Mid-September 1942.
Storybook:
Since Munich is boring with Alexander Schmorell, Lilo Berndl heads to Chemnitz on a whim to visit Falk Harnack. When she sees him, she immediately knows something is wrong. Falk tells her about the arrests of Mildred and Arvid Harnack.
Lilo worries about Muhmi, mother of Falk and Arvid. How will she hold up? Lilo also recalls her farewell as Alex left for the Russian front. He had told her, “Oh, that tiny fear,” as she expressed pessimism about their tour of duty. And now she understands the danger he faces, not just in Russia, but because of his “work.” After all, Arvid and Mildred had also believed they were doing the right thing, and look what it got them!
She tells Falk about White Rose resistance efforts, but he refuses to believe her. Lilo is miffed by his condescension.
But when he hands her a small box and tells her not to lose it… Falk had told Arvid that he and Lilo were to be married. Arvid therefore gave Falk his signet ring and told Falk to give his (Falk’s) to Lilo as engagement ring. Lilo does not intend to marry Falk, but she recognizes that this is not the best time to tell him that.
This meeting with Falk shakes Lilo’s faith. She has always believed that if a person “was on God’s side,” everything had to be all right. Good versus evil, God versus Satan, life versus death. Now she has serious doubts.
Otl Aicher’s unit has left the Caucasus Mountains, headed east to Mozdok and the oilfields and refineries in that region. British Mosquitoes attack as soon as they set up shop.
They realize they will be wintering in Mozdok, as Hitler is laying claim to those Soviet oilfields. Otl begins to formulate a plan to desert.
All these years later, Mozdok is still a contested location. Because of oil.
Why this matters:
It is quite easy to believe that everything is for the best, that “Romans 8:28” is fact, that good people always win because they are doing what is right.
Lilo had to face the hard truth that that is not always the case. Sometimes the bad guys win. Unlike Kurt Huber and the Scholl siblings, she did not couch her contemplations in terms of a theodicy, ‘how God can allow bad things to happen to good people.’ But she understood it with her entire Being.
Sometimes the most horrible injustices happen to the very best of people, to people who work hardest on behalf of “liberty and justice for all.”
Lilo (and Falk) learned this lesson before the rest of the White Rose friends would do so. It is painful, grasping this truth and letting go of the belief that if you just do what’s right, everything will go well.Oil. For well over a century, it’s always been about oil (and natural gas). We may say we fight for x, y, or z, but if you dig deeper, it has almost always been about oil.
Even the current war in Ukraine, if people were honest, is about Russian oil transported to Europe through a Ukrainian pipeline. And the Crimea? Oil transport ships need a port.
If a war is not about religion, check where oil and natural gas reserves are located. That will likely answer most questions.
White Rose History, Volume II, pages 194-196.
I am making this post - along with audio and comments - completely public, because the topic is incredibly relevant.
The name of this chapter comes from another evergreen song, “Try to Remember,” from The Fantasticks, sung by the inimitable Ed Ames.
Try to remember the kind of September
When life was slow and oh, so mellow.
Try to remember the kind of September
When grass was green and grain was yellow. …Try to remember when life was so tender
That love was an ember about to billow.
Try to remember, and if you remember,
Then follow. …Deep in December, it's nice to remember,
Although you know the snow will follow.
Deep in December, it's nice to remember,
Without a hurt the heart is hollow.
Deep in December, it's nice to remember,
The fire of September that made us mellow.
Deep in December, our hearts should remember
And follow.© 1960 Tom Jones. Music by Harvey Schmidt.
Notes and references
Lilo and Falk:
Fürst-Ramdohr, Lilo. Freundschaften in der Weiβen Rose. Munich: Verlag Geschichtswerkstatt Neuhausen, 1995.
Otl Aicher:
Felgenhauer’s article cited below highlights the strategic importance of Mozdok for both Russian and Chechen fights, and brings into focus why the area would have been equally critical in 1942.
From Ility Engineering’s Weekly Incident Summary cited below, “December 8, 2004: Makhachkala, Dagestan. Kaspygazprom. The Mozdok-Kazimagomed natural gas pipeline just outside the southern Russian city of Makhachkala exploded, causing a major fire.”
The online maps from University of Texas allowed me to follow Otl Aicher’s movements.
Aicher, Otl. innenseiten des kriegs. Frankfurt am Main: Fischer Verlag GmbH, 1985.
Felgenhauer, Pavel. “Combatants or Criminals?” in Moscow Times, August 7, 2003, Retrieved from www.cdi.org/russia/268-9.cfm. CDI is the Center for Defense Information based in Washington, DC.
Ility Engineering’s Weekly Incident Summary (Tampere, Finland, 2004), retrieved from www.saunalahti.fi/ility/PI0450.htm.
Radio Free Europe. Russia: Three Suspects Detained Over Mozdok Suicide Bomb Attack. Washington, DC: 2003. Retrieved from www.globalsecurity.org/military/ library/news/2003/08/mil-030806-rferl-073146.htm.
Sibneft Oil Company. History of Oil in Russia. Moscow: 2003. Retrieved from www.sibneft.com/pages. Jsp?lang=1&page=2.
The University of Texas Library. Maps of the CIS. Retrieved from www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/commonwealth.
Podcast © 2024 Denise Elaine Heap. White Rose History, Volume II, Chapter 16, © 2002 Denise Elaine Heap and Exclamation! Publishers. Footnotes about the Russian-Chechen war © 2004. Please contact us for permission to quote.
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.
To order digital version of White Rose History, Volume II, click here. Digital version of White Rose History, Volume I is available here.
Share this post