on the morning of february 18, hans and sophie snuck into the university while classes were going. spreading leaflets in the halls, they began to leave the university when sophie realized she still had more leaflets in her briefcase. hurrying up to the top floor of the university, they began to distribute the remaining leaflets. they were still up there when the bell signaling the end of classes rang. panicked, sophie grabbed the last stack of flyers and threw them over the balcony and into the "lichtlof", or indoor atrium. this action was noticed by jakob schmid, who was a custodian working in the atrium as the papers fell. schmid, who was also a nazi party member, locked the exit doors and alerted the gestapo, who came and arrested sophie and hans. for four days hans was interrogated. at first he denied everything, but when he realized that denying was pointless he changed his story, taking all of the blame in order to protect the other members who hadn’t been captured yet. unfortunately, hans had had a leaflet draft written by christoph on his person when he was arrested. christoph, who had bowed off the group due to being married with three children, was captured on february 20. on february 22, hans, sophie and christoph were tried by roland freisler, a hard judge known as the “hanging judge” for sentencing up to 90% of the accused to death. the verdict was as expected as it was sad: death by guillotine. hans and the others were hustled off to prison, where they learned the shocking news that the execution was to take place that same day. hans and sophie were able to see their parents before they died.