Sophie Scholl Legacy was founded on March 20th, 2013. Through this Legacy, the Center promotes an invigoration of the culture of responsibility, a confrontation with the past, a culture of retribution for war crimes, and solidarity with the victims i.e. survivors of all aspects of violence.

The legacy was named after Sophie Scholl, a German student who showed remarkable courage to speak out against the Third Reich during World War II. She is our heroine. The Center for Civil Courage actively opposes fascism, ethnocentrism, militarism, misogyny, racism, and xenophobia.

We, who live in peace and democracy today, owe it to the victims of war, violence, and threats not to remain silent. For activists, civil courage means not putting up with the declared (regime) truths about the last wars in these areas; not accepting revisionism and national callousness towards other people’s victims, not celebrating war criminals as heroes, but sympathizing with all victims and give them a voice; to encourage dealing with those dark parts of the past that preceded the last wars.

We will shout. “Laws change. Conscience doesn’t.” Sophie Scholl is our response to all those who say they did not know or could not act.

Unfortunately, we are not able to visit all the execution sites. We are guided by a mission to go where courage is needed to face the past, where crimes are denied by the majority, and where the majority forgets the victims.