle about everything?


I am not a repulican or a Dhimmi i mean Democrate,or scum bag Liberal......I am an independent with views on all topics,my views are not left or right,just mine as I see the world today.

Reverend X said...

Sorry, I've never heard from anyone I converted before. As for the angle, paranoid, remember.