October 7 - October 9, 1942.
Storybook:
Weather in Sosnovka turns stormy, fickle, drawing Willi Graf outdoors. Clouds, sunshine, windstorm, all make Willi wish he could strike out on a long, unconstrained walk.
Hubert, Alex, and Willi enjoy their time in Sosnovka together. In addition to the serious dialog that binds them close, they are also infected with “skat fever,” playing cards until late in the night.
Even later the same night, they attend a dance party at Sina’s home. Sina is a Russian girl who can speak a little German. The soldier students witness a dance-off between two girls. It is a night to remember! Neither the soldier students nor the townspeople consider the consequences of socializing with the “enemy.”
In Saarbrücken, a single British Mosquito takes out a Mannesmann pipe factory. This air raid is not designed to terrorize the populace. It’s a strategic military strike.
Evenings in Sosnovka continue with skat games, dancing at Sina’s, and serious conversation. Willi Graf especially is reveling in the camaraderie and friendship he is experiencing.
In contrast, Hans Scholl is alone, isolated. He writes Otl about his new self-awareness, once again missing the mark as he tells his younger friend about his inner feelings. However, Hans Scholl correctly understands that he is not the same person he was in July, that Russia has changed him.
Hans tells Otl he wishes he could strike out across Russia into China, alone and with nothing. But he is too much of a European. He says that “he and the West should not lose touch.”
Sophie writes Otl the same day. She is working through Theodor Haecker’s Schöpfer und Schöpfung [Creator and Creation], bothered by Haecker’s theodicy. Haecker writes, “A theodicy which fails to perceive that all tragedy is resolved not only in heaven and eternal salvation, but in hell and eternal damnation, has justified nothingness, not God.”
She thinks that sounds nice, but she cannot agree with it. Haecker’s statement reminds Sophie of a sentence from George Bernanos’ Diary of a Country Priest, a sentence that had likewise seemed off target. “Eternal damnation is the inability to love any more.”
Sophie muses to Otl that she thinks eternal damnation may actually be the inability to be loved. This crisis follows Sophie to her death.
She breaks down her arguments against both Haecker and Bernanos’ statements for Otl, focusing especially on the image of Lazarus forbidding a drop of water to the rich man in hell. Couldn’t Lazarus hear the rich man? Who would deny a drop of water to another? Sophie Scholl cannot accept this.
Sophie concludes her letter with a question for Otl, knowing that he will not ridicule her or respond with condescension. “Why should I doubt a truth simply because it is hidden from me?”
Why this matters:
This is the Sophie Scholl that is obscured by senseless hero worship. Where Hans Scholl will agree with whomever he’s talking to, and Inge will equivocate to retain position, and Dr. Muth will pontificate, answering questions like Sophie’s with oppressive sermons, Sophie thinks through pious statements like Haecker’s. She cuts to the chase, so to speak.
You will see this again in December 1942, when she’s thinking through Leibniz’s theodicy. While Hans wants to make it make sense, she recognizes that if A is true and B is true and C is true, you don’t have to find a way to make A = B = C. Those truths can exist independently of one another.
I love and respect this Sophie Scholl, the real person. Even more than I hate the caricature that she has become through films and sycophantic books.
This Sophie Scholl matters.In many ways, White Rose resistance strengthened and found its resolve right there in Sosnovka. When Willi, Hubert, and Alex spent evenings with Russian civilians, they could have been court-martialed and executed for doing so.
Their ambivalence to consequences of disregarding Nazi prejudice and hate-filled thought? One of the most beautiful threads in White Rose history.
We often look for the BIG POWERFUL AMAZING things as evidence of tikkun olam, of repairing the world. When sometimes the best tikkun olam comes from dancing with civilians.
White Rose History, Volume II, pages 212-214.
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