Chapter 17, part 1: Vast Skies and Song

Photo by Marek Studzinski on Unsplash

October 1, 1942.

Storybook:

Hans Scholl’s birthday present arrives over a week late. Since he is leaving for the front lines, he shares the box of candy with his bunker-mates.

Hans leaves for the front lines without saying goodbye to many people. He does manage to meet up with Werner, likely a terse conversation, since Werner had submitted a clemency petition on behalf of Robert Scholl on September 24. Before he leaves, Hans likewise mails his clemency petition.

Then he heads for the front, first in an automobile. When Hans learns he is expected to walk the rest of the way, he hitchhikes - first with a cyclist, then with a rider who has a spare horse. He barely notes the burning village he passes.

In contrast, Willi Graf takes his time taking his leave from both bunker-mates and the wounded. He cuts an afternoon walk short so he can check in on his patients. “They call us back,” he tells his diary. Even drinking in the officers’ tent that evening does not upset him, although he recognizes they are talking nonsense.

Traute Lafrenz’s clinical rotation near Ulm comes to an end. She returns home to Hamburg for the second part of the rotation at a women’s clinic near Hamburg. She also continues writing Hans Scholl while he is on the front lines.

Christoph Probst also corresponds with Hans Scholl. He tells Hans he’s usually either in Lermoos with his wife and children, or in Innsbruck with the Luftwaffe.

With both Hans Scholl and Jürgen Wittenstein away, Josef Söhngen looks for a new “companion.” He pursues Fritz Seidel, a medical student in the Air Force. Söhngen invites Fritz Seidel to dinner and theater, as well as a jaunt to Starnberg, paying the student’s way. Like Wittenstein, Seidel is a member of the Nazi Party, but Söhngen does not talk politics with him. Seidel is aware that the older man is very religious, as he attends church every day. Like Hans and Jürgen, Fritz Seidel too has a §175 file, although as victim-witness, not a perpetrator.

The Scholls take in a woman named Ruth Düsenberg from Hamburg as a favor the Albert Kley. Ruth is eight months pregnant, an unwed mother.

Eugen Grimminger continues to assist the Scholls, including managing Robert Scholl’s accounting practice. He notes that the mood in their home is very sad.

Hans Hirzel walks down Adolf-Hitler-Ring with his good friend Max Gutbrod. They see a man in shabby clothing on the other side of the street, clearly scared. As they get closer, they see the yellow Star of David pinned to his clothes. Max becomes angry.

““Look at that. That’s what they are doing to people,” Hans recalls Max as saying. “Don’t be deceived. If they win the war, they will sew an ‘I’ on us, ‘Intellectual.’ They and we, that’s not a good match. We think. They can’t stand that.”

In Chemnitz, Falk Harnack’s health is finally improving. He had not told Lilo about his illness, because he did not want her to fret. But he was reassigned to Chemnitz because of jaundice, dysentery, and a “nervous breakdown,” likely PTSD. Although he knows it is dangerous to be categorized as “unnecessary,” at least the sick leave gives him time to visit his brother Arvid in Berlin.

Why this matters:

• If Willi Graf had lived, he would have been an excellent doctor. Yet again, we see how deeply he cared for those under his care. And despite his deep-seated antagonism to National Socialism and its crimes against humanity, he was able to separate his hatred of NSDAP politics from people around him.
  He, Traute, Christoph, Alex, and Hubert provide us with stellar examples of people who rejected National Socialist politics, without rejecting people they loved. Unlike Hans and Sophie Scholl, and Kurt Huber, they did not associate with Nazis and endanger their work.
  But they understood how to compartmentalize genuine love from “work” - protecting what they were doing and not jeopardizing their resistance efforts, while demonstrating heartfelt love for family who remained in the Nazi fold.
  How we need this today!

• Max Gutbrod’s influence in Hans Hirzel’s life should not be overlooked. Although Max never dealt with White Rose resistance, his persistence in steering Hans Hirzel to look at Nazi crimes from a healthy point of view influenced that weak and unstable young man.
  In many ways, it would have been better for White Rose if Max Gutbrod had been their partner in Ulm, instead of Hans Hirzel.
  When engaged in informed dissent and battles for social justice, we should choose our partners carefully. Hans Hirzel turned out to be a destructive partner, betraying his friends in Munich.

White Rose History, Volume II, pages 206-208.

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