Friendships matter
Wrapping up digital version of White Rose History, Volume I. Reminder that White Rose resistance was based on deep and true friendships. Justice mattered. People mattered. Humankindness mattered.
Alexander Schmorell remained one of Hans Scholl’s closest friends, though he knew Hans’ faults better than anyone except for Otl and Sophie. Yet even Alex increasingly escaped his connection to Hans by spending more time with Lilo.
One fine evening shortly before the spring semester started, Alex invited Lilo to dine at the Osteria instead of the usual Bodega. The Osteria – called the Osteria Bavaria in those days – had a touch of class. They did not order anything fancy, just wine and bread.
The atmosphere suited Alex. It was an extraordinary place to people-watch. They furtively tried to guess who among the diners they would deem friend or foe if they knew the truth about their character. “Everyone is a serf. Isn’t it awful to have to assume that every individual is your enemy?”
As if on cue, the heavy green curtain inside the door to the street snapped open to reveal Adolf Hitler, Führer, Chancellor, and Commander-In-Chief of the German armed forces. He made his way to his usual table, surrounded by the minions who waited on his beck and call. Lilo recalls that the restaurant grew so quiet, you could hear a pin drop.
During that profound silence, Alex leaned across the table. In a stage whisper, he said, “Suddenly I don’t feel so good. You can smell the sulphur in here.”
Restaurant patrons seated nearby vainly tried to hide their amusement at his hellacious joke. But Lilo was not amused. She knew they could be denounced and the ramifications would be tremendous. She persuaded Alex to leave before anyone passed word to Hitler’s people about the flippant remark.
As usual, Alex accompanied Lilo home. They peddled towards Nymphenburg, glad to be out of the Osteria in one piece. It was a nice night to be out, to be alive. In her memoirs, Lilo records their dialog.
“What did you think of him?” Alex asked Lilo.
Still peddling homeward, Lilo responded, “Completely unpretentious, and yet he can do with us as he pleases. The only thing that’s missing is having to wear a number on a chain around our necks. We are nothing more than manpower in his eyes, tools, marionettes.”
“Yes,” Alex said, “and the work we are creating is called murder. Without me – poor Germany, poor Russia.”
Their leisurely pace was interrupted by air raid sirens. Alex wondered if Allied pilots knew that Hitler was seated in the Osteria. “Consider the possibilities!” While Alex considered the possibilities of Hitler buried in the rubble of an Italian restaurant, Lilo considered that they were trying to outrace airplanes. So far, they had refused to dismount and seek refuge in an air raid shelter.
As klieg lights reflected bright flashes off bombers’ wings, Lilo’s fear was etched on her face. Alex relented and they ran into the nearest shelter.
When the all clear signaled an end to temporary hades, the shaken friends wended their way to Lilo’s apartment. She put a Bach record on the gramophone, stuffing rags in the speakers to muffle the noise (neighbors). Alex made tea, and the two friends talked late into the night. First about Hitler, who had been close enough and far too close. Recently, Lilo explains that Hitler liked that restaurant because a waitress there had supplied him with food in the earliest days of the Nazi Party. The man who would murder those closest to him for suspected treachery had this strange immutable loyalty to the “little” people who had helped him when he was helpless. Completely unpretentious, and yet they all were serfs.
“I value true friendship far above muddle-headed love,” Alex confessed that night. She knew what he meant, and why, and how. They vowed always to be friends, always to be true and honest with one another. “How lucky I am to be alive!” he exclaimed.
Statements like these must be shouted for the world to hear, Lilo resolved. Doubters must know the treasure they hold in their hands, they should take heed that life itself is grace. It is a horror for a single man to presume to murder millions, because creation itself is infinity and she herself was a new creation of that infinity.
She and Alex were indeed the luckiest of those friends and students who would soon become the White Rose. Together with Christl and Herta Probst, they enjoyed the strongest bond, a bond based on mutual admiration and respect, a bond tested by adversity. They knew each other’s shortcomings and embraced the person whole.
Willi Graf yearned for that kind of companionship. He had known it once and seen it ripped away by war. As April drew to a close, he doubted he would ever find it again. And Sophie – she placed her faith in her brother Hans, convinced that her love for him would be enough to see her through long days of study at the university. Otl remained secure in his friendships, but like Willi the year before, his trek to Russia snatched the priceless possession from his grasp.
Traute, Heinz, Sophie, Raimund, Ulla, Hans, Susanne, and all the rest – as young people who had chosen to do what was right and to stand alone, they became increasingly alienated from the world around them. They looked for flesh and blood to affirm their values. They sought firm footing in an era where nothing could be trusted to be real. They needed love in a time when words were manufactured to sell war as if it were a product, when lies paraded across headlines garbed as truth.
Not one of them could have seen what was coming. Not one of them could have known just how great an adventure lay ahead.
Excerpt from White Rose History, Volume I, Chapter 30: Consider the Possibilities!
© 2002 Denise Heap. Please contact us for permission to quote or with questions.
By the time you read this, White Rose History: Volume I - Coming Together. January 1, 1933 - April 30, 1942 (digital version) should be live. Until September 25, 2023, the price is $30. After that date, price will increase to $36.
Just a little comment to tell you how excited I am about the release of the digital version. I've been waiting for this for a long time! Thank you Madam Heap!