White Rose Histories

September 9 - September 16, 1942.

Storybook:

Fritz Hartnagel confronts the issue of alcoholism among German soldiers on the Russian front. Lieutenants from a neighboring unit awaken him at 4 a.m. on September 9, demanding he hand over his store of alcohol.

He’s also tasked with administering officer’s candidacy exams, expected by German brass to read body language along with taking down response to oral questions. Although the overall exercise makes it hard for Fritz to concentrate, he enjoys asking the question, “What do you say to the sentence, A person becomes better when he is educated?” Most candidates answer affirmatively, assuming that is the response he wants to hear. He tells Sophie he wonders what they would think if they knew he thought the correct reply is negative.

Officers from another encampment visit on the night that Fritz has arranged to show a film - open air! - to his men. After the film, these officers talk late into the night, drinking wine and discussing politics. Fritz notes that unlike his C.O., these officers are open to debate on touchy subjects. They do not make him feel like his world views are out of the question. Still, he has a hard time defending his viewpoint… alone.

Fritz is ordered to go to Stalingrad to procure building materials, so his men can build a permanent structure to winter at their current position. Although he has heard about the destruction in that city, he is not prepared for the devastation he sees. Further, they are told that to obtain building materials, they must demolish any structures left standing. Fritz is troubled by this order, but realizes if he does not do so, his men will have no shelter.

On the way back to his encampment, Fritz picks up three refugees fleeing Stalingrad. He is overwhelmed by the “river” of refugees. They have nothing to eat, nowhere to go.

Higher-ups confirm one more time that yes, Fritz’s unit is building permanent bunkers in which they will winter. He notices that the animals they had grown used to seeing have all burrowed underground. Fritz writes Sophie that he too has become a “burrowing” animal.

Re-reading Sophie’s old letters, Fritz picks up on her references to Schurik and asks if Schurik was her Russian teacher. He tells Sophie that he too wants to learn Russian.

Why this matters:

* The notion that German civilians had no idea what was going on is simply ludicrous. As can be seen from Fritz’s letters - as well as Otl’s - men on the frontlines were telling family and friends what they saw and experienced. Fritz is telling Sophie about Stalingrad in September 1942, a full 4+ months before their ultimate defeat in that place. Even if German radio and newspapers were not carrying the dismal reports, “letters home” certainly described what was happening. Applies to us as well! If someone trusted is on the ground, reporting via emails or texts or whatever media, believe them over your local newspaper, Substack writer, Twitter, TV news, or magazine. Especially when you’re hearing it from multiple sources. We are responsible for our own political education.

* The little scene where Fritz is defending his worldview against ‘convinced’ Nazis, and yet does not feel belittled or demeaned by the conversation? It’s such a nice and unexpected incident, one we today can most certainly identify with!

White Rose History, Volume II, pages 201-203.

Notes and references available only to paid subscribers.

September 22 - September 30, 1942.

Storybook:

Willi Graf describes his position on the front lines for his sister Anneliese. He tells her they are in the middle of a forest, only a few meters from the Russian side of the front. “For security, there is a strand of barbed wire running square down the middle of the terrain.”

Hubert calls Willi and they discuss the announced changes for their studies. Start of the winter trimester had been postponed until December, meaning they would only get two trimesters - two short semesters - that school year. They hope that the news does not mean they will have to winter in Russia, but agree not to think about it.

Willi writes a long, comprehensive letter to his good friend Marita Herfeldt. He tells her many of the same things he’s told Anneliese, but in greater detail, with more attention to Russian literature and folk music, her academic specialties. The letter to Marita feels like a conversation.

He takes a walk directly to the front lines. The ground is still muddy, but blue skies and autumn leaves cheer Willi.

On Sunday, Willi Graf volunteers to act as paramedic and retrieve a wounded man from the First Company. It’s an excuse to get out of the bunker. As he’s walking across meadows, he spies a village - Afanassyevka - that appears peaceful. The closer he gets, he realizes it is anything but peaceful. The town has been gutted.

The sight disturbs Willi. That afternoon, he sits in the bunker, not wanting to do anything. “I thought about all the scenes I had seen.”

Werner Scholl visits Hans the same night. Hans later tells his parents that Werner has become quite taciturn.

Hubert Furtwängler visits Hans and Alex at HVP Plankenhorn and stops by Willi’s bunker to fill him in on their gossip.

The last day of September, Willi Graf heads out for Kolesniki, a nearby village. Unaware that the SS had committed one of its crimes against humanity in that town only a few months prior (burning everyone over 70 and under 10 alive in a farmhouse), he enjoys the beauty of the town. Most homes and businesses are still intact. It’s a welcome change from the bunker.

Willi and Hubert learn they will be transferred away from the front lines. Willi celebrates that night by playing skat, regretting only the location, not the card game. Although the two men are thrilled to be leaving the front lines, they are concerned that they could possibly be sent to a worse place.

Willi resolves not to let his surroundings get him down, resolving to keep his nose to the grindstone and do whatever is necessary.

Why this matters:

PTSD is real and should not be ignored. If anything, we as human beings should advocate for greater mental health assistance for our young men and women who return from fighting our wars. If we cannot figure out how not to fight wars, we can at least take care of those who put everything on the line. Throughout the White Rose story, you will repeatedly see Willi Graf struggle with PTSD. With nightmares from everything he bore witness to. I do not know how he managed to stay relatively sane and stable. If you have been following this podcast-serialized audiobook, you know that “deaths of civilians during World War II” is a recurring theme. The war crimes that happened all around our White Rose circle of friends take civilian deaths to a whole new level. In Vyaz’ma, Gzhatsk, Ržev, and Kolesniki - and in many more villages and towns in Russia and Poland - the brutality of Germans and their allies towards the local populace was unspeakable. Where the Jewish population was murdered in such horrific fashion, often locals would help the Nazi criminals. Jedwabne, Poland is (in)famous example of Polish complicity in Nazi murders. And Nazis would then turn on their accomplices and do the same to them. This aspect of the horror of the Shoah has not received nearly enough ink. Every time I get to this part of the story, I find it unfathomable how anyone can inflict such pain, such a ghastly death, on another human being. If you teach the Holocaust to high school or college students, please spend time talking about this. Two things: How to strengthen international law; and, how to weed out sociopaths from the military. Not just from our military, but international standards for mental fitness to serve.

White Rose History, Volume II, pages 198-201.

Making this segment public, so everyone can comment. Please share! We need a wider discussion of this topic.

If you know anyone who is involved with helping veterans with PTSD, or if your circle of friends includes Holocaust educators, or if your activism includes codifying rules of engagement about so-called collateral damage (civilian deaths), please share. This conversation should be had on a wider scale.

Notes and references

Only a fragment of Willi Graf’s letter to his sister Anneliese dated September 22, 1942 has been published. Unusual ‘censorship’ - makes me a bit uncomfortable.

On the “dull” Saturday, I translated das Baden as swimming, since a few days earlier Willi Graf had mentioned that he went swimming with Hubert and “Assi.” Alternate translation could be “take a bath.”

At the time that Willi was observing what had happened in Afanassyevka, the SS and SD were torching the village of Borisova (Borysovka) in the same manner.

The September 28, 1942 letter from Hans Scholl to his parents was highly censored.

Re Kolesniki: Inge Jens noted that Kolesniki was 10 km [6 miles] east of Gzhatsk.

Any complaints about the Graf-centric nature of this chapter should be taken up with Scholl heirs. Inge apparently censored almost all of the correspondence by and between Hans, Sophie, Werner, and the rest of the Scholl clan during the last two weeks of September 1942. Why?

* Jens, Inge (Ed.). At the Heart of the White Rose: Letters and Diaries of Hans and Sophie Scholl. Translation by J. Maxwell Brownjohn. New York: Harper & Row Publishers, Inc., 1987.

* Knoop-Graf, Anneliese and Jens, Inge (Eds.). Willi Graf: Briefe und Aufzeichnungen. Frankfurt am Main: Fischer Taschenbuch Verlag GmbH, 1994.

* The Trial of German Major War Criminals (Volume VII). Retrieved from www.nizkor.org/ hweb/imt/tgmwc/tgmwc-07/tgmwc-07-61-03.shtml. Same document can be found at www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/imt/proc/02-18-46.htm.

Errata to auto-generated transcript:

He resolved not to let his surroundings get him down. “Circumstances should not influence me as much, because they are always present and have to be put up with.” The only visible solution to his dilemma involved keeping his nose to the grindstone and doing whatever was necessary. — Italicized portion omitted from transcript.

Podcast © 2024 Denise Elaine Heap. White Rose History, Volume II, Chapter 16, © 2002 Denise Elaine Heap and Exclamation! Publishers. Please contact us for permission to quote.

This podcast is a project of WHY THIS MATTERS, a newsletter of Center for White Rose Studies, that explores the reasons that voices silenced more than eighty years ago still speak to us today.

To order digital version of White Rose History, Volume II, click here. Digital version of White Rose History, Volume I is available here.

September 15 - September 22, 1942.

Storybook:

Otl Aicher is now entrusted with radio transmission duties on the Russian front. As German reconnaissance planes overfly Russian positions, they radio coordinates back to Otl, for him to pass on to artillery units.

Otl quickly discovers another use for the radios at his disposal. He finds he can listen to English-language news from Beirut and Tehran. He learns about the US’s “Lend-Lease” program, which is funneling weapons into Soviet hands. In addition to shipping US (and British) weapons to the USSR from Tehran via Baku, the Allies have also built factories in Iran.

This leads Otl to a decision: He will desert to the British! He intends to string rope between the axles of a German train headed to Baku, and from there make his way to Tehran. All he knows is that he cannot spend another minute supporting the German cause.

By September 16, 1942, Alex’s 25th birthday, he is deemed “well.” He is still weak and has to take it easy, but he survived diphtheria! Hans Scholl writes his family that he too had contracted diphtheria, although that is doubtful, since he was well within two days. Hans says that they were susceptible to the disease since they had been giving too much blood.

Willi Graf takes three days to pen a long, heartfelt letter to Marianne, the woman he intends to marry.

On Saturday, September 19, 1942, Sophie Scholl’s wartime auxiliary work in a munitions factory comes to an end. She is a free woman!

The night of September 19 into the morning of September 20, the RAF bombs two cities central to the White Rose circle: Saarbrücken, where again the British missed their targets completely, resulting in minor damage and “only” one civilian death. And Munich, where bombs fell very near Carl Muth’s home. Werner Bergengruen’s home is destroyed and he and his family leave Munich.

Later, Carl Muth would write Hans Scholl that more than 400 were killed in Munich during the air raid.

Sophie and Elisabeth Scholl modify their planned vacation together. They still intend to spend time in the mountains, but first they must check out Sophie’s room in Munich and help Dr. Muth put his house back together. Sophie’s September 22 letter to her father tells him about their change in plans and stresses that she needs time in the mountains. It “inspires another vision of humanity in me.” She tells her father she would gladly give up her vacation if only he were free.

Why this matters:

* Until now, the RAF’s air raids have not directly impacted the White Rose circle of friends. Yes, the families of both Willi Graf and Traute Lafrenz lived in cities where bombings have been ongoing and where there has been great loss of human life - civilians. But their families have not been affected. And no one in southern Germany has felt the full wrath of RAF bombs. Until now. When Dr. Carl Muth’s home barely escapes the first major air assault on Munich, and the home of Werner Bergengruen - whom several of them know personally - is destroyed. It’s often difficult for us to “process” violence that does not happen to us, or that does not touch those we love. 9/11/2001 and before it the 4/19/1995 bombing and before that, the 1993 detonation at the World Trade Center taught New York City and Oklahoma City about the horrors of a massive terrorist attack, something experienced by many across the globe but never in the USA.

* Sophie Scholl was right. Sometimes that evening sky above the mountains and the pleasant, distant tolling of bells can transform worry and despair. If you start to feel overwhelmed in your work, consider “decompressing” in a beautiful spot - near the ocean, in the mountains, by a lake - where you can find peace, quiet, and calm.

Have you ever been ‘impacted’ by a terrorist attack or by violent crime? How did it affect you? Did it change your viewpoint on terrorism or crime? What takeaways can you share here that may help someone who has not known the horrors you faced?

White Rose History, Volume II, pages 196-198.

Notes and references available only to paid subscribers.

Mid-September 1942.

Storybook:

Since Munich is boring with Alexander Schmorell, Lilo Berndl heads to Chemnitz on a whim to visit Falk Harnack. When she sees him, she immediately knows something is wrong. Falk tells her about the arrests of Mildred and Arvid Harnack.

Lilo worries about Muhmi, mother of Falk and Arvid. How will she hold up? Lilo also recalls her farewell as Alex left for the Russian front. He had told her, “Oh, that tiny fear,” as she expressed pessimism about their tour of duty. And now she understands the danger he faces, not just in Russia, but because of his “work.” After all, Arvid and Mildred had also believed they were doing the right thing, and look what it got them!

She tells Falk about White Rose resistance efforts, but he refuses to believe her. Lilo is miffed by his condescension.

But when he hands her a small box and tells her not to lose it… Falk had told Arvid that he and Lilo were to be married. Arvid therefore gave Falk his signet ring and told Falk to give his (Falk’s) to Lilo as engagement ring. Lilo does not intend to marry Falk, but she recognizes that this is not the best time to tell him that.

This meeting with Falk shakes Lilo’s faith. She has always believed that if a person “was on God’s side,” everything had to be all right. Good versus evil, God versus Satan, life versus death. Now she has serious doubts.

Otl Aicher’s unit has left the Caucasus Mountains, headed east to Mozdok and the oilfields and refineries in that region. British Mosquitoes attack as soon as they set up shop.

They realize they will be wintering in Mozdok, as Hitler is laying claim to those Soviet oilfields. Otl begins to formulate a plan to desert.

All these years later, Mozdok is still a contested location. Because of oil.

Why this matters:

* It is quite easy to believe that everything is for the best, that “Romans 8:28” is fact, that good people always win because they are doing what is right. Lilo had to face the hard truth that that is not always the case. Sometimes the bad guys win. Unlike Kurt Huber and the Scholl siblings, she did not couch her contemplations in terms of a theodicy, ‘how God can allow bad things to happen to good people.’ But she understood it with her entire Being. Sometimes the most horrible injustices happen to the very best of people, to people who work hardest on behalf of “liberty and justice for all.” Lilo (and Falk) learned this lesson before the rest of the White Rose friends would do so. It is painful, grasping this truth and letting go of the belief that if you just do what’s right, everything will go well.

* Oil. For well over a century, it’s always been about oil (and natural gas). We may say we fight for x, y, or z, but if you dig deeper, it has almost always been about oil. Even the current war in Ukraine, if people were honest, is about Russian oil transported to Europe through a Ukrainian pipeline. And the Crimea? Oil transport ships need a port. If a war is not about religion, check where oil and natural gas reserves are located. That will likely answer most questions.

White Rose History, Volume II, pages 194-196.

I am making this post - along with audio and comments - completely public, because the topic is incredibly relevant.

The name of this chapter comes from another evergreen song, “Try to Remember,” from The Fantasticks, sung by the inimitable Ed Ames.

Try to remember the kind of SeptemberWhen life was slow and oh, so mellow.Try to remember the kind of SeptemberWhen grass was green and grain was yellow. …

Try to remember when life was so tenderThat love was an ember about to billow.Try to remember, and if you remember,Then follow. …

Deep in December, it's nice to remember,Although you know the snow will follow.Deep in December, it's nice to remember,Without a hurt the heart is hollow.Deep in December, it's nice to remember,The fire of September that made us mellow.Deep in December, our hearts should rememberAnd follow.

© 1960 Tom Jones. Music by Harvey Schmidt.

Notes and references

Lilo and Falk:

* Fürst-Ramdohr, Lilo. Freundschaften in der Weiβen Rose. Munich: Verlag Geschichtswerkstatt Neu­hausen, 1995.

Otl Aicher:

Felgenhauer’s article cited below highlights the strategic importance of Mozdok for both Russian and Chechen fights, and brings into focus why the area would have been equally critical in 1942.

From Ility Engineering’s Weekly Incident Summary cited below, “December 8, 2004: Makhachkala, Dagestan. Kaspygaz­prom. The Mozdok-Kazimagomed natural gas pipeline just outside the southern Russian city of Makhachkala exploded, causing a major fire.”

The online maps from University of Texas allowed me to follow Otl Aicher’s movements.

* Aicher, Otl. innenseiten des kriegs. Frankfurt am Main: Fischer Verlag GmbH, 1985.

* Felgenhauer, Pavel. “Combatants or Criminals?” in Moscow Times, August 7, 2003, Retrieved from www.cdi.org/russia/268-9.cfm. CDI is the Center for Defense Informa­tion based in Washington, DC.

* Ility Engineering’s Weekly Incident Summary (Tampere, Finland, 2004), retrieved from www.saunalahti.fi/ility/PI0450.htm.

* Radio Free Europe. Russia: Three Suspects Detained Over Mozdok Suicide Bomb Attack. Washington, DC: 2003. Retrieved from www.globalsecurity.org/military/ library/news/2003/08/mil-030806-rferl-073146.htm.

* Sibneft Oil Company. History of Oil in Russia. Moscow: 2003. Retrieved from www.sibneft.com/pages. Jsp?lang=1&page=2.

* The University of Texas Library. Maps of the CIS. Retrieved from www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/commonwealth.

Podcast © 2024 Denise Elaine Heap. White Rose History, Volume II, Chapter 16, © 2002 Denise Elaine Heap and Exclamation! Publishers. Footnotes about the Russian-Chechen war © 2004. Please contact us for permission to quote.

This podcast is a project of WHY THIS MATTERS, a newsletter of Center for White Rose Studies, that explores the reasons that voices silenced more than eighty years ago still speak to us today.

To order digital version of White Rose History, Volume II, click here. Digital version of White Rose History, Volume I is available here.

September 6 - September 14, 1942.

Storybook:

Alexander Schmorell finds a Russian plane that has crashed. The pilot has a photograph in his pocket, which Alex takes as a remembrance. Alex also makes a friend of a Russian POW named Andrejeff entrusted to their care. They exchange addresses and Alex promises to look him up after the war.

Schurik also learns that German military successes are attributable to the treason of Russian generals. This pains him deeply.

Fritz Hartnagel’s unit is still stationed near the Don River, with no signs of movement any time soon. He worries about the Scholl family. Since Sophie Scholl does not tell him either that her father is continuing to work as accountant while in jail, or about Eugen Grimminger’s support, Fritz hands over his entire savings to the Scholl family, and also wires RM 250 ($2000) to Sophie.

Fritz is happy to hear that Sophie has been able to buy a ladies’ suit she has long wanted.

For serious scholars

Alex later confirms that if an order had been given to shoot Russians, he would have disobeyed. But he insisted, “I was never put into a situation where my attitude toward Russia could have possibly been detrimental to Germany’s interests.”

I’ve been researching and writing about this for over thirty years, and it still bothers me that Sophie Scholl allowed Fritz Hartnagel to believe they were destitute. Even after Robert Scholl’s tax certification was later removed, he continued to earn RM 10,000-12,000 annually ($80,000-96,000), while Eugen Grimminger earned only RM 8,125 a year ($65,000).

In March 1941, Fritz made a similar offer to Sophie at yet another time she complained of needing money. He volunteered to transfer his savings account to her, stating that he had been saving RM 200 ($1600) a month - apparently since September 1939 when war began. At that time, she turned him down. There is no indication that the Scholls turned him down in September 1942. His savings account would have had approximately RM 7,200 or $57,600 in it by that time.

Sophie frequently prayed that she could “suffer,” and yet none of the Scholls ever seemed to have gone without anything.

Their collective ingratitude to Eugen Grimminger? Inexplicable.

I will add that Fritz and Elisabeth Hartnagel grew fairly close to Grimminger after the war. They were on the same side of the fence regarding how former Nazis should be treated. Both Grimminger and Hartnagels stood in direct contradiction of Robert and Inge Scholl’s opinion that the past should remain in the past.

Why this matters:

* Follow the money! Especially in politics!

White Rose History, Volume II, pages 192-193.

Notes and references available only to paid subscribers.

September 7 - September 14, 1942.

Storybook:

With his close friends elsewhere, left to his own devices, Hans Scholl first attempts a letter-writing campaign to Lisa Remppis, Rose Nägele, and Josef Söhngen. This does not bring him out of his negative mental state.

He therefore pens a diary entry that is one of the first honest, introspective self-analyses we are permitted to read. Hans Scholl admits he has constructed a wall of “sarcasm and satire” around himself. This “sarcasm and satire” alienates people like Willi Graf, who value sincere and candid friendship, and drives away once-close friends like Raimund Samüller and Traute Lafrenz.

But Hans Scholl’s introspection stops short, examining only the symptoms, failing to address the reason for his emptiness.

In stark contrast, Willi Graf and Hubert Furtwängler’s friendship buoys both young men. One day, the usually reticent Willi calls Hubert, just to talk. Hubert is the sort of friend who is trustworthy and faithful, a combination that means a great deal to the White Rose circle.

Autumn begins its unmistakable overture - in mid-August! The wind blows colorful leaves into the bunker on the front lines.

Willi is stuck attending a drinking party with officers. The party starts at 11:30 p.m. and ends around three in the morning. He is miserable. The next day, he recovers by reading Dostoevsky’s Guilt and Atonement. He also receives mail from “his girl,” Marianne. That letter makes him happy indeed! But instead of immediately replying, Willi writes a letter to his mom.

Sophie Scholl writes her father a letter, telling him she believes that his time in jail is the best possible thing for him. She tells him too that although she finds the work in the munitions factory dull and soulless, she is aware that she is gaining firsthand knowledge of what is really going on around her.

She closes her letter with an allusion to “Die Gedanken sind frei” [Thoughts are free], advising her father that her friends on the front lines are hard at work, building a “wall of thoughts” surrounding him.

Why this matters:

* Allies are important to the work we undertake on behalf of justice. Hubert Furtwängler never directly participated in White Rose “work” - that is, he never once addressed an envelope, dropped “secret mail” in a mailbox, or picked up a paintbrush to dash “Down with Hitler” on a wall. But Hubert’s contribution to their work was substantial. In an era where no one could be trusted, Hubert was trustworthy. He frequently acted as sounding board for their ideas. He was behind the more meaningful concerts they attended. His upbeat personality sometimes kept them going. But most of all, they knew beyond all doubt he would never betray them. Too often, I see activists in specific movements reject “allies” who are not [gay-Black-female-Jewish-neurodivergent-name your cause]. I’ve even been attacked on LinkedIn or Twitter for expressing support for neurodivergent rights, because I am not neurodivergent. And although not personally attacked for other “causes,” I have seen people on the front lines of various movements absolutely devastate genuine allies who happen not to be name-your-cause. This is craziness. Even in military terms, an alliance that guarantees “support” of one’s ally does not always guarantee military support in the form of taking up arms. Support can mean weapons supply or embargoes. Yes, some alliance treaties like NATO do require commitment of military troops if an ally is attacked. But should Germany be invaded by Russia, and the USA fulfills its duties as a NATO ally, that does not mean that Americans become German. Much less that Americans must be German. Please, please use the Hubert Furtwängler example in any “alliance” context. Be that friend who is absolutely trustworthy, who gives unconditional love and support. And if you are in the thick of things, accept the friendship, love, and support of Hubert Furtwänglers around you.

White Rose History, Volume II, pages 190-192.

Notes and references available only to paid subscribers.

September 4 - September 11, 1942.

Storybook:

Kurt Gerstein begins his efforts to alert the Allies to the gassings and other atrocities being committed at extermination camps. No one will listen to him.

On September 7, 1942, the Harnack-Schulze-Boysen resistance movement is uncovered and its members arrested. Arvid and Mildred Harnack are among those caught up in the sweeping arrests. Falk Harnack grieves over what will become of his brother and Lilo Berndl worries for her revered friends.

Willi Graf confesses he is tired and only wants to sleep. Even a Sunday spent playing chess with Hubert does little to relieve the exhaustion. He tells his diary he does not know what would become of him if he had to “be there” for a longer time.

However, Willi and Hubert quickly regain their equilibrium. They go for a long walk together, where they talk about everything. Hubert is the perfect antidote for Willi’s doldrums. Willi also chops wood in preparation for winter. The physical exertion does him good.

Hans Scholl meanwhile struggles with Willi and Hubert gone, and Schurik still in the hospital. He falls into something worse than melancholy, thinking about the “utopia” his father envisions, and watching it turn into an apocalyptic flash of flame in his head.

He also receives word of Ernst Reden’s death and thinks of Inge’s sorrow. But there is no mention of Werner Scholl’s reaction to Ernst’s death.

Still just sitting around, not exerting himself, Hans writes a string of love letters: To Rose Nägele, Lisa Remppis, and Josef Söhngen. [In many ways, those letters are frightening to read, as Hans Scholl’s mental state is anything but stable.]

Why this matters:

* Friendship matters! When Hans Scholl was alone without Willi, Hubert, and Alex, his mental state became dangerously unstable. In contrast, although Willi Graf initially felt so overwhelmed he only wanted to curl up in a fetal position and sleep, his friendship with Hubert pulled him out of his doldrums. No matter how resolute or impassioned we are about our work for justice, if we try to “go it alone,” we will fail. The image of a single man or woman standing valiantly against the mob is unhealthy and should not be promoted. We can only achieve great things working together with others.

* Hans Scholl’s struggle to appear straight is one of the hardest parts of the White Rose story. Inge Scholl censored almost everything that would let us see that emotional battle.

White Rose History, Volume II, pages 188-190.

Notes and references available only to paid subscribers.

September 1 - September 5, 1942.

Summary:

Magdalena Scholl demands that the jail in Ulm relax the conditions attached to her husband’s sentence and permit him to receive multiple letters from their sons on the Russian front — even if it is past the usual deadline. Her request is granted.

Sophie visits her father in jail and says he looks so “young” in his prison uniform.

She also writes Lisa Remppis a letter, talking about her father, a vacation she is planning with Elisabeth, Lisa’s boyfriend Gust, Russian forced laborers - and Schurik. She sees the same characteristics in Alex as she does in the Russians who work in the munitions factory, especially “faith in others combined with an infinite readiness to help them.”

Sophie takes her neighbor’s little son Dieter Rennicke with her when she picks pears in the Aichers’ yard. She recalls fun times she had there with Otl, as he “unsoccessfully” pelted her with stones while they harvested fruit. Those memories unleash an emotional dam and she is finally able to write Otl a long letter.

She focuses on the ongoing Goethe debate, where she and Otl oppose the pro-Goethe opinions expressed by Carl Muth, Hans, and presumably Inge. Despite Hans’ anti-Goethe words in his diary, when he is around Dr. Muth, he supports Goethe’s “anti-romanticism.”

Sophie also continues a discussion she and Otl have had through the years regarding the meaning of music. Where Beethoven’s music may have more meaning, it is like a plow that stirs one up and leaves a person like a furrowed field. In contrast, Bach (she says) is like seed cord, containing an element of crystalline clarity and indestructible order.

You can play Beethoven when you’re in a gloomy, less cheerful mood, but if you try to play Bach in that state, it doesn’t work, because every passage is absolutely transparent and clear and cannot be glossed over, and you have to take hold of yourself like crazy if it’s going to work after all. But the reward when you are done is that you get up from the piano feeling exhilarated.

In an indirect - but clear - jab at her brother Hans, Sophie refrains from giving Otl a definitive response regarding her musicological arguments. She says she simply does not know enough, there are too many angles to consider, and she might regret talking about her current views too widely. Waiting to express an opinion until she had all the facts? Not at all like her brother!

Otl and Sophie essentially find themselves opposed to Dr. Muth, Hans, and Inge, because they believe one does not have to adopt Kierkegaard’s (and hence Theodor Haecker’s) “either-or” methodology when critiquing a writer, philosopher, or theologian. Otl and Sophie reason that there is plenty of room for paradox, that one can just as easily adopt a “both-and” stance.

Why this matters:

* Quoting directly from White Rose History, Volume II: “Perhaps it is this aspect of Sophie’s character that so endears her to White Rose readers more than half a century later. Her openness – that willingness to accept ‘both-and’ – caused her to be extraordinarily sensitive to a world colored by black, white, red*… and gray. We find it easier to identify with her because, like us, she often said, ‘I don’t know.’ She left the posturing and speechifying and big words to her brother. “But when Sophie examined things from every side and determined that one was more right, more just than the other, nothing could move her from her conviction. Maybe that makes her involvement with resistance all the more compelling.” *Black-white-red: Colors of the Nazi flag.

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Notes and references

Inge’s rationale for Sophie’s statement — that their father looked so young in his prison clothes — made no sense. She said “they” had decided it was because Robert Scholl had always been loyal to his ideals about what was good, and because he had left them behind in his youth “like a hobby horse.”

In Sophie’s September 2 letter to Lisa Remppis, she said she was not worried about her father, though she was grieved that he was in prison, but it was for his own good. Additionally, Sophie said she had not forgotten a word they said (the people who brought her father to his current situation). Revenge seemed to have been on Sophie’s mind a great deal those days.

It is a genuine pity that Inge Scholl chose to censor the letter from Sophie Scholl to Otl Aicher.

* Aicher, Otl. innenseiten des kriegs. Frankfurt am Main: Fischer Verlag GmbH, 1985.

* Aicher-Scholl, Inge. Sippenhaft: Nachrichten und Botschaften der Familie in der Gestapo-Haft nach der Hinrichtung von Hans und Sophie Scholl. Frankfurt am Main: S. Fischer Verlag GmbH, 1993.

* Jens, Inge (Ed.). At the Heart of the White Rose: Letters and Diaries of Hans and Sophie Scholl. Translation by J. Maxwell Brownjohn. New York: Harper & Row Publishers, Inc., 1987.

* SAN, KV-Prozesse, Fall 3. 3282. Letter from Lina Scholl to prison officials dated 9/1/42. Publication in 2025/2026.

Podcast © 2024 Denise Elaine Heap. White Rose History, Volume II, Chapter 15, © 2002 Denise Elaine Heap and Exclamation! Publishers. Please contact us for permission to quote.

This podcast is a project of WHY THIS MATTERS, a newsletter of Center for White Rose Studies, that explores the reasons that voices silenced more than eighty years ago still speak to us today.

To order digital version of White Rose History, Volume II, click here. Digital version of White Rose History, Volume I is available here.

September 1 - September 4, 1942.

Summary:

On September 1, 1942, the soldier students learn they are being split up. Hubert Furtwängler and Willi Graf are transferred to the 461st Infantry Regiment, while Hans Scholl and Alexander Schmorell stay at HVP Plankenhorn.

Their exit is postponed by a day, so Willi, Hans, and Hubert meet one more time with “the Russians,” while Schurik begs off because he isn’t feeling good. Plenty of schnapps bridges the language gap, and the soldier students sing and dance with Russian peasants.

That night, the RAF bombs Saarbrücken again, but with miserable results. Not one bomb falls on Saarbrücken. Fifty-two civilians in Saarlouis, about thirteen miles northwest of the city, are killed.

The friends learn that Alex has diphtheria. Hans Scholl writes that he got it “overnight.” This points to the poor medical training available in Germany due to the war, as the country is cut off from medical advances. By 1942, the UK and US had developed vaccines that had all but eradicated diphtheria, vaccines that Germany did not have. Without antibiotics to treat it (Germany was years away from getting penicillin), diphtheria was often fatal.

Willi and Hubert’s departure is delayed one more day, so they piddle around, worried about Alex. The friends write letters home, with Hans Scholl’s letter to his family taking credit for the many good things that Schurik had done on their behalf. It was he, Hans, who had formed a “choir” and met the fisherman. He falsely claims that his friends like him because he is so down to earth.

Finally on Thursday, September 3, Willi and Hubert leave in a horse-drawn ambulance for the front lines. They are disappointed to learn that they too will be split up, with Willi assigned to the First Battalion and Hubert to the Third. Willi travels by railroad handcar to his post, amazed that bystanders are so nice and friendly.

But Russian troops ensure his welcome is complete, with “considerable shooting in the area.” The shooting continues the next morning, damaging the compound where Willi is stationed, and wounding the Company Commander in Hubert’s battalion. Willi is sent to the Third Battalion to assist.

Despite the pressing workload, they find time to drink schnapps amid the din of war.

Why this matters:

* War impacts a society in more ways than the “simple” death and destruction usually associated with bombs and cannons. German medicine was set back decades, because its doctors were isolated from the progress achieved by the global medical community. Not only was Hans Scholl incapable of understanding transmission of the disease (not his fault - fault of medical training in Germany), he and the doctors had no way to treat it, other than to hope that Alex would somehow survive. Nor did he or the doctors at their HVP understand how terribly contagious diphtheria is. Nor did they have access to the vaccines that prevent it in the first place. When anyone praises war as solution, remember the simple case of Alexander Schmorell and diphtheria.

* In addition to gaps in level of medicine, it’s incomprehensible that in 1942, horses and goats were used to “power” ambulances in the German military. And yet, it should not be surprising. Dictators and authoritarians have no problem spending large sums of money on their personal needs, and on military hardware such as high-tech bombers and long-range missiles. They have a harder time justifying budgets for technology that will benefit foot soldiers and the citizenry. True then, true now.

White Rose History, Volume II, pages 183-185.

Notes and references available only to paid subscribers.

Title of chapter 15 is from Neil Diamond’s song, September Morn. Although it is a love song, some of its lyrics have deep meaning when understood in the context of time served by these soldier students on the Russian front. They were forever changed. Complete lyrics here.

Stay with me a whileI only wanna talk to youWe've traveled halfway 'round the worldTo find ourselves again…

And look how far we've comeSo far from where we used to beBut not so far that we've forgottenHow it was before…

September mornWe danced until the nightBecame a brand new dayTwo lovers playing scenesFrom some romantic playSeptember morningStill can make me feel that way.

Songwriters: Gilbert Francois Leopold Becaud / Neil DiamondSeptember Morn lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group

August 21 - August 31, 1942.

2007 update, Fritz Hartnagel and Sophie Scholl

Summary:

On August 21, 1942, Fritz Hartnagel recalls that “yesterday was three months since we said our goodbyes in Munich.” He becomes more realistic about Sophie, understanding that the previous semester in Munich had changed her. He tells her that he is trying to “liberate” himself from her.

He is concerned that she never confirmed receipt of the RM 200 ($1600) he had sent her at the beginning of July. He can send her more money if she needs it.

Although their deployment to Stalingrad has not yet taken place, war intrudes on their position at the rear. Fritz and forty men search for armed Russians purported to be near their encampment. They only find an abandoned radio station, but nevertheless are rewarded with “real coffee” and pudding for their hard work.

The extremes in temperatures continue to wear down German troops. Days are 100+ degrees F, while they experience a night of 25 degrees F. Additionally they contend with a plague of black flies that swarm everything they eat.

Fritz’s thoughts turn to what he will do after the war. He decides he should join his father’s business, become a boring businessman. He thinks that sounds like utter freedom.

With no letters from Sophie, Fritz resigns himself to simply “liking” her, giving up on love.

Even when delays in their forward progress finally bring letters from home, the letters from Sophie are next to impersonal, with no mention of how or what she is doing. Instead, she berates Fritz for not writing more often. He responds by asking her to please tell him how she is doing.

Although Sophie seems clearly upset at her father’s jail sentence, Fritz is less worried. He assures her that Robert Scholl will get through everything all right. Fritz, however, pities Inge for having to handle her father’s business “alone.” [Like Inge after the war, Sophie never told Fritz about Eugen Grimminger’s assistance. He learned that from Elisabeth Scholl after Sophie’s execution.]

Fritz’s company finally moves to its new position about 3 lm (1.8 miles) from the Don River. They still cannot swim or drink the water, not because of fear of epidemic, but because Russian snipers sit on the opposite river bank, picking off Germans who get near the river.

During a brief lull in activities, Fritz responds to Sophie’s renewed request for him to fulfill a purchase order for a duplicating machine. He tells her, “I can get the purchase order you want only with great difficulty. I still have second thoughts about it and do not know whether its purpose would justify possible unpleasantness.”

He offers her use of his armchair and smoker’s table for the apartment she and Hans will share in the winter semester. And Fritz expresses his great pleasure that Hans and Werner Scholl are stationed near one another on the front lines. “That will make many things much easier for them.”

Why this matters:

* Fritz and Elisabeth Hartnagel were upset at Inge Scholl’s exclusion of Eugen Grimminger from the White Rose story. Apparently, Inge’s point of contention both with Eugen Grimminger, as well as with her own sister Elisabeth, and with Fritz Hartnagel, centered on their insistence that ‘all the little Nazis be named.’ Inge and Robert Scholl fought the Hartnagels and Eugen Grimminger on this point. They believed that one should let bygones be bygones. It’s frustrating too to see that Sophie Scholl — who grew close to Eugen Grimminger, and who advised Hans Scholl and Alexander Schmorell that Grimminger would fund their operations — also failed to credit Grimminger for the immense help he proffered the Scholl family while Robert Scholl sat in jail. Ironically, Grimminger and the Hartnagels merely expressed the same thing that both Hans and Sophie Scholl wrote. Hans even put his opinion in Leaflet IV: Though we are aware that the might of National Socialism must be broken militarily, we seek to achieve a revival of the deeply wounded German spirit from within. However, this rebirth must be preceded by a clear confession of all the guilt the German nation has incurred and by a ruthless battle against Hitler and his too-numerous helpers’ helpers, Party members, Quislings, et al. The chasm between the better part of the nation and everything connected with National Socialism must be brutally forced open. There is no punishment on this earth that is adequate for the deeds of Hitler and his followers. Out of love for the generations to come, we must make an example [of them] after the conclusion of the war so that no one will ever have the slightest desire to attempt something similar. Do not forget even the little scoundrels of this regime. Note their names, so that no one escapes! After all these atrocities, they should not be able to change sides at the last minute and thereby pretend as though nothing had happened! This same principle applies to us, to our political milieu. Where injustice has been carried out by public officials - whether on federal, state, municipal level - they should not be allowed to change sides at the last minute and thereby pretend as though nothing had happened. My issues with most White Rose “scholarship” comes back to this point. “Scholars” are willing to perpetuate the legend, are willing to write Eugen Grimminger and Wilhelm Geyer and Manfred Eickemeyer and Traute Lafrenz out of the story, people who had the guts to stand up to Inge Scholl. People like Christian Petry and Vincent Probst have been blackballed by Inge Scholl, people who had guts to stand up to her. Join me on the White Rose journey, righting historical wrongs. More importantly, join me and many others with wider platforms who seek to ensure that the “little scoundrels” of our own era may not reinvent themselves.

White Rose History, Volume II, pages 179-182.

Notes and references available only to paid subscribers.