September 1 - September 4, 1942.
Summary:
On September 1, 1942, the soldier students learn they are being split up. Hubert Furtwängler and Willi Graf are transferred to the 461st Infantry Regiment, while Hans Scholl and Alexander Schmorell stay at HVP Plankenhorn.
Their exit is postponed by a day, so Willi, Hans, and Hubert meet one more time with “the Russians,” while Schurik begs off because he isn’t feeling good. Plenty of schnapps bridges the language gap, and the soldier students sing and dance with Russian peasants.
That night, the RAF bombs Saarbrücken again, but with miserable results. Not one bomb falls on Saarbrücken. Fifty-two civilians in Saarlouis, about thirteen miles northwest of the city, are killed.
The friends learn that Alex has diphtheria. Hans Scholl writes that he got it “overnight.” This points to the poor medical training available in Germany due to the war, as the country is cut off from medical advances. By 1942, the UK and US had developed vaccines that had all but eradicated diphtheria, vaccines that Germany did not have. Without antibiotics to treat it (Germany was years away from getting penicillin), diphtheria was often fatal.
Willi and Hubert’s departure is delayed one more day, so they piddle around, worried about Alex. The friends write letters home, with Hans Scholl’s letter to his family taking credit for the many good things that Schurik had done on their behalf. It was he, Hans, who had formed a “choir” and met the fisherman. He falsely claims that his friends like him because he is so down to earth.
Finally on Thursday, September 3, Willi and Hubert leave in a horse-drawn ambulance for the front lines. They are disappointed to learn that they too will be split up, with Willi assigned to the First Battalion and Hubert to the Third. Willi travels by railroad handcar to his post, amazed that bystanders are so nice and friendly.
But Russian troops ensure his welcome is complete, with “considerable shooting in the area.” The shooting continues the next morning, damaging the compound where Willi is stationed, and wounding the Company Commander in Hubert’s battalion. Willi is sent to the Third Battalion to assist.
Despite the pressing workload, they find time to drink schnapps amid the din of war.
Why this matters:
War impacts a society in more ways than the “simple” death and destruction usually associated with bombs and cannons. German medicine was set back decades, because its doctors were isolated from the progress achieved by the global medical community.
Not only was Hans Scholl incapable of understanding transmission of the disease (not his fault - fault of medical training in Germany), he and the doctors had no way to treat it, other than to hope that Alex would somehow survive. Nor did he or the doctors at their HVP understand how terribly contagious diphtheria is. Nor did they have access to the vaccines that prevent it in the first place.
When anyone praises war as solution, remember the simple case of Alexander Schmorell and diphtheria.In addition to gaps in level of medicine, it’s incomprehensible that in 1942, horses and goats were used to “power” ambulances in the German military.
And yet, it should not be surprising. Dictators and authoritarians have no problem spending large sums of money on their personal needs, and on military hardware such as high-tech bombers and long-range missiles. They have a harder time justifying budgets for technology that will benefit foot soldiers and the citizenry.
True then, true now.
White Rose History, Volume II, pages 183-185.
Notes and references available only to paid subscribers.
Title of chapter 15 is from Neil Diamond’s song, September Morn. Although it is a love song, some of its lyrics have deep meaning when understood in the context of time served by these soldier students on the Russian front. They were forever changed. Complete lyrics here.
Stay with me a while
I only wanna talk to you
We've traveled halfway 'round the world
To find ourselves again…
And look how far we've come
So far from where we used to be
But not so far that we've forgotten
How it was before…
September morn
We danced until the night
Became a brand new day
Two lovers playing scenes
From some romantic play
September morning
Still can make me feel that way.
Songwriters: Gilbert Francois Leopold Becaud / Neil Diamond
September Morn lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group
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