White Rose Histories

August 31, 1942.

Summary:

Hans Hirzel takes the money Sophie Scholl had given him. He travels to Tübingen to visit his maternal grandfather, Robert Gradmann. While there, he buys a simple duplicating machine along with supplies. Hans Hirzel employs the same methodology used by White Rose friends - he purchases supplies at two different stores in Tübingen and four stores in Ulm.

It is not clear whether Hans Hirzel is resisting the Nazi regime, or simply rebelling against his mother. Complicating matters, he continues pilfering drugs from Kurt Glöckler’s attic laboratory (sleeping aids and homemade LSD). No one in the Hirzel household, not even his sister Susanne, notices his addiction issues.

The Hirzel parents cut off all personal contact with the Scholl parents, except to greet them on the street. Rev. Ernst Hirzel, however, is faced with a dilemma. While deputizing for the vacationing prison chaplain, he is assigned the prisoner Robert Scholl. That means he must listen to the man’s conversation. All other prisoners must work outside the jail. Due to special privileges granted to Robert Scholl, he continues his accounting work while behind bars.

Robert Scholl talks to Rev. Hirzel about his gloomy apocalyptic views, together with his belief that the war is lost. Ernst Hirzel is forced to listen, although he is confused by the conversation. He knows that Robert Scholl is agnostic, so his near-religious nattering makes no sense. Robert Scholl also confides personal matters to Rev. Hirzel, things the pastor will not divulge even to the Gestapo, because of penitent-clergy privilege.

Sophie and Inge regularly visit their father in jail. The two sisters, who have never been close, grow a bit closer due to their common sorrow. Inge says (postwar) that Sophie would take her flute to the jail and play Die Gedanken sind frei [Thoughts are free] for her father.

Despite the time the sisters spend together, Sophie does not initiate Inge into their White Rose work.

Without question, Hans and Sophie both know that if their older sister could ever become passionate about their cause, if she could ever walk away from her connection to Nazi bigwigs and League of German Girls ideology, she could be a welcome addition to the White Rose work. Whatever Inge did – whether teaching antisemitic and racial ideology, staging plays, designing Jungmädel induction ceremonies, cleaning house, or simply working on her father’s books – she does thoroughly and fully focused.

As things stand, they cannot and do not trust her. But they have so much work left to do.

Why this matters:

* Robert Scholl clearly taught his son Hans well. Robert Scholl was a chameleon, changing his stripes based on the person he conversed with. Ernst Hirzel was confused by Scholl’s “near-religious” talk, but Robert Scholl was talking to a religious person. Therefore, he adopted religious talk. When Robert Scholl talked to Nazis, he adopted extreme nationalist talk. After the war, when talking to Americans, he adopted democratic talk. When talking to the surviving heirs of the very Jewish families he had shunned during the war, he adopted “reconciliation” and advocacy talk. Hans Scholl did the same thing. When he wrote his mother, it’s all religion all the time. When he hung out with Wittenstein, or Gisela, or Hellmut Hartert, or Kurt Huber, he was a nationalist, bowing to their Nazi fervor. When he was around Willi Graf and Käthe Schüddekopf, he wanted to know more about Catholicism. When he was with Traute and Sophie, Lutheran. I mentioned this aspect of Hans Scholl during my speech in Munich in October 2023. Afterwards, the son of Wolf Jaeger approached me. He thanked me for making this statement - one you will not hear expressed in Germany. He said his father said exactly the same thing about Hans Scholl. Hans Scholl learned it from his father. And it cost the White Rose friends. Dearly.

White Rose History, Volume II, pages 178-179.

Notes and references available only to paid subscribers.

August 28 - August 31, 1942.

Summary:

Even as Russian bombers pause their air raids near Ržev, the RAF intensifies its missions on the home front. The British audaciously undertake two air raids on the same night, August 28, attacking Nuremberg and Saarbrücken at the same time. Neither is successful.

Willi Graf takes advantage of the peace and quiet as Hans and Alex go fishing, and catches up on his correspondence. He pens a long letter to Marita Herfeldt, telling her of his work in the infectious diseases war. Willi also provides us with a candid snapshot of Alexander Schmorell’s impact on their lives. Schurik is more than interpreter. He is responsible for initiating the nights of singing that mean so much to Willi, and he explains Russian literature to them.

Willi figures out why he sometimes feels alienated from his friends. They are content to sit around and do nothing. He prefers having something to do, physical labor if at all possible. He says it’s not that he feels like working, rather that it beats the alternative.

On Monday, the last day of August 1942, Willi looks back over the six weeks that have gone before, and understands that it was important now, and it would be “critical for the days to come” that he is where he is, with precisely the people who surround him.

Gisela Schertling completes the first round of voluntary war work and now begins her second, obligatory service.

Sophie Scholl chafes at her munitions work and spares no one her strong opinions on the matter. When eating lunch with the Hirzel family, she uses the time as a soapbox to rant against Hitler and the war. Mrs. Hirzel is upset by what she perceives as Sophie’s disrespect.

Margarete Hirzel forbids her children from associating with the Scholls. Susanne Hirzel notes that her mother “watches her” to ensure she does not come into contact with Sophie.

Where Susanne had defended Sophie against detractors in the past, she is now put off by Sophie’s anger and negativity. Sophie can find nothing good to say about anything. Everything is target of her disdain and criticism. Susanne wonders at this, as to her, this represents a complete change of character from the person she had known and cared for.

Susanne seems unaware that not only was Sophie born in Forchtenberg, where Robert Scholl was run out of town for “immoral” behavior. But Margarete Hirzel likewise was born and raised in Forchtenberg. Mrs. Hirzel never tells Susanne what she knows of the Scholls that makes her so distrusting, and Susanne remains perplexed by her mother’s obstinacy.

Although Susanne does not cut off contact with Sophie completely, she does limit her association.

Whereas her mother’s warnings about the Scholls influence the compliant Susanne, they have the opposite effect on Hans Hirzel. The Scholl prohibition only piques Hans Hirzel’s interest. He makes it a prime objective to get closer to Hans and Sophie Scholl behind his mother’s back.

Why this matters:

* Despite his nightmares from the horrors he has witnessed — especially in 1941/1942 — Willi Graf may have been one of the most emotionally stable friends of the White Rose circle. In this segment, we see one reason behind his ability to work through that PTSD: He remains physically active. I like the fact that he says he does not feel like working, it’s just that he prefers physical exertion to the alternative. You will see in subsequent chapters how he chops wood, makes repairs to their bunkers, volunteers to retrieve the wounded from the front lines. Alexander Schmorell similarly gets out and about, mingles with the locals. This physical activity does not solve mental health issues, but it is a healthy start to doing so. When we are in the thick of mind-intensive labor, it’s helpful to take a break and do something physical. (I am preaching to myself here.) When our mind is tired, exercise the body. When our body is tired, exercise the mind.

* Whatever it was that made Sophie Scholl so angry? Impacted her friendships and eventually, her effectiveness at their work. Her anger was not solely directed at social injustice. A small part of it was, but there was a deeper anger, the cause of which is blocked from view by Inge Scholl’s heavy-handed censorship. This anger, combined with self-loathing, affects Sophie’s mental clarity. And eventually impairs her judgment.

White Rose History, Volume II, pages 175-178.

Notes and references available only to paid subscribers.

August 24 - August 28, 1942.

Summary:

Robert Scholl’s prison term begins on August 24, 1942 at precisely 4 p.m. He is prisoner 147/42.

Hans writes his mother a “comforting” letter, reminding her of his own incarceration. He tells Magdalena Scholl that his father is strong and will emerge from prison stronger. Hans also refuses - for now - to submit a clemency petition on his father’s behalf.

Hans Scholl and Alexander Schmorell bury a Russian who has been lying within about 100 yards of their bunker for weeks. Alex writes Lilo that they have buried many “Russian skulls,” usually at night to escape detection. Lilo understands that Alex is torn between Russia and Germany, one foot in each country.

Willi Graf struggles with his emotions, especially towards the other four soldier students with whom he is serving on the Russian front. He needs them and recognizes that being with them means much to him. Yet he withdraws from them. “What kind of person am I?”

They enjoy a brief cessation in bombing raids, which enables mail delivery. The letters Willi receives from his mother and older sister Mathilde remind him that he still does not know what younger sister Anneliese plans for the winter semester.

Hans thinks about his father, wondering if his father is thinking about him at the same time. His long diary entry is dark. Hans contemplates death, his own imprisonment, Lisa Remppis, the vagabond life, and another teenage girl who was off limits due to her age. The lengthy paragraph about death is concerning in retrospect.

The friends from Munich debate the function of art. Hubert Furtwängler says the function of art was to make the world a more cheerful place. Hans Scholl is in a dismal mood. Alex likely agrees with Hubert, because that day, he is seeing the world in all its glory. He’s making friends with local peasants, pleased that Bolshevism has not made them forget how to sing and dance.

Why this matters:

* The simple act of burying dead Russian soldiers could have had serious repercussions for Hans Scholl and Alexander Schmorell. We often look for the Big Important Things to do to bring about social justice. When sometimes all that’s required is doing the small, but right, things. Like burying ‘the enemy.’

* It seems almost funny that the friends would debate the function of art while on the front lines. That as they are concerned with right versus wrong, they would think about art’s meaning. Sometimes, when we are in the middle of a fight for justice and rightness, it’s worthwhile to take a step back and think about less consequential matters. It can serve as a palate cleanser.

White Rose History, Volume II, pages 173-175.

Notes and references available only to paid subscribers.

August 18 - August 23, 1942.

Summary:

Rain finally stops and the HVP Plankenhorn bunker dries out. This brings a new pest: Gnats.

The night of August 18 into the morning of August 19, a lone Mosquito bombs Hamburg. Two are dead, thirty-two wounded, thirty-one homeless.

Russian bombers step up their air raids near Ržev. TVP personnel deliver loads of wounded to the HVP. Although the operating room is filled to overflowing with casualties for the surgeons to tend to, this does not affect the five friends, as none of them is assigned to the operating room. They continue to function more as medics than as medical students doing a clinical rotation.

August 20, Adolf Hitler appoints Roland Freisler President of the Volksgericht, the People’s Court.

Friday and Saturday nights — August 21/22 — the five friends continue to grow closer. Friday night, red wine flows freely. But Saturday night, they sit with Russian friends as a nameless Russian woman who works in their camp sings songs of her homeland. Other Russian girls soon join in. Before long, the soldier students forget their soldier status and hum harmony. Will Graf tells his diary, “One can sense the heart of Russia, which we love.”

Willi has the rare opportunity to celebrate Mass on the battlefield on Sunday morning. He critiques it — the priest did not approach it with the proper heart — still happy to have gone to church.

Hans Scholl pens a long-winded treatise comparing German and Russian writers. His attempt at literary criticism falls short, revealing his immaturity. Hans asserts that Dostoevsky has suffered real pain, while Goethe was a pantywaist who had never known deprivation. He states that man can live without poets, and then lists what he deems to be the four essentials of life: Calories, vitamins, entertainment, and sexual lust.

His “treatise” underscores the Scholls’ disconnect from reality. Hans Scholl continues to praise poverty while never having missed a meal. Robert Scholl joins all the right Nazi clubs and thinks himself courageous for criticizing Hitler’s policies - while ignoring injustices. The Scholl family has never even known a soldier killed in action.

Until Sunday, August 23, 1942, when they learn that Ernst Reden has fallen on the front lines. Lisa Remppis is visiting Sophie. Magdalena Scholl interrupts their Schubert concert to tell Sophie about Ernst’s death. Sophie silently hands her sister Inge a Pieta d’Avignon portfolio.

Inge Scholl says (postwar) that Sophie then says that she must “now” do something to avenge Ernst Reden’s death.

Why this matters:

* We must pay attention to low-key political announcements that do not receive a lot of press. Hitler’s appointment of Roland Freisler was a yawner. Except that Freisler’s vicious actions as judge changed the course of German “justice.” It was not just White Rose trials on February 22 and April 19, 1943 where Freisler’s cruelty and injustice shown bright. He presided over the trials for the July 20, 1944 resistance movement as well. By one report, the death sentences handed down by Freisler alone from August 20, 1942 until his death in February 1945 exceeded the death sentences handed down by all other judges combined from 1934-1945. Watch for the “news” that gets little traction.

* Be careful where you hitch your wagon. Yes, Hans Scholl was a hero. But he was not “all that,” as is seen here. Where Christoph Probst, Willi Graf, and Traute Lafrenz based their resistance on deep contemplation and true conviction, Hans Scholl’s treatises could be weak and ineffective because of his immaturity. And that immaturity cost the White Rose friends plenty, on and after February 18, 1943.

White Rose History, Volume II, pages 171-173.

Notes and references available only to paid subscribers.

August 11 - August 18, 1942.

Summary:

Anton Wagner buys a Russian revolver while fulfilling his clinical rotation on the Russian front. The soldier who sells it to him tells him it is plunder.

Fritz Hartnagel receives another distant letter from Sophie Scholl. She tells him little about her circumstances or how she’s doing, but does let him know she has started sketching again. He notes that her previous “soft lines” are now “lively and very strong strokes,” and does not know what to make of this in terms of change in Sophie’s personality.

Fritz believes ever more firmly that he must listen to internal orders, i.e., conscience, and steadfastly refuses to hand his men over to military courts for punishment. He advises his company that the only rule they must observe, no matter what: They may not desert their post when on guard duty. When two men do exactly that, he is grieved that he must hand them over to the proper authorities.

He describes for Sophie his inner turmoil over the need to maintain his “authority” and his sense that enforcing military laws can unnecessarily ruin lives. It’s a harsh dilemma.

Fritz’s Signal Corps unit is tasked with adjusting communications connections and reorganizing Signal Corps activity as German troops push ever closer to Stalingrad. They are, for the moment, west of Kalach in the great bend of the Don River.

He notes that Hans Scholl will see lots of wounded, that German casulaties are high.

Sophie’s wish that Fritz undertake a campaign to get better food for Dr. Muth sits wrong with Fritz. He begrudgingly says he will ask his mother if she can spare any rations, but points out that his mother does not know Dr. Muth at all. And he will NOT write a letter to Carl Muth to encourage him, because it would be presumptuous.

A routine task near the front lines could have easily resulted in Fritz’s death. He tells Sophie that their navigator had gotten confused and they had ended up on the other side of the front lines. They are not shot down only because Russians on the ground were surrendering to German troops. But the dangerous detour had caused them to spend the night in the desert, without weapons, blankets, or fire.

Fritz’s August 18, 1942 letter shows the depth of his inner turmoil, as he grapples with Germans shooting POWs, a clear violation of the Geneva Convention, and needlessly destroying Russian food sources like cattle and vegetable gardens. The German army is taking everything they can, leaving nothing for civilians, destroying what remains.

Fritz Hartnagel cannot bear the injustice he is forced to witness.

Why this matters:

This segment is public, so everyone who is interested may listen to Fritz’s strong words. His passion for justice is strong and defines who he was becoming. And his anger… it was so palpable in the letters from this period. It’s clear that what he witnesses has stirred up a righteous anger that burns inside him.

White Rose History, Volume II, pages 167-170.

Notes and references

From this time forward, Fritz Hartnagel’s inner rage at the injustice he is forced to bear witness to and participate in? Is unmistakable. His reports had to have fueled White Rose friends’ urgency regarding resistance.

I don’t take exception to Thomas Hartnagel’s orthography as Samiller, because there is indeed friendly dispute among genuine White Rose scholars regarding his name. Sometimes it’s written Samiller, other times, Samüller, and also Sammüller. Even with the Protokolle (Gestapo interrogation transcripts), the same Gestapo agents will write it differently. I went with Traute Lafrenz’s orthography of her friend’s name, Raimund Samüller.

No, my complaint is the “first name unknown” part, as if Raimund Samüller’s role in White Rose resistance wasn’t worthy of a tiny bit of extra digging.

* Hartnagel, Thomas (Ed.). Sophie Scholl, Fritz Hartnagel: “Damit wir uns nicht verlieren”: Briefwechsel 1937-1943. Frankfurt am Main: S. Fischer Verlag, 2005.

* Gestapo Interrogation Transcripts: Alexander Schmorell. RGWA I361K-I-8808. 3/11/1943 interrogation of Anton Wagner.

Errata to auto-generated transcript:

The daytime heat was so extreme, he told Sophie, that he had to bind his candle to a stick. If he did not, it would melt and “hold its head over the edge of the table, unable to bring itself to stand upright.” The day before, Fritz had to deal with something much worse than unbearable heat. — Italicized words omitted in transcript.

This young soldier told Fritz about Bishop Galen’s sermons and agreed to procure copies of them for Fritz to read. Fritz wrote, “I really was lucky when I chose him to be my driver and constant companion. Otherwise, I probably would not have noticed him among the crowd of 250 men.” — Italicized words omitted in transcript.

Podcast © 2024 Denise Elaine Heap. White Rose History, Volume II, Chapter 13, 2007 update, © 2007 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.

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August 14 - August 18, 1942.

Summary:

Hans Scholl forgets Josef Söhngen’s birthday. Söhngen is disappointed that he does not hear from Hans, since he has grown fond of him.

Magdalena Scholl writes Hans and asks him and Werner to submit a clemency petition from the front lines for their father. Hans’ instinctive reaction: He won’t do it.

His mother’s letter seems to send him into another downward spiral, as he pens another “psychedelic” diary entry. Hans Scholl alternates between manic highs and depressive lows, talking about suicide, spiritual abyss, destruction and deliverance, and above all, melancholy.

Willi Graf and Hans Scholl appear to have a love-hate relationship, and August 17-18, it seems as if their relationship is strained. Willi tells his diary that he feels abandoned, even though they are all together.

Hans wheedles himself back into Willi’s good graces, taking his side in a debate over tobacco products. Hans and Willi argue that cigars are better than cigarettes.

Hans Scholl heads to Gzhatsk to talk to Werner. He wants to discuss their mother’s request for a clemency petition for their father. Werner later says that Hans tells him, “Don’t take that too seriously. If it is serious, it will only last for a while. We owe it to our upbringing that we must bear this easier than others would.” Neither brother records their discussion of a clemency petition.

Like Willi Graf, Hans Scholl also is not sleeping well. He tells his diary about a nightmare he had, where he tried to cross a chasm on an iron bridge. The bridge falls vertically. He climbs down the bridge-as-ladder, descending into an abyss, where men are waiting to arrest him. He voluntarily surrenders.

Why this matters:

* Often people react to stressful situations with bravado. In the case of his father’s conviction and mother’s request for a clemency petition on Robert Scholl’s behalf, Hans Scholl initially says he will not do it. That fulfilling his mother’s request would be the equivalent of false pride. But we know from the non-Scholl record, that is, primary sources, that both Hans and Werner Scholl did in fact dutifully complete the paperwork for clemency petitions and filed it with the courts. When we are involved in a struggle for justice, we must be careful not to take bravado at face value. Sometimes a person will make strong statements, and then back down once challenged, leaving us - all riled up and inflamed - looking foolish. We must ensure that we KNOW the intent of our allies’ words.

* Similar to the above, yet slightly different: Accept primary sources over commentary. Always. Both Inge Scholl and her apologist Barbara Schüler made specious claims about Hans (and Sophie) Scholl’s religiosity and mentors. Those claims are almost always disproved by primary source materials. In this specific case, we know directly from Hans Scholl himself — as well as from Traute Lafrenz postwar — that Josef Furtmeier was far more important to Hans Scholl than White Rose “scholarship” lets on. Furtmeier was more important than Father Schwarz, Carl Muth, or Theodor Haecker. No matter what the topic, if there are contradictions between opinions-beliefs versus primary sources, go with the primary sources. Verify opinions against the public record.

Talk about it!

White Rose History, Volume II, pages 165-166.

Postscript for all readers: Be careful about reading too much into the dreams that Inge Scholl lets us read, whether from Hans Scholl or Sophie Scholl. The uncensored dreams are carefully curated to make it appear that her siblings were either prescient or prophetic.

If we were granted unfettered access to all documents in the Scholl Archives, not just the ones that Inge and her heirs deem acceptable for us to read, we could better judge the “quality” of these dreams.

This word of warning comes because the Scholl cult of personality tries to make a big deal of the “recorded” dreams of both Hans and Sophie. We are looking at these dreams in the context that Inge Scholl wants us to see them, not in the grand scheme of things.

Sincerely: Enjoy the dreams! They add to our understanding of these two young people. Just know that there is so much more documentation we have NOT been allowed to read. Our understanding of these dreams may change in the larger context.

Notes and references available only to paid subscribers.

August 14 - August 17, 1942.

Summary:

Sophie Scholl acts independently of Hans and Alex in their absence. She entrusts Hans Hirzel with 80 Marks ($640) of their money, requesting that he use it to buy a duplicating machine and produce leaflets. She tells him there’s more where that came from, that she will be traveling to Stuttgart and can put her hands on an additional 300-600 Marks ($2400-4800) if he needs it.

Eugen Grimminger is getting to know the Scholl family as he works with Robert Scholl for the temporary handover of his accounting practice. He is unimpressed by Inge Scholl, saying she “concerns herself with high philosophical questions or rather reads books like that.”

The telegram from Willi Graf’s family finally arrives, but it only says, “We are fine.” That disquiets Willi further, as he has no idea what that even means.

The soldier students are still bored, with very little to do. And now it has started raining, with autumn coming early — mid-August! — which means they cannot go for long walks as they like.

One evening, someone procures a bottle (or more) of schnapps and the five friends get totally inebriated. They sing, tell jokes, make speeches. While drunk, Hans Scholl records one of those speeches, thinking it especially insightful.

A senior medical officer holds a lecture on Pfaundler’s Formula for infant nutrition. They see not only the absurdity of such a lecture, only six miles from the front lines. The friends also laugh at the suck-up who politely questions the medical officer on the topic.

Hans Scholl writes a letter to Professor Dr. Kurt Huber, telling him about the month behind them: Warsaw, inactivity, the Russian offensive. He also relates to Huber how they spend time with Russian peasants, singing, drinking schnapps. Hans is trying to learn Russian. He thinks Huber will like this letter, since after all, Huber’s specialty is folk culture. All of the five friends except for Raimund Samüller sign off on the letter to Huber.

Instead of being pleased by the letter, Professor Huber is alarmed. He had believed Hans Scholl was an opponent of Bolshevism. Now he wonders if Hans Scholl has changed his mind.

Why this matters:

* Before making this statement, I want to double-underscore: The Scholls were NOT the “leaders” of the White Rose. As you will see in the chapters to come, Elisabeth Scholl’s statement that her siblings were equals among equals, that they were not the group’s “leaders,” makes perfect sense. This was not organized resistance. It was simply a group of friends that could not keep quiet about the atrocities they were aware of. That said, the role of Sophie Scholl in particular, and the women of the White Rose in general, has been overlooked far too long. Here in the summer of 1942, with Hans and Alex on the Russian front and Christoph Probst at home with his family, we see Sophie acting independently of the others, giving money to Hans Hirzel to buy a duplicating machine to print leaflets, talking to Eugen Grimminger about funding. We must stop minimizing the contribution of women to White Rose resistance, to German resistance, to political thought and deed. History has been skewed in favor of male leaders and thinkers, with the women who often were at the forefront ignored.

* The letter that Hans Scholl wrote to Professor Dr. Kurt Huber in August 1942 seemed innocuous enough. And indeed, Professor Huber suppressed his doubts and fears because he needed these students to get HIS message out. But when the arrests took place, Huber unburdened himself in his interrogations. Next to Gisela Schertling and Hans Hirzel, he bore the greatest responsibility for the conviction of many in the White Rose circle of friends. Know your allies! Doesn’t mean your allies have to agree with you 100% of the time. That is another fallacy. But KNOW YOUR ALLIES. Make sure that your disagreements aren’t going to destroy your work.

Have you ever experienced the concept of “no good deed goes unpunished”? Hans Scholl, Willi Graf, Hubert Furtwängler, and Alexander Schmorell would have thought their beloved professor would have appreciated the letter they wrote him. Instead, it became a weapon used against them after the arrests.

Do you know that feeling? And how do you take precautions to ensure that your coworkers in your battles for social justice are not going to betray you when the chips are down?

White Rose History, Volume II, pages 162-165.

Notes and references available only to paid subscribers.

August 12 - August 14, 1942.

Summary:

Willi Graf decides he will not sit and be miserable. Together with others from the HVP, they clear a place on the edge of the forest where they can read and write. The hard physical labor makes him feel better.

Hans Scholl pens a very strange diary entry that bounces from pathos and melancholy to phony euphoria. I asked whether Hans had a drug addiction and learned that he was addicted to a form of crystal meth called pervetin, alt. pervitin, a “go-drug” the Nazi military administered to soldiers on the front line. That explained a great deal about Hans’ diary entries and letters from their time on the Russian front, as well as his behavior.

Willi Graf mentions “informative” tests administered, presumably of a medical nature, but says they are ugly in type. He does not expound on what disturbs him.

Sophie Scholl is assigned to a munitions plant that manufactures screws, a plant close to the Hirzels’ home. Susanne Hirzel works at a factory near the Scholls’ home. Sophie takes her lunches with the Hirzels, but advises Susanne against visiting her family, because of Robert Scholl’s impending jail time.

Rev. Ernst Hirzel later identifies the time Sophie spent in their home that summer as his son Hans’ push to commit treason.

Hans Hirzel initiates a friend named Walter Hetzel into White Rose intrigue and tells Walter he must keep it a secret.

Sophie finds her work on the assembly line soulless, loveless. “A trained ape could do it just as well, if it were stupid enough to be bullied into it.”

But she enjoys the Russian woman at the station next to hers. She comments that the other German women in the factory help the Russian woman, surprised to find that “even Russians” are human beings.

Sophie badly misses Otl Aicher and her brother Werner. She hates being stuck at home with Inge.

Why this matters:

* When faced with horrendous conditions, we humans make choices as to how we will deal with the bad situations. Willi Graf chose to read, and when that failed, he volunteered for hard physical labor to take his mind off things. Hans Scholl, on the other hand, turned to drugs that made him feel invincible. Choices.

* Sophie’s observations about the interactions between German and Russian workers at the munitions plant show wisdom beyond her years. Indeed, the notion that war affects human beings on both sides of a conflict? That informs one of our projects that you’ll read more about in the months to come. Even when one “side” of a conflict is more just that the other — as clearly was the case from 1939-1945 — that does not lessen the pain and suffering of families and friends on the “wrong side.” At some point, unless we wish for mutual mass destruction, we must figure this thing out, how to resolve international disputes without war. That may be a long time coming. But we can start thinking about it now.

Talk about it! I’d wager you have strong opinions one way or the other.

White Rose History, Volume II, pages 160-163.

Notes and references available only to paid subscribers.

August 8 - August 12, 1942.

Summary:

Willi Graf hears about the “really bad” air raid in Saarbrücken. He cannot think of anything else. He has not received mail from his parents in a very long time.

The weather turns miserable, raining, leaving muck and mud. Nevertheless, Hans Scholl sets out on long walks, perhaps emboldened by his younger brother’s seeming fearlessness. He talks to other soldiers about the war in their sector. He hears rumors that partisans are the reason behind the heavy fighting, and Soviet victories.

Alexander Schmorell is simply happy to be “home” in Russia. He writes Lilo Berndl, telling her about his beautiful, glorious Russia. Even a lonely birch tree inspires him, reminding him of the Russian soul.

“Everything strong is weak, everything weak, strong.” That has long been Schurik’s mantra. On the great plains of Russia, it makes even more sense to him. He sees the suffering of the Russian people and knows it has not been for nothing.

Back in Ulm, Sophie rips a page out of her notebook, just because it is about Alex. She is immediately remorseful and puts it back. She prays that God will show her Alex’s place in her heart.

Sophie is now deeply enmeshed in apocalyptic theology. Someone has recently told her that things happening in their era are omens, portending the end of the world. They have also told her that it’s so bad, God is in danger of no longer existing.

Sophie chews on these ideas, thinking about death. She is convinced that if she were to die - whether due to apocalypse or man-made bomb - God will find her guilty. But she rejects the notion that God can be destroyed and decides that mankind is in danger of extinction due to the vile atrocities being committed.

She also records a “curious dream” in her diary. She is walking with Hans and Schurik, they lifting her up so she soars. Hans tells her that he knows how he can prove that God exists and is at work. He says that humans need a certain amount of air to breathe, and that when the air becomes too stale because of humans, God will periodically inject his breath and renew the air. Hans then exhales his breath into their murky world and the skies turn blue. Sophie writes, “It was beautiful.”

Willi and Hans walk over to Gzhatsk to visit Werner Scholl. They enjoy the evening stroll.

The next day, the fighting near Ržev (where Werner is stationed) becomes intense. Hubert and Willi note that they now have quite a lot of work.

Willi still finds time to read. But even a good book cannot distract him from thinking about his family in Saarbrücken. He does not know whether they are even alive. He sends them a telegram, asking how they are doing. A stranger from his hometown tells him that he has received mail and news. That only heightens Willi’s fears.

After two days with no reply, Willi decides it must be ghastly in Saarbrücken. He finds it torture to sit and wait for a response to his telegram, thinking about the reasons for the silence.

Why this matters:

* Please read and understand the part about Sophie ripping the Alex-page from her notebook as evidence that these were normal young people. I feel quite certain that every one of us over the age of sixteen has had a mad crush on someone, and it’s been unrequited love. It’s difficult for the person loving, it’s difficult for the person who’s loved. This very humanness should not be overlooked in this beautiful true story. They all could be petty, annoyed with one another, mixed up, confused, gullible to fearmongers, all those emotions we experience once hormones start raging. And we can still do noble, amazing, wonderful things.

* Alex’s mantra — “everything strong is weak, everything weak, strong” — resurfaces again and again over the next few months. Lilo said his firm belief in the strength found in weakness informed his resistance work, informed the people he associated with, informed his worldview. Keep this in mind. It’s another golden thread.

Talk about this! When have your feelings for someone helped or hindered your work on behalf of social justice? Did you address it point blank, or just hope it would go away?

What do you make of Alex’s mantra? Can you identify with it?

White Rose History, Volume II, pages 158-160.

Notes and references available only to paid subscribers.

August 1 - August 7, 1942.

Summary:

Fritz Hartnagel’s promotion to Captain comes through. Now that he has the rank he’s wanted for so long, he wishes he did not have it. He would rather turn his back on the entire system.

He throws the obligatory promotion party, buying lots of booze in the hopes that everyone will get drunk fast so he can leave early. Only he drinks too much as well, leaving him with a horrible hangover. The hangover makes him wish for things that are good and real.

Fritz debates men in his company about the difference between military orders and “internal orders,” the latter coming from one’s conscience. His men see that as weakness, lack of self-confidence, servile sycophancy. But Fritz considers internal orders the most important.

When he argues with his C.O. about the Nazi concept of population policy (lots and lots of children!), he realizes that it’s all about power and control, even though no one seems to know why they want power and control in the first place.

He acts on an “internal order” when a young man is convicted of petty theft. As Fritz reviews the case, he sees that an unjust punishment awaits the young man. He follows the internal order in defiance of the military order and refuses to submit the paperwork to hand the young soldier over for sentencing. He lectures him instead.

Russians bomb their position, and for the second time in the war, Fritz’s signal corps unit is forced to fire on the enemy.

Fritz tells Sophie that their eastward trek towards Stalingrad has come to a standstill due to Russian resistance. They are eating well, but there is a great deal of sickness. Fritz attributes the outbreak of dysentery to the weather - blazing hot during the day, miserably cold at night. In August!

He ventures use of the forbidden L-word (love) in a letter to Sophie.

Why this matters:

* After the war, Fritz Hartnagel became a judge. His legacy? Working on legislation and advocating on behalf of conscientious objector status for young men who were pacifists. He would even serve as defense counsel for the tougher cases. Until he made that his passion, there had never been conscientious objector status in Germany. The first time I read his letter where he describes “internal orders,” I understood that this had been brewing inside him for years. Even his remorse at having to shoot at Russian planes underscores how uncomfortable he felt in a military uniform - a sea change from the young man who had wholeheartedly embraced a military career. To me, Fritz Hartnagel’s change of heart, and his subsequent political activism for social justice - that is the real legacy of Sophie Scholl. Not the syrupy, sugary “woman of valor” portrayal in contemporary media. But the lasting effects of her debate regarding personal responsibility and the meaning of the word Fatherland.

* Fritz Hartnagel’s observation that his fellow officers did not care about the legitimacy of Nazi political concepts - in this case, population policy, i.e., women should have as many children as possible - and that all they were interested in was power and control, even though they didn’t know why they wanted power and control? This “why this matters” writes itself. We are seeing this play out in real time.

Have you ever acted on an “internal order” in contravention of a military order or other command? Talk about it here!

White Rose History, Volume II, pages 155-157.

Notes and references available only to paid subscribers.