June 27 - June 29, 1942.
Summary:
The four friends continue to work out of Alex’s third-floor room in his parents’ home. Since his parents already disapprove of Alex’s life choices, he ensures that no one in the house can observe anything they are doing.
They mail Leaflet II to persons they believe support their cause, and they try to remember from one leaflet to the next whom they deem “sympathetic.” They want the same people to receive all leaflets.
Alex bids his neighbor Karl Pötzl farewell, telling him that he will soon be transferred to the Russian front. He never sees Karl again.
Fritz Hartnagel’s certainty about not judging people harshly comes in for a rude awakening when half his company fails to fall in for morning calisthenics. He begrudgingly metes out disciplinary action. When one soldier does not report for guard duty, he must hand him over to military authorities. This decision pains him, but he wonders if some people only respond to force. Fritz bemoans feeling like a policeman.
As much as he hates insubordination, Fritz hates flattery even more. He tells Sophie how fake his two lieutenants are. One a braggart, and the other a milquetoast.
But since his world does not touch Sophie, he says it is as if it does not affect him at all.
Note to transcription: Substack auto-generated transcription skipped two sentences completely, and there is no way to correct whole sentences.
Fritz wrote Sophie, “It always depresses me when I must step in with such severity. But, I must also admit it is impossible to reason with most of the men. They will only conform to the given necessities when they sense force behind them. And in so doing, I am unfortunately put into a position similar to that of a policeman who can only reprove and threaten.” Transcript omits the italicized portion.
Also in the Fritz and Sophie section, “He reflected on the fact that nothing in his world touched her. ‘I can therefore look back on all of this as if it did not affect me at all.’” Again, italicized portion was omitted from auto-generated transcript.
Why This Matters:
The bulk of White Rose narratives have the students working in the studio from the beginning. No! For the first four leaflets, Alex’s rooms served as headquarters. For the last two, Hans and Sophie’s rooms did so. Eickemeyer’s art studio was not used to print leaflets and address envelopes. - This revisionism obscures the very real risks these students took upon themselves. It matters! Doing what’s right always comes with risk.
For well over twenty years, I have puzzled over their decision to mail leaflets only to people who agreed with them. This would change with the last two, where they case a wider net. But for the first four, with around 100 copies per leaflet, target group was primarily like-minded individuals. I don’t have answers here. It simply strikes me as relevant to 2024: When we wish to effect change, whom do we target?
Have you been involved in discussions regarding target groups for political protests? If so, how did you and your coworkers decide on the people who should hear your message? Did you go after people who agreed with you, or seek to change hearts and minds?
Either way, please explain your thought processes in the comments section below. Thanks!
White Rose History, Volume II, pages 90-91.
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Notes and references
Hartnagel, Thomas (Ed.). Sophie Scholl, Fritz Hartnagel: “Damit wir uns nicht verlieren”: Briefwechsel 1937-1943. Frankfurt am Main: S. Fischer Verlag, 2005.
RGWA I361K-1-8808. Alexander Schmorell: Gestapo Interrogation Transcripts. 2/25/1943 interrogation of Alexander Schmorell; 3/10/1943 interrogation of Karl Pötzl.
Podcast © 2024 Denise Elaine Heap. White Rose History, Volume II, Chapter 07 (2007 update), © 2007 Denise Elaine Heap and Exclamation! Publishers. 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.
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Chapter 7, part 4: Secret Mail (2007 update)