Chapter 8, part 4: Battle Cry

“Do not forget even the little scoundrels of this regime.” — NSDAP official propaganda poster, 1939. Image is public domain.

July 10 - July 12, 1942.

Summary:

After the Haecker reading on July 10, 1942, Willi Graf sits for a “long time” with Hans Scholl and Alexander Schmorell. He does not say what they discussed, only that it makes an impression on him.

Hans Hirzel is still determined to know for certain who is behind the White Rose leaflets he has received. Since Inge Scholl was no help, he asks their father Robert Scholl. Robert Scholl does not even know about the leaflets, much less who wrote them.

Hans Scholl alone writes Leaflet IV. Haecker’s “good versus evil” polemic bleeds through. He uses a Novalis quote that implies he wishes Christianity to become the new world order. Hans Scholl also inserted the verse from Ecclesiastes that Traute Lafrenz had handed him a few days prior, although he incorrectly identifies it as “Proverbs.”

The fourth leaflet muddies the water, especially regarding target audience for the “White Rose” message. People who adhere to Romans 13’s insistence on obeying the government would be put off by Alex’s call to overthrow the government. People who want political action to right wrongs would shy away from Hans Scholl’s religious texts.

[In 1983, Hermann Krings observed that Hans Scholl’s call to withstand evil made it difficult to perceive the White Rose as a political entity. Krings wrote, “Revolt against evil is actually not a political phenomenon – in contrast to revolt against injustice, which is wholly a political category and the root of many revolutions. Against injustice, there are political strategies. Against evil, there are none.”]

Traute Lafrenz reads this fourth leaflet and immediately knows that Hans Scholl wrote it. When she sees Käthe, she cannot contain the news.

Why This Matters:

• If we wish to effect change - whether our cause is homelessness, immigration, climate change, racism, or education - we must know our target audience. A mixed message will be ineffective.

• Hermann Krings’ 1983 comment should be plastered on the walls of every organization or group or media hub that wants to repair the world, that hopes to make this a better place for our grandchildren. “Revolt against evil is actually not a political phenomenon – in contrast to revolt against injustice, which is wholly a political category and the root of many revolutions. Against injustice, there are political strategies. Against evil, there are none.”

Is there a cause you believe strongly in, where you’d like to join a specific organization to bring about lasting change, but where the mixed message sent out by the primary group gives you pause? I will start: For me, the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation is an entity whose cancer research I would like to support. But the organization’s litigious nature, going against small, equally-effective charities that use “for the cure” in their marketing campaigns; Komen’s reversal of support for stem cell research and Planned Parenthood, not based on science, but politics; and its extraordinarily high pay for its C-Suite — all of that has turned me off.

I see their legal team, for-profit behavior, and politics-over-science as roadblocks I cannot get past.

What has been your experience as you navigate the path of justice in your life?

White Rose History, Volume II, pages 102-105.

Notes and references available only to paid subscribers.