Today, we see the students as they finally, but finally, all come together in Munich.
Willi Graf’s expectations are high. He believes his old “Gray Order” friends will hear his testimony about the war crimes their fellow German soldiers were committing and would join him to DO SOMETHING about it. His disappointment is palpable.
Sophie Scholl also arrived in Munich, joining her brother and his friends. She is staying with Dr. Carl Muth.
As Fritz Hartnagel heads to the Russian front, Sophie asks him to submit a military requisition for a duplicating machine they can use to print leaflets. Fritz declines.
White Rose History, Volume II, pages 3-5.
Notes and references for Willi Graf account:
Marita Herfeldt proved an exception to the rule. Where other friends did not wish to hear about the atrocities Willi Graf had witnessed, Marita listened and tried to help. She was interested in Russian literature and art.
Anneliese Knoop-Graf and Inge Jens (Eds.), Willi Graf: Briefe und Aufzeichnungen (Frankfurt am Main: Fischer Taschenbuchverlag GmbH, 1994).
Klaus Vielhaber, ed. Gewalt und Gewissen: Willi Graf und die “Weisse Rose”(Würzburg, Germany: Echter-Verlag, 1963).
Notes and references for Sophie Scholl account:
Fritz and Elisabeth Hartnagel were insistent about the narrative regarding Sophie’s arrival in Munich. They stated they had tried to persuade Inge to change her story, since she was not there. She refused. My interview was the first time they forcefully contradicated Elisabeth’s sister, but it would not be the last. See especially Wiegrefe. They had even given her concrete evidence to support Fritz’s assertion.
In the 2007 update for this chapter (subsequent podcast), there is a minor correction to Fritz Hartnagel’s version of events. But minor. Substance stands.
Michael Verhoeven’s movie did a great deal to cement the Inge Scholl legend regarding Sophie’s arrival in Munich.
Inge Aicher-Scholl, Verbindung zu Theodor Haecker (unpublished, no date).
Fritz and Elisabeth Hartnagel, 4/30/95 interview at their residence.
Rudi Kübler, “Zeitgeschichte: Vor 60 Jahren wurden Hans und Sophie Scholl von den Nazis hingerichtet,” in Südwestpresse, February 21, 2003.
Traute Lafrenz, Bericht. Letter to Inge Scholl, dated February 21, 1946.
Christiane Moll, “Acts of Resistance: The White Rose in the Light of New Archival Evidence,” translation by Betsy Mayer and Michael Geyer, in Resistance Against the Third Reich: 1933-1945, ed. Michael Geyer and John Boyer (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1992).
Inge Scholl, Students Against Tyranny: The Resistance of the White Rose, Munich, 1942-43, translated by Arthur R. Schultz (Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press, 1970).
Klaus Wiegrefe, “Zeitgeschichte: ‘Immer einen Schritt weiter’,” in Spiegel, 07/2003.
ZC13267, Volume 2. 2/20/1943 interrogation of Hans Scholl.
ZC13267, Volume 3. 2/20/43 interrogation of Sophie Scholl.
ZC13267 Vol. 4. 2/20/43 interrogation of Christoph Probst. (Publication coming 2024.)
ZC13267 Vol. 6. 2/26/43 interrogation of Traute Lafrenz; 4/1/43 interrogation of Carl Lafrenz. (Publication coming 2024.)
Podcast © 2024 Denise Elaine Heap. White Rose History, Volume II, Chapter 01 © 2002 Denise Elaine Heap and Exclamation! Publishers. Please contact us for permission to quote.
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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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