Chapter 1, part 2: The Journey Begins

White Rose Histories

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Chapter 1, part 2: The Journey Begins

If Willi Graf had to be lonely, it was certainly better to be alone. He did not wish to yield one whit of the liberty he had craved all those months in Russia.

Denise Elaine Heap

Jun 07, 2024

Transcript

Beginning of spring in Germany. Photo © 2024 Denise Elaine Heap.

May 4 - May 8, 1942.

Sophie Scholl’s choice of majors (Philosophy and Natural Sciences), with a look at the Natural Sciences department in Munich at that time. It was known for its tolerance if not encouragement of anti-Nazi thought.

Susanne Hirzel and her brother Hans Hirzel. Family life, with parents always fighting. Susanne’s recognition for her musical abilities. Hans Hirzel moving away from hands-on science to theoretical, abstract ideas.

Peter Hirzel on the Russian front.

Gisela Schertling studying in Freiburg.

Hans Scholl: Birthday greetings to his mother and discussion of “poverty” and meaning of life. Renewed friendship with Xaver Kuhn.

Willi Graf reconnecting with Hubert Furtwängler, joining Bach Chorale, Hans Carossa reading.

Second Student Company confined to barracks.

White Rose History, Volume II, pages 6-10.

Notes and references for Natural Sciences account, and Sophie’s major:

Freddy Litten, “Die Carathéodory-Nachfolge in München 1938-1944,” in Centaurus: International Magazine of the History of Mathematics, Science, and Technology, Vol. 37, Issue 2, 1994.
ZC13267, Volume 3. 2/18/43 interrogation of Sophie Scholl.
ZC13267, Volume 1. 2/21/43 indictment of Hans and Sophie Scholl, and Christoph Probst.

Notes and references for Susanne and Hans Hirzel:

ZC14116 Volume 2. 3/1/43 interrogation of Susanne Hirzel; 3/10/43 interrogation of Susanne Hirzel; March 1943 report about Susanne Hirzel, written by her mother Margarete Hirzel nee Gradmann; 3/8/43 C.V. of Susanne Hirzel. (Publication in 2024/25.)
ZC14116 Volume 1. 3/11-3/12/43 report written by Ernst Hirzel on behalf of Hans and Susanne Hirzel; 3/2/43 letter from Margarete Hirzel regarding her son Hans Hirzel; 3/8/43 report filed by Emilie Glöckler about her son Kurt, and her subsequent interrogation. (Publication in 2024/25.)

Notes and references for Peter Hirzel:

Susanne Hirzel, Vom Ja Zum Nein: Eine schwäbische Jugend 1933-1945 (Tübingen: Klöpfer, Meyer & Co. Verlagsgesellschaft mbH, 1998).

Notes and references for Gisela Schertling:

ZC13267, Volume 15. Gisela Schertling’s autobiography written for the Gestapo, March 1943; 2/18/43 interrogation of Gisela Schertling.

Notes and references for Hans Scholl:

Inge Jens, ed., At the Heart of the White Rose: Letters and Diaries of Hans and Sophie Scholl, translated by J. Maxwell Brownjohn (New York: Harper & Row Publishers, Inc., 1987).
March 2, 1973 letter from Xaver Kuhn to Inge Scholl. Unpublished.

Notes and references for Willi Graf:

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).

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

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.