Germany on Sunday commemorated what would have been the 100th birthday of Sophie Scholl, a young woman who became an icon for her role in the anti-fascist “White Rose” resistance group.
Scholl and other group members were arrested in 1943 after scattering leaflets critical of Adolf Hitler’s regime and the war from a balcony at the University of Munich.
She and her brother Hans refused to apologize or give up their co-conspirators and were executed four days later.
Photo: EPA-EFE
The group’s story, contrasting the Scholl siblings’ gradual awareness and then rejection of the horrors of Nazi ideology and militarism with that of millions of Germans who supported Hitler, has become a staple of history lessons in German schools.
It has also been regularly dramatized in movies, plays and, most recently, an Instagram account.
Dozens of young people in Munich on Sunday took part in a theatrical live performance about Sophie Scholl’s life — held in the open air due to COVID-19 pandemic restrictions.
Attempts by lockdown protesters to portray Sophie Scholl, who was born on May 9, 1921, as an example of the need to resist government rules on wearing masks and social distancing have been denounced by organizations representing Holocaust survivors, including the International Auschwitz Committee.
German Central Council of Jews president Josef Schuster said comparisons between lockdown protesters and the victims of Nazi persecution were “repulsive and intolerable.”
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
A top Vietnamese property tycoon was on Thursday sentenced to death in one of the biggest corruption cases in history, with an estimated US$27 billion in damages. A panel of three hand-picked jurors and two judges rejected all defense arguments by Truong My Lan, chair of major developer Van Thinh Phat, who was found guilty of swindling cash from Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) over a decade. “The defendant’s actions ... eroded people’s trust in the leadership of the [Communist] Party and state,” read the verdict at the trial in Ho Chi Minh City. After the five-week trial, 85 others were also sentenced on
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of