June 18 - June 21, 1942.
Summary:
Despite friction in their relationship, Hans Scholl wants Traute Lafrenz’s opinion of Leaflet I. She tells him, “This must have been written by a person of superior intelligence.”
Professor Huber does not share Traute’s opinion. He takes the leaflet to Dr. Karl Alexander von Müller, who is not interested in what the leaflet said. Rather he wants to know who produced it. They discuss possible groups in town, never suspecting it came from students, much less from Hans and Alex.
Willi is excited about a second meeting he is supposed to have with Hans Scholl. His anticipation makes him agitated, irritable, as he waits for Hans Scholl to show up at his room on Friday, June 19.
But Hans Scholl is a no-show. Upset, Willi visits an army buddy. It’s a pleasant enough evening, but he wants more.
Apparently Adalbert Grundel (Bertl) has recently arrived in Munich. One of Willi Graf’s closest friends, Bertl lends Willi a bicycle. While serving in the Black Forest as medics in 1940, Bertl had joined Willi Graf and Hubert Furtwängler’s circle. Bertl’s nickname among friends was “The Revolutionary,” as he was obsessed with the topic, Immunity Against the Nazis.
On Sunday, June 21, Willi bikes out to Pasing to visit his cousins Martin and Mathilde Luible. From this day forward, he relies more and more on these cousins for emotional support. Martin is also a doctor and had been editor of an academic journal banned by the Nazis. Willi finds real friendship with these cousins.
Willi bicycles back to his room around 10 pm that Sunday, feeling contented and optimistic.
Why This Matters:
We’ve missed out on so much by Inge’s excision of Traute Lafrenz from the inner circle of friends. It’s clear that although she did not type envelopes or turn the crank on the duplicating machine in June 1942, the four friends who did do so valued not only her input, but her. This will become clearer as the story progresses. For the next five months until she becomes actively involved in late November 1942, Traute plays the same role with the friends as Thaddeus Stevens did for Abraham Lincoln. She holds their feet to the fire. - This is critical for us today. We should not be satisfied with superficial news reporting. Expand the frame, move the microphones. Who else should be in the picture?
It may be a small thing, but Hans Scholl’s unreliability denied the group of four friends the opportunity to have Willi Graf in a role similar to Traute’s. Had Hans showed up for that appointment on June 19…
Have you worked on a project - political or otherwise - that has been positively affected by a silent, unseen member of the group? Or that has been negatively impacted by a person in leadership who does not follow through? Talk about it in the comments!
White Rose History, Volume II, pages 69-71.
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