June 30 - July 10, 1942.
Summary:
Fritz Hartnagel tries to tell Sophie how much he loves her, without telling her that he loves her. His insecurities shine through clearly as he tempers his declarations with the reality that she can never love him back.
He receives a second letter from Sophie, describing her “misery” and sorrows. Fritz offers her his support and comfort.
Fritz talks to a local farmer, who tells him that he lost two sons to famine about ten years earlier. Fritz describes for Sophie what we now call the Ukrainian Holodomor and the hatred that Ukrainians have for Russians. He seems oblivious to the German contribution to the current starvation of Ukrainians around him.
When the farmer tells Fritz that Russians send Lutherans to Siberia, Fritz concludes that the evil they know [in Germany] is less than the evil inflicted by Bolshevists. He forgets his anger of a few days prior when he learned about the extermination of all Jews in occupied territories.
Fritz’s unit is being deployed several hundred kilometers north from their previous location in southern Ukraine. He experiences the inefficiency of the German war machine. Twelve of seventy-three automobiles assigned to his company break down within two days of their advance. The army has given them no spare parts. Their advance pauses while he sends men back 300 miles to pick up items needed to repair the cars.
He uses the down time to go flying, marveling at sunflower fields juxtaposed against dark blue skies.
They would be moving on the next day.
Why This Matters:
In 2002 as I was writing this book, we were almost exactly halfway between Ukraine’s declaration of independence from the old Soviet Union, and Russia’s invasion of Crimea in 2014. Ukraine itself was in economic freefall at the turn of the 21st century, with hyperinflation driving its failing economy. I doubt that many people would have predicted in 2002 that Ukraine would right its economic ship and that Russia would invade. But here we are. And the same issues Fritz described in 1942 have bubbled up to the surface yet again.
Fritz Hartnagel’s more intelligent, yet still blind, patriotism as he wrote Sophie Scholl in July 1942 demonstrates that too often, despite taking all the proper precautions, we fall for propaganda. Fritz’s conclusion that Germans had the lesser of two evils, by implication that Hitler was less bad than Stalin, despite knowing of the war crimes being committed in the name of the German people? It’s easy to censure him as we sit here in 2024. But I wonder how often we do the same thing.
This section is hitting too close to home right now. I want your comments, how it’s hitting you. No partisan politics, please. Keep this focused on issues, not politicians or party.
White Rose History, Volume II, pages 107-109.
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