July 26 - July 29, 1942.
Summary:
Alexander Schmorell, Hans Scholl, Willi Graf, Hubert Furtwängler, and Raimund Samüller spend a little time in Warsaw. They cannot see the deportations that started on the day they left Munich, because an 11.5’ brick wall obstructs the view of the Warsaw Ghetto.
Note: In each segment where I mention the five student soldiers traveling together, I will name them. This is to keep front and center who was traveling together, since Wittenstein’s account is false, and pervasive. Raimund Samüller was the fifth person in the compartment, not Jürgen Wittenstein.
Nevertheless, the misery - the “wretchedness” - overwhelms them. Their initial reaction is to cocoon, to avoid taking in the gruesome sights.
While they try to sleep, Traute Lafrenz’s family in Hamburg endures the first major bombing of that city. The losses are huge. It' is clear that the Allies are aiming for the civilian population in an attempt to get the “man on the street” to rise up against Hitler’s regime. Among other statistics: 14,000 are left homeless, with 337 dead and 1,027 injured from the bombing raid July 26 into the early morning hours of July 27, 1942.
On July 27, the five soldier students who are traveling together decide to go into Warsaw proper. What they see sickens them. Hans Scholl writes his family that an “American palace” towers over the ruins. The city is a contrast between extreme poverty and starvation on the one hand, and provocative jazz and unbridled revelry on the other. This description is remarkable, since the friends could not see into the Ghetto, as Willi Graf had been able to do in June 1941. Hans Scholl’s description applies solely to Warsaw itself.
They stroll through Warsaw, shopping and eating/drinking. The friends find a restaurant-bar called “The Blue Duck,” where they drink vodka in tiny sips. Willi Graf buys a Russian edition of Dostoevsky’s Raskolnikov [Guilt and Atonement]. They spend all their money.
The 1 a.m. train to Vyaz’ma that they are supposed to take is full, so they sleep in the hall in front of the General’s door.
They finally depart for the front lines, but the train backtracks westward before turning north, and finally east to Lithuania.
Hamburg endures a second night of bombing. Fewer casualties and deaths, but enough to shake up the population.
Why this matters:
The targeting of civilian populations is once again a matter of significance. Reason for so doing has not changed in eighty years.
Regarding Warsaw Ghetto: Because of what was happening in that city at the same time the five soldier students were there, a cottage industry has grown up perpetuating a false legend about what our White Rose students saw and experienced while there. That cottage industry ignores both their own words and the 11.5’ brick wall that obscured the Ghetto from view.
We must take great care - whether writing about historical topics, or about current events - not to conflate or extrapolate actions based on our “omniscient” viewpoint.
I almost hate asking this question, but ignoring it would be the easy way out: What do you think about targeting civilian populations? Americans and Brits justified and rationalized it in the 1940s. Instead of speaking in terms of current events, let’s focus on the 1940s.
Do you agree? If so, why is it right to kill people who are not in the military when fighting a war?
Do you disagree? If so, would you still disagree if not targeting civilians would have meant that the Nazi regime would have ultimately won the war?
White Rose History, Volume II, pages 141-143.
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