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.
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