Power of Insignificance and Apparent Defeat

In my high school German III & IV classes (that I barely squeaked by) we read (in German) some of the letters and pamphlets written by Sophie and her brother Hans and others in The White Rose. The Scholls were heroes of mine before I even knew much more than the name of Dietrich Bonhoeffer. I was more familiar with The White Rose than the Confessing Church until late in my college career. Young? Yes. Courageous? Of course. I do not consider them to have failed in their mission. I believe The White Rose, The Confessing Church and others who resisted the Nazis from within had more to do with the collapse of Nazi Germany than the Allied military. They undermined the attempt to control conscience and thus the ability of the Nazi political and military establishment to continue and compel people to do its bidding. They exposed its moral bankruptcy that could not bear the weight the rest of the world was putting on them. They seemed insignificant at the time, but the Nazis knew what a danger they were to the Nazi power structure. Tyrants always fear those with a conscience who are not afraid of pain or death because they cannot be controlled.