Sophie and Johann

Sophie and Johann

SophieSchollThe story of Sophie Scholl has fascinated me for many years. Such courage and dignity in one so young and so lovely makes a refreshing alternative to the more plentiful examples of humanity without conscience.

Most Germans already know Sophie Scholl. Recognized as one of the most inspirational Germans ever. Not that many know about Johann Reichhart. Or about their meeting, brief though it was. I was fascinated by the thought that this dignified looking man, an 8th generation executioner had to look at this beautiful young woman, just 21, and think “I am just doing my job” before chopping her head off. And her final words “Such a fine sunny day, and I have to go.” Not all Germans were Nazi’s ‘placing duty above conscience without pause to wonder why’ and not all anti-Nazi activists were men. Sophie Scholl is, deservedly, a legend. A bright flame of inspiration to any ideologue.

The man she met for the first time on 22 February, 1943 was  Johann Reichhart. The 8th generation German executioner, the worlds leading practitioner of this dark art where he favoured the guillotine for its superior efficiency, ending over 3,000 lives by his own hand.

-3Following VE Day, Nazi member Reichhart was arrested and imprisoned in Landsberg Prison for the purposes of denazification but was not tried for carrying out his duty of judicial executioner. He was subsequently employed by the Occupation Authorities until the end of May 1946 to help execute 156 Nazi war criminals at Landsberg am Lech by hanging. He cooperated with Allied chief executioner Master Sergeant John C. Woods in the preparations for further executions of those found guilty and sentenced to death at the Nuremberg Trials,but refused to carry out any further executions himself following two cases of mistaken identity.

Reichhart’s office made him a lonely and disliked person, even after abolition of the death penalty in West Germany in 1949. His marriage failed, and one of his sons, Hans, committed suicide in 1950 due to his association with his father’s profession.

When, in 1963, there were public demands, during a series of taxi driver murders, for the re-introduction of the death penalty in West Germany, Reichhart spoke out against capital punishment.

Reichhart died in Dorfen near Erding in 1972.Screen Shot 2018-04-19 at 09.57.10

-2Sophie died a traitor and a criminal, sentenced to death for protesting the Nazi ways through membership of the White Rose.  Johann was of course an upstanding member of the community and a first rate civil servant bound by duty to his employment.

And yet, despite the dehumanising effects of mindless conformity to one repetitive task legitimized in the guise of employment, I couldn’t help but wonder how Johann must have felt when he heard this beautiful 21 year old say those words before he placed her head on the brace and pressed the lever to end her life.

Known as Hitler’s judge the rotten lying fascist Roland Freisler (R) sentenced Sophie and Hans Scholl and Christoph Probst to death in February 1943.
Ironically, it was a Jewish pilot in an American plane who dropped the bomb on Berlin in 45 that killed this rotten fascist judge. B-17 of USAAF Lt. Colonel Robert Rosenthal

With the passage of time, Sophie’s story lives on. The convicted traitor is shown for what she was, inspiring many millions towards confidence in their own beliefs, while the duty bound civil servant  doing his job and saluting the flag is revealed by the passage of time.

Sophie and Johann who met briefly on 22 February 1943, joined forever in a moment in time that shows the best and worst of humanity.

-4Here is my original writers version of Sophie and Johann

 

Sophie and Johann by Hugo Fernandes. YouTube