October 15 - October 17, 1942.
Storybook:
Sophie Scholl and Otl Aicher seem to operate on the same frequency. Their letters in mid-October 1942 independently express similar thoughts and desires. Sophie writes Fritz that he will surely breathe easier when everything is behind him.
Hans Hirzel contacts Sophie once she is back in Ulm, asking about planned resistance activities. She tells him that a new leaflet will be drafted once ‘the boys’ are home. Hans Hirzel commits his support to their cause, but asks for two code phrases that can be transmitted by letter or phone should a dangerous situation arise. Sophie and Hans Hirzel settle on “Hans has a sore throat” as the first, and a reference to Gerhard Ritter’s Machtstaat und Utopie [Dictatorship and Utopia] as the second.
Manfred Eickemeyer returns to Munich to check up on his studio. Everything is in order, just as he left it in July. He again leaves the second set of keys with Mr. Mayer, his super, and returns to Cracow.
The brilliance of autumn enchant the soldier students. Willi Graf notes an optical illusion - the sun makes it appear that the villages and churches have moved closer together.
Days in Sosnovka settle in to a comfortable routine of medical rounds, chores in the homes they are billeted on, and skat. When rain keeps them indoors, they drink coffee, play skat, and talk big. News that the start of the winter semester has been moved back, permitting them a real vacation once they are home, makes them all quite happy.
Hans Scholl - still away from his friends on the front lines - writes a “sympathy” letter to his sister Inge. He does not mention Ernst Reden by name, but he tells Inge he’s there for her. His letter likely does not comfort Inge, since Hans dwells on a bizarrely negative view of autumn to ‘make her feel better.’ Inge is a terribly fearful person who is afraid of everything (according to Otl). Hans’ depressing words would not assuage her grief, but rather intensify it.
According to a Page of Testimony in Yad Vashem’s registry, a Jewish man named Berul Fridyland died in mid-October in Sosnovka. His presence in the town, as well as his death, remain a White Rose mystery. Was he the silver-haired man with the carcinona? So much remains unknown…
Hubert Furtwängler takes to his bed, ill. Nightly skat games continue without him. Willi Graf still loses.
No reading or serious conversations. Skat rules!
Why this matters:
Focusing on a single topic here: Berul Fridyland and Sosnovka.
Without Russian and military history scholars, it will be difficult to get a full picture of what “our” White Rose soldier students witnessed on the Russian front. Especially Willi Graf’s extended service in 1941 through April 1942, and Fritz Hartnagel’s deployment near Stalingrad, and Otl Aicher’s service in the Caucasus and near Baku.
What did these young men see and experience? What of their correspondence and conversations are we missing? At this point, I would be happy if someone would locate the complete military records of Hans Scholl, Alexander Schmorell, Willi Graf, Otl Aicher, Fritz Hartnagel, Hubert Furtwängler, Raimund Samüller, Franz Josef Müller, Heinrich Brenner, Rudi Alt, Adalbert Grundel, Wilhelm Geyer, Manfred Eickemeyer (Generalgouvernement), and Jürgen Wittenstein. The few pages we have from Willi Graf’s files are eye-opening. And it’s only three or four pages from how many dozen or hundred?
Emphasizing this to say: It is almost silly to keep writing about White Rose topics unless and until archives are open.
If you want to help us force some of these blocked or “missing” archives open, please contact me. The more of us working for the full story, on behalf of historical accuracy, the more effective we will be. We need grant writers, translators, project managers. And that’s just for starters.
In the meantime, all we can do is speculate (which is hardly the optimal solution). In this case: Were our White Rose soldier students in the same Sosnovka where Rode Fridyland nee Epshtein sat shiva for her husband Berul?
White Rose History, Volume II, pages 221-224.
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