His White Rose

GERMAN director Marc Rothemund’s third feature film, “Sophie Scholl -- The Final Days,” which opens Friday, has already received three Lolas (German Oscars) and two Silver Bears at the Berlin International Film Festival. Now, his tale of a doomed World War II heroine is in contention for the Oscar for best foreign language film.

“It’s so cool,” enthuses Rothemund.

The film stars a luminous Julia Jentsch as 21-year-old Scholl, one of the few female members of the White Rose, an underground resistance group of college students in Munich dedicated to the demise of the Third Reich.

In 1943, Scholl and her brother Hans were captured during a mission to distribute pamphlets on campus. Cross-examined by the Gestapo and sentenced by the People’s Court in Berlin, they were executed that day.

Rothemund, 37, said that what makes him most proud of the Oscar nomination is that now “there is a worldwide awareness of the relatives and the still-living members of the White Rose and the message the White Rose was fighting for is now seen internationally.”

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You used unpublished Gestapo transcripts of the interrogation of Sophie and her brother as one of your primary sources for the story. I’m surprised those papers still existed. Where did you find them?

The Gestapo generally destroyed all reports, but these reports were sent from Munich to Berlin to the People’s Court, so they could prepare the Scholl trial. Then, when the Russians conquered Berlin, they sent all of these documents to Moscow and then to the secret police in former Communist East Germany. They were reading [in the reports] about freedom of speech and freedom of belief and that these were young students, and [the secret police] said, “This isn’t very convenient to our politics.” So they hid the reports until the time of the reunification. After the reunification, all the documents went to the German archives.

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Did you know a lot about Sophie Scholl and the White Rose before you began the project?

I grew up in Munich, and in school they taught me the story of the White Rose.

I read three years ago, on the 60th anniversary of her death, that she had stayed four days in the Gestapo headquarters. This is the point I really didn’t know. The movie “The White Rose,” shot in 1981, begins when she arrives in Munich and it ends with her arrest because [the director] had no access to the documents.

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How did you get the transcripts?

I just called the archives. It was so simple.

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How reliable are the transcripts? They’re from the Gestapo point of view.

I asked friends of the White Rose members to introduce me to some White Rose members for interviews; they also helped me interpret these documents made by the Nazis. They told me that Sophie Scholl wouldn’t have signed something that was really wrong.

We compared it to all other interrogation reports, especially the one of her brother. They answered [the questions] almost with the same words. The fascinating thing is also that she lies for so long [about involvement with the White Rose].

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So that fact was new to you?

My motivation to shoot this movie was when I learned for the first time she was lying. In Germany, she is seen as a heroine, like a martyr. But when you read that she is lying, you feel this young woman fighting for her life, denying even the idea of the White Rose because now it is a matter of life and death.

The great thing is she becomes the heroine in the last stage. She is not a born heroine. She is afraid of death. It is not easy for her.

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You also interviewed the son of Robert Mohr, the Gestapo agent who interrogated her and tried to save her from the guillotine.

The son was sad. His father was a Nazi, but on the other hand, he was relieved that his father tried to save her life.

The French caught Mohr after the war. While in French custody, he wrote a letter to the father of Sophie Scholl saying please confirm to the French I didn’t torture her, I didn’t use force with her. Her father wrote a letter to the French. So after two or three years the French let him go and he ended up a lifeguard in a public swimming pool. He died in the early ‘70s.

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Where did you find Julia Jentsch?

I did a casting call. I had a casting director who ended up with 10 actresses and then I went on to do auditions. After two months of auditions, Julia Jentsch was the one who was the best. She had a tough mind and a tender heart. That is how Sophie Scholl was described and how Julia Jentsch is.

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How strong is the Nazi Party today in Germany?

I would say in Germany, it is 5% [of the population]. The other 95% have a real strong eye on them. There was a demonstration of Nazis against unemployment. But 8,000 young people who saw the movie “Sophie Scholl” also showed up and were shouting at them.

When it was announced that Julia Jentsch and me were going to talk to the 8,000 young people, we got letters saying don’t go there. I have gotten some e-mails and letters saying this story is not true. It is propaganda by humanists. It’s unbelievable.

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Why did you decide to become a filmmaker?

My father [Sigi Rothemund] is a famous TV director. My parents divorced really early, so if I wanted to see my father, I had to spend the school holidays on locations. So I was hanging around with drivers, assistants, artists and there I learned what a great atmosphere it could be if a passionate crew and passionate actors brought a script to life. That really affected me.

There was one event when I was 12 years old. I saw “Kramer vs. Kramer” with Dustin Hoffman and Meryl Streep. I alone went to the cinema and for the first time I really I saw how a movie can impact the audience in such an emotional way. I saw it three times the same day because I was so touched.

-- Susan King