Sophie Scholl’s Signed Membership Suspension Request From the Bund Deutscher Mädel.
In Hamburg: Dated on December 4, 1939. Oblong, printed form on light green paper. Signed in ink by Sophia [Sophie] Scholl. Filled by typewriter and handwriting. With the printed letterhead of the Hitler Jugend and the stamp of the NSDAP, Bund Deutscher Mädel of Altona (Hamburg) Untergau 31. Registry stamp filled in ink. 210 × 148 mm. Folded once. Very slightly discolored at the edges and the folding due to aging. Hole punched at the left edge. Tiny tears at the upper and lower edges at the folding. Otherwise in fine condition.
An extremely scarce, signed document by the Anti-Nazi resistance hero Sophie Scholl; an official request for suspension of her membership in the Hitler Jugend’s female branch, the League of German Girls.
Sophia Magdalena Scholl was a German resistance hero, whose active opposition to the Nazis led to her execution in 1943. Scholl was born into a liberal, Lutheran family in 1921, in Forchtenburg, a small town in the south of Germany. In the early 1930s, the family moved to Ulm where Sophie — as most German girls at age 12 — joined the female section of the Hitler Youth, the Bund Deutscher Mädel (BDM; League of German Girls). Her enthusiasm in the beginning gradually gave way to criticism toward the organization for its militarism. Sophie’s father was a Nazi critic and her brother Hans was participating in the outlawed German Youth Movement, thus they were both arrested and jailed briefly, Hans in 1937 and their father Robert in 1942. After Sophie graduated from secondary school, she became a kindergarten teacher, chosen this job hoping that it would be recognized as an alternative service to the compulsory “Reichsarbeitsdienst” (National Labor Service) or its rival the “Landjahr” (Country Service) – which she was actually summoned for, as the present document proves. This was not the case and eventually in November 1941, she began a six-month duty in the auxiliary war service as a nursery teacher in Blumberg. After finishing her service, in May 1942, she enrolled at the University of Munich where her brother, Hans was already studying. Here Sophie and Hans, along with three fellow students formed a group, called The White Rose which soon became politically active. They started to publish and distribute leaflets calling for the restoration of democracy and justice. Sophie, Hans, and Christoph Probst a fellow member of the White Rose were arrested for distributing their sixth leaflet on February 18, 1943, and after a short trial, they were found guilty of high treason, condemned to death and executed on 22 February 1943.
The present document is Sophie Scholl’s membership suspension request from Bund Deutscher Mädel, which she applied for in Hamburg, Altona on December 4, 1939, for being summoned for the six-month compulsory “Landjahr” between April 20 and December 20, 1940. The “Landjahr” was a rural educational program designed to teach specifically chosen youth “to become responsible young Germans”. The signed, countersigned and stamped document was sent to the BDM Untergau (sub-district) 120 in Ulm, and filed there on December 12, 1939.
According to the joint handwritten letter, sent by Johann C. Neuhofer to a certain Dr. Rüsch on June 25, 1954, the document was found in an old Hitler Jugend file in Ulm and purchased by Neuhofer in 1950. Another, typewritten letter, a reply of the Oberamtspflege Ludwigsburg to Neuhofer’s inquiry, dated September 10, 1950, reports the information which was found in the files of the former BDM Obergau 20 (Württenberg) on Sophie Scholl. It accounts for Scholl’s history in the BDM from her entry in 1934 until her discharge in 1941.
Anything contemporary, especially singed paper related to Sophie Scholl is virtually unobtainable. Besides this document, we could not trace anything alike in auction records or on the market.
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Price: €50,000.00