"Sophie Schur - The Last Days" (domestic translation as "Hope and Resistance") tells the story of a group of students from the University of Munich who participated in the resistance movement in Germany during World War II. I have been exposed to this story in the German film master Verdhoven's film "The White Rose". Brother and sister Hans Schurr and Sophie Schurr are the core members of this organization called "White Rose Group". They fought against the Nazis by fighting for freedom of speech, distributing leaflets at the University of Munich to convey anti-Nazi and anti-war ideas. Because of their sincere faith, they gave their young lives in the wicked generation. Brother and sister Hans and Sophie, one was 24 and the other was 22 when they died. They remind me of Bonhoeffer.
Today, it is common for us to identify with the Schurs or the Bonhoeffers about the Nazis. But in Germany at that time, against the Nazis, the price of hope for peace was to hope that the country would be defeated. It is contrary to the will of most people, what kind of courage and persistence are required? In the film "Sophie Shure", a lot of materials are quoted to enrich the character of the dissatisfied Sophie Shuer, and let us see the process of her thought forming. Sophie in the film also has doubts about her own rationality and fear of death, but she still has hope from faith. How to see the light from the future through the haze of the times, faith gave her such eyes. In the movie, when she said to the Nazi prosecutor, I believe God and conscience will show me the right way, the prosecutor shouted angrily that "there is no God at all", Sophie calmed down, she knew that God gave her the strength to let her Victory over the so-called "will of the people". It is worth mentioning here that reason and conscience are rooted in the same word in European languages (eg consciousness and conscience in English; Bewusstsein and Gwissen in German), and they are two theoretical and practical aspects that describe the same rational behavior . In Sufi discourse, there is no contradiction between the transcendent God and inner reason, who created reason and guides the direction of conscience and reason. In the dictatorship and darkness of the Nazis, faith is not ignorance, but enlightenment.
Both Sophie and Bonhoeffer died on the guillotine of the Nazis, they both died of the will of the people, and they both stayed true to their own beliefs. It was this belief that gave them the light from the future. So, before going to the guillotine, Sophie said, "The sun is still shining!" And Bonhoeffer said, "This is the end, but this is also the beginning!"
ps, "Resistance and Obedience" is a collection of Bonhoeffer's letters from prison, with a Chinese translation, called "Prison Letters".
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