New biography by LJMU historian

03 March 2009

Sophie Scholl was a 21-year-old Munich University student and a member of an underground, non-violent protest movement against Hitler's rule in Nazi Germany called the White Rose. Her brave stand in fighting Nazism has made her a legend in Germany. She was voted 'Woman of the Century' in 1999 and she came 4th, along with her equally brave brother Hans Scholl, in 'Greatest Germans', a popular German TV programme.

In 2005 the final days of her short life was the subject of an award-winning German film called: Sophie Scholl: The Final Days. Now, Frank McDonough, Reader in International History, has written the first major biography of this remarkable heroine of the German resistance. The book draws on a wide variety of original documents, including the letters and diaries of Sophie Scholl, key Gestapo interrogation files, court documents and interviews with survivors - including an exclusive interview with Sophie's 88 year old sister.

Although not released until 2 March 2009, the book is already receiving major national and international publicity. It was the subject of a full two-page feature in The Mail on 26 February, entitled: 'Braver than Valkyrie', written by leading historian Andrew Roberts. Andrew commented: "McDonough has unearthed remarkable new evidence which helps to explain why Sophie Scholl defied all sense of self-preservation to distribute leaflets denouncing Hitler's Nazis."

The book has also featured in media coverage in Germany, Ireland, and the USA - and was the subject of an article in the leading Brazilian magazine Gallileu. The book is being widely reviewed, most notably, in a major forthcoming review in the Times Higher Educational Supplement by Professor Richard Evans, the Regius Professor of History at Cambridge and one of the world's leading historians on the Third Reich.

Locally, the book was highlighted by Professor David Alton at the Roscoe Lecture in January 2009, by an article in the Liverpool Daily Post and is the subject of special 30-minute programme, hosted by Roger Phillips on BBC Radio Merseyside on 29 March 2009.

The story of this principled young woman, who bravely opposed Hitler's terrifying Nazi regime and was executed for her beliefs, is published by the History Press.