Chapter 9, part 4: A Village Destroyed by Gunfire

White Rose Histories

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Chapter 9, part 4: A Village Destroyed by Gunfire

For Christoph Probst, it was like salvation, deliverance, when he came home to Ruhpolding.

Denise Elaine Heap

Jul 16, 2024

Transcript

a little boy standing in a field of strawberries — Photo by Samantha Fortney on Unsplash

July 15 - July 18, 1942.

I am making this a free podcast-post, so you can get to know Otl Aicher, Christoph Probst, and Alexander Schmorell a bit better. You will understand why I admire the courage and strength of these three young men so much.

Summary:

A Russian mamuschka befriends Otl Aicher, giving him five cooked red beets, letting him know she had witnessed his humiliation. When he returns to his quarters, he finds a German soldier raping a Russian woman. He is livid. He knows that rape is not unusual during wartime, but he despises the manner in which Germans consider Russians to be brutes and themselves in the right. We are burning down their villages and cities, and they are the wild brutes?

Lilo recalls that Christoph Probst had told Alexander Schmorell that he did not like Leaflet IV. He thinks it’s too emotional. He tells Alex that they need to reach the man on the street.

Erich Schmorell insists that Christoph Probst must be restored to his rightful place in White Rose history, not relegated to the background as is usually the case. He notes that any time Christl was in Munich, he spent it with Alex (and Hans), staying informed and part of the work.

Herta Probst says that when Christl would come home after a week in Munich, his face reflects his distress. But the stress disappears when he goes for a walk with her and the children.

Christl writes his younger half-brother Dieter Sasse about a long bicycle ride he and Hans Scholl enjoyed the previous week. But he writes most lovingly about a berry-picking trip with his two boys, precocious Mischa the center of the universe (rightfully!), Vincent growing into a merry, sunny child. He tells Dieter that Herta “takes a lot of joy in her little rascals.”

The friends in Munich try to plan a final weekend in Zell with the Probst family, before the soldier students are shipped off to the Russian front. Christl is not going with them.

Why this matters:

The story of little Mischa Probst picking raspberries is one of my favorite in all of White Rose literature. As you will see in a later chapter, Christoph Probst undertakes White Rose work, knowing its extreme risks, because he does not want his children to be ashamed of him for having done nothing.
Lilo told us once that she most admired Christoph Probst, Wilhelm Geyer, Kurt Huber, because they risked not only their own lives, but the well-being of their families, of their children. She said she didn’t know if she would have been capable of doing the same.
We overlook that element of “nobility” when we talk about resistance, protest, and the like. It’s “easier” for students to protest, because there’s so little to lose. Add spouse, children, job, home, established community, and the stakes are much higher.
I also like the story of little Mischa picking berries, because it shows Christoph Probst in all his humanity. Just as the story of Alex and Limburger cheese makes Schurik more relatable, so too when we see Christl as father to two darling toddlers, we get a sense of the man.
He’s no longer just the serious fellow in the photo with Hans and Sophie Scholl. Or the author of the seventh, unpublished leaflet. Or the exhausted young man trying to hold everything together.
Christoph Probst is also Daddy, Vati, protective husband, funny, loving.
We need to let our heroes be humans - whether they lived and worked in 1942/43, or if they are at the forefront of the fight for justice in 2024. Stop expecting perfection. Let them be moms and dads with kids who want to go berry picking.

Have you ever met a real-life hero or heroine up close and personal, seen them in daily life? What surprised you about them? Good, bad, and in-between.

Did it affect your belief in the cause they represent? If so, how?

Has your commitment to the fight for social justice, for tikkun olam, for repairing the world, changed as you’ve gotten older? More or less committed?

Talk about it here!