Michael Kaufmann, the White Rose, and Munich
Bita Sheibani is a Disney alumna who worked as graphic designer and promotions expert for Walt Disney Imagineering, and had the supporting role of Leila in The Stoning of Soraya M. This is her story.
Bita is one of those delightful people who asks questions, more questions, and never stops asking questions. She contacted us in preparation for her trip to Munich, and we put her in touch with Michael Kaufmann, Director of Weisse-Rose-Institut e.V. When she returned, she was so excited about everything she’d learned, we asked her to put her thoughts to paper. - Denise Heap.
I discovered the White Rose by accident a few years ago when I came across the movie Sophie Scholl: The Final Days in the now defunct Blockbuster. Ever since then, I was obsessed with understanding what happened to the White Rose students, who they were, and what it was like to live in Munich during the dark days of the early 1940s.
When I arrived in Munich on July 22, 2013, I thought I could find guided information that would point out the sites of the Nazi monuments and the specific classrooms in the University of Munich where Professor Kurt Huber taught, the areas where the Scholls, Willi Graf, Christoph Probst, and Alexander Schmorell would have walked to get to their classes, and the area where Sophie Scholl dropped her leaflets. I was surprised to find that there were no signs or brochures that clearly explained where they were, and where the Nazi monuments were in the city, and what happened, and why people did what they did.
Thanks to an introduction by Denise Heap of the Center for White Rose Studies in Southern California [now Las Vegas], I was able to contact and meet with Michael Kaufmann, director of the Weisse-Rose-Institut in Munich. Unfortunately, I had only a few hours to spare and not a couple of days as he had suggested, since as he said there was a lot to see.
Michael has been active with the Institut for at least a decade. His passion for and dedication to the White Rose, and commitment to enlighten people about their cause was evident from the beginning as soon as I met him; he braved the 92° F heat to meet with me, leaving behind his busy schedule, parked wherever, including in non-parking zones, spent not just two hours as he had promised, but 3½ hours to explain what had happened on that fateful day on February 18, 1943. He drove me to many of the places where the Nazis had exerted their influence.
It felt not so much like a tour, but a journey where we (Michael, a German political scientist and historian and developer of social services programs in Munich, and myself, a college educated Iranian-American from Los Angeles) were both trying to understand what happened during 1942-1945, the darkest days of the Third Reich. We both pondered questions that did not have clear answers, such as “why didn’t Sophie Scholl run soon after custodian Jakob Schmid called her out,” and, “where was the location where Sophie dropped the leaflets,” and, “why weren’t there more German resistance groups,” and, “why do some people still doubt the heroic actions of the White Rose?”
Michael was puzzled, “She (Sophie) could have run out of the building (University of Munich), but she didn’t.” No one really knows whether any of the White Rose members were tortured and how those who were imprisoned for longer, lived out their days. The DenkStätte Weiße Rose in the room below the Lichthof (inner courtyard) of the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität of Munich contains great documentation and photographs of White Rose resistance, but the questions still remain unanswered.
I was surprised to find that people’s reactions were mixed about the White Rose. According to Michael, some people still think that many of the White Rose members were drug addicts and that therefore they were not to be taken seriously. However, given all the students daunting schedules, it was not unusual for many to occasionally take pills to help them stay awake. My very well-educated and well-connected German friend also dismissed the White Rose as insignificant players in the German resistance movement because they were only students. At the same time, there are others like myself who think that because they were students and had no political and economic backing, their actions were as heroic, if not more, than those who did.
When Michael took me to the original location of the Wittelsbacher Palais (completely destroyed in 1944 and now a Bayr. Landesbank), I had a hard time imagining what the area looked like, what the Palais looked like and where the driving entrance was. I would never have guessed that it was once the Gestapo Headquarters where the White Rose students were interrogated. Except for a plaque on the side of the building, which was not obvious to me, the only other indicator that the Palais even existed was a small model inside the corner entrance of the bank. I would not have known that had Michael not pointed it out.
The Jewish synagogue on St. Jakobs-Platz was built seven years ago to replace the old one, "Ohel Jakob," which was destroyed on Kristallnacht in 1938. An intricate steel and glass cube set on a solid stone base, it is a stark contrast to the beautiful old classical building that existed before its destruction. Curiously, it was not built in its original site as it could have been for economic reasons. Michael was perplexed, “It’s a shame! It should have been built in its original location.”
Another important building, Munich’s Documentation Center for the History of National Socialism (the former site of the Nazi party headquarters) is being built close to the Königsplatz square where the Nazis burned outlawed books in 1933. It will be completed by Spring 2014. Berlin, Cologne and Nuremberg have had similar documentation centers for years, but Munich has lagged behind. “Finally, it is being built,” exclaimed Michael. It is a sign that Munich is taking further steps to help Germans and the rest of the world understand better a part of its history as the one-time Capital of the Nazi Movement.
Yet, the journey is far from over. The more I spoke to Michael, the more it became apparent that there is still no major consensus among Germans regarding what was right and wrong, who was guilty and who was innocent, and who was a hero and who was a coward during the Nazi era.
As Michael concluded, so much more research has yet to be done to unearth and reveal both the many different aspects of Munich’s Nazi past, and those of the White Rose. There are no tours that focus on these aspects. The city’s leaders are still pondering which and whose stories to tell. “We need to learn about everything that really happened,” said Michael. “It’s our great chance to stop tyranny from happening again.”
- Bita Sheibani.
DEH note: Bita’s comments inspired us to revive our White Rose Travel Guide. Contact us to purchase, as it is not yet uploaded to the online store.