Women of the White Rose: Traute Lafrenz (part 2B - 8/1/1942-2/17/1943)
Despite Hans Scholl's brutal emotional abuse, Traute Lafrenz persevered. She threw herself into the work and never abandoned her friends.
In the early morning hours of July 26, 1942, 403 bombers were dispatched to attack Hamburg’s docks and industrial areas. While the RAF insisted their targets had been military, their “poor aim” caused bombs to land on residential and “semi-commercial” districts, leaving 14,000 people homeless, 337 dead, and 1,027 injured.
This was likely the reason that Traute Lafrenz’s parents sought refuge in the Swabian Alb. Inge Scholl helped arrange their vacation. Karl Lafrenz and wife stopped in to visit with the Scholl family on the way.
This had to have been a bit uncomfortable for Hans and Sophie’s father and eldest sister, Robert and Inge Scholl, who still counted top-ranking Nazis in Ulm as their best-paying clients. The Lafrenz parents firmly remained in the NSDAP camp and likely assumed the Scholls did as well. Robert and Inge let them keep thinking that, not divulging that Robert Scholl had just been convicted of making sarcastic statements about the Führer. He was getting ready to start a four-month prison sentence for that offense.
While the student soldiers were heading for field hospitals on the Russian front, Traute Lafrenz was serving a similar term at a military hospital not far from Ulm. Medical students were expected to give back to the Reich. Although Traute was only a short distance from Ulm and from her parents’ vacation lodgings in the Alb, it appears that Karl and his wife did not visit her.
Sophie seems to have fed off Hans’ moods towards Traute. Almost as soon as she arrived in Ulm at the end of July, she wrote Gisela Schertling – whom she had met during her Reich Labor Service, and whom she also knew to be a hardcore Nazi – and asked her to transfer to Munich in November. She told Gisela that there were no women for her to be friends with (Traute? Käthe?).
And yet. When it became clear that Robert Scholl’s jail time would not be commuted, Sophie headed for Munich and asked Traute to join her. Sophie needed Traute’s help. She had to rid Hans’ rooms of leaflets and anything else that could be incriminating. The two women destroyed all copies of White Rose leaflets they could find.
Traute was happy for one unexpected delight during that “cleaning” operation. Christoph Probst was in town! Traute and Sophie paid him a visit. He had an enviable collection of record albums. The three friends caught up over excellent music.
Early October 1942, Traute’s clinical rotation near Ulm ended. She returned to Hamburg for the second half of her assignment, working at Finkenau Women’s Clinic. Traute never recorded her impressions of the devastation caused by bombings in her hometown. The July 26 air raid had been one of many.
On November 9, Traute lived through her first air raid. Luckily for the citizens of Hamburg, unluckily for the RAF, cloud cover prevented too much damage. Many bombs fell in open country. That same night, however, the RAF dropped leaflets on the French countryside, targeting German soldiers. That air raid was more successful.
By November 27, the friends had made their way back to Munich. The soldier students had returned. Sophie Scholl showed up with an advent wreath for the apartment she would share with Hans. Traute was there too, but with a new attitude (she hoped).
Over the almost four months the soldier students had been in Russia, Traute had continued writing letters to Hans Scholl, with minimal response. Despite not responding, Hans kept her letters, probably enjoying the funny inside jokes she related. But with no letters from him, Traute decided she would be as indifferent to him as possible. She knew she still felt an inner bond to Hans, but she also recognized how destructive their relationship was to her well-being.
Easier said than done. Once the student soldiers returned to Munich, it was clear they were intent on expanding the circle beyond Hans, Alex, Christl, and Sophie. The evening of November 29, before Hans and Alex traveled to Chemnitz to meet Lilo Ramdohr’s friend Falk Harnack, a somewhat larger circle gathered to discuss what they should do. It was almost as if the friends left that night with assignments, You do this, you that.
Traute’s assignment: Go to Hamburg and test the water with friends whom she believed to be trustworthy. And take a leaflet.
Unaware that Lilo had copies of leaflets in her broom closet, and fully aware that she and Sophie had discarded all the leaflets they could find, Traute asked Käthe if she had kept any of the leaflets. Käthe dug through her textbooks and found a copy of the third leaflet. Traute was pleased, knowing that particular leaflet would resonate with her friends who had been talking about active resistance – blowing up railroad bridges! – for years.
These two close friends talked about Traute’s assignment, and what the group wished to accomplish. Although Käthe agreed with Traute’s politics, she was alarmed by the stridency of her words. Traute plainly stated that she held National Socialism responsible for the “lost war.” She wanted democracy to replace the NSDAP. Käthe worried about her friend.
Willi Graf’s sister Anneliese also noticed the same change in her brother. She felt he had adopted a “warrior-like mindset” in his determination to fight the National Socialist regime.
As Traute prepared to leave for Hamburg, Hans added a request to her to-do list. Could she source another duplicating machine? She matter-of-factly agreed.
In Hamburg, Traute focused on two friends she believed to be rock solid: Heinz Kucharski and Margarete Rothe. These two had been in her corner since she was a teenager. They’d worked side by side on multiple anti-Nazi measures. They did not disappoint her now.
Both Heinz and Margarete liked the leaflet. They expressed considerable interest in joining with the students in Munich to form a united front. Heinz asked Traute to mail him copies of the leaflets they planned to write and distribute after Christmas, leaflets that were to be stronger, shorter, better-written. Traute agreed, hesitating only because she knew they were not planning to mail leaflets from Munich, rather from other cities to make the circle appear larger. Despite her hesitation, she told them she would.
Back in Munich, on December 2 Traute and Käthe enjoyed a pleasant lunch. On the way to the restaurant, they stopped by Hermann Tröltsch’s apartment. Traute introduced her friend to the blind artist. Nice day, despite the snow and rain.
Before Christmas break, the larger circle of friends gathered one more time to review assignments over the holidays. Hans and Alex told them about the positive reception they’d had from Falk Harnack. Buoyed by the sense that this “united front” was taking shape, they gladly accepted their tasks. Sophie, Traute, and Willi would recruit new members in not-Munich, important for the goals they were setting. Hans and Alex would serve as fundraisers. Traute and Willi would search for additional duplicating machines (and typewriters). Everyone knew that sourcing paper, envelopes, and stamps was critical. And Alex had to learn how to make a template, so they could paint graffiti when they returned.
Traute forewent Christmas in Hamburg, visiting family in Vienna instead. One Viennese uncle owned a large typewriter business. She appealed to him for a duplicating machine, and he turned her down.
Not one to give up easily, she met with her Aunt Mimi Liebscher, widow of a professor at the university in Vienna. Aunt Mimi threw a small party with trusted friends. During that party, Traute asked her aunt if she knew anyone who could be interested in joining the resistance work she was involved with in Munich. Aunt Mimi would inquire.
Traute noticed that the more she threw herself into the nuts and bolts of resistance work, the less she thought about Hans Scholl. Relief! This meant long-needed emotional distance.
And yet. Once everyone was back in Munich, Traute joined the party at Eickemeyer’s studio on January 6. New faces were sprinkled through the crowd. Wilhelm Geyer – banned artist and Sophie’s mentor – had been the group’s best evangelist. People traveled from Ulm for this party, at Geyer’s invitation.
This larger group spoke openly of resistance, of work that needed to be done. To be sure, Christl’s father-in-law Harald Dohrn mentioned the pope every chance he got, which upset fellow Catholic Wilhelm Geyer. This work that needed to be done was not religious. The churches were part of the problem. Geyer spoke firmly with Hans Scholl about this topic.
In general though, this was the sort of evening that fed their souls, that fed Traute’s soul. Yes, she needed emotional distance from Hans. But oh! How she needed nights like that.
One week later, January 13, Prof. Huber joined Hans, Alex, and Willi Graf in Hans’ room. Huber reviewed Hans’ draft of a fifth leaflet, simultaneously dismissing Alex’s leaflet draft out of hand, just because Alex had written it (Huber deemed Alex Russian, ergo Communist, ergo persona non grata). Hans and Alex appreciated Huber’s edit, but Alex wasn’t happy about Huber’s personal slight. Worse yet, Hans joined Huber’s attacks on Alex without defending his friend.
It was therefore pleasant for the student soldiers to discover Sophie, Traute, and Gisela waiting for them in the next room, tea made, nice conversation at the ready. Traute was stuck babysitting Gisela. Although Hans had invited Gisela to the meeting at the studio a week earlier, at that point he was careful enough not to let her see them working on leaflets.
The Gauleiter in Munich had called a mandatory assembly for all students that January 13. The White Rose friends understood that they could be expelled from their studies if they did not attend, but they were willing to take that risk. Now Gisela… Traute accompanied Sophie’s friend to the assembly, granting the others the freedom to work in peace.
The amazing, wonderful, unbelievable fallout from that assembly (covered in detail in White Rose History Volume II) made the conspirators think the time was right for their message. Even as she avoided Hans Scholl, Traute threw herself into The Work. She and Sophie often went on paper runs, buying small batches of paper and envelopes as they could.
Traute increasingly sought refuge with friends who understood her predicament. Her “fragile friend” Käthe became her source of strength. Josef Furtmeier was her mainstay, especially since he seemed to distrust Hans even more than she did. And Willi Graf! That quiet young man had joined Alex as someone Traute could talk to, could trust, who liked her for who she was.
January 16, three days after the assembly, Traute looked up Willi in his room. Unbeknownst to Traute, Willi was fresh off an aggravating event the military had ordered, likely as show of force against the students who had revolted on the 13th. He was upset. Until Traute showed up. Their friendship deepened that night, Willi confiding in his diary that they had talked about the things “that are so confused all around us, so that we cannot see the way.”
Traute also stopped by the Scholls’ apartment a bit later. She and Hans spoke briefly. Traute was allowed inside Hans’ room for their conversation, while this time Sophie was stuck babysitting Gisela. A few days earlier, Käthe had talked to Hans in his room, and Gisela (who by now considered herself Hans’ girlfriend) was jealous of Käthe. But Traute? No jealousy there. Gisela saw how Hans treated Traute.
Afterwards, Traute began to sense that Hans was not only trying to sever her ties to himself and Sophie, but that he was now trying to exclude her from the larger group of friends. The hurt was real. She had been trying to stay away, had been trying to simply fulfill her assigned tasks. She did not want to lose her friends over Hans.
She confided her grief to Käthe, who was already aware of Hans’ behavior. Now Käthe was mad! Käthe resolved to set Hans straight and call him out on his mistreatment of her friend.
And yet. When Elisabeth Scholl came to Munich at the beginning of February, Hans and Sophie pretended that all was well with Traute. Liesel and Traute were friends who cared for one another. Both women also shared respect for Werner Scholl and Fritz Hartnagel. After the three Scholl siblings had a nice dinner on February 3, Liesel and Sophie joined Traute for a concert.
Hans had intended to use their presence at the concert to shield himself from suspicion, as he, Alex, and Willi painted graffiti that night throughout Munich. Except the concert was cancelled on account of Stalingrad.
The next morning as the three Scholl siblings plus Wilhelm Geyer headed for Huber’s lecture at the university, they saw the handiwork from the previous night. Everywhere, man high, FREEDOM. Down with Hitler. Hitler, the mass murderer. Black tar-based paint. Hans told his sisters to keep walking, not to draw attention to themselves. Sophie whispered to Liesel, as they observed women trying to scrub paint off the walls, “They can scrub as long as they want, but that is tar-based paint.”
Despite Hans’ insistence that his sisters keep moving, it was a different story when they encountered Gisela. She walked right past the graffiti without saying a word. Hans pointed out the three-foot-high letters to Gisela, commenting favorably on their advent.
Traute was heading for the same Huber lecture and spied Hans and his entourage striding towards her. She later recalled how concerned she was by his cockiness, his “excess” as he viewed his work and responded to fellow students’ comments. Fourteen days later, she would remember what she had seen that day.
That afternoon, Traute was among those gathered for what would be Theodor Haecker’s final reading. This was the largest crowd yet. Proof that their work was being effective? Traute and Käthe, however, were incensed that Heinrich Ellermann was present. They had spoken with Hans about Ellermann’s Nazi sympathies and feared him. Even the Nazi Gisela would later say that Ellermann was “politically fickle, taking the side that is best for his business.” Hans had promised never to invite him to another reading, and here he was.
While Haecker read aloud from his work on theodicy – defense of God in the face of evil, the same topic Huber had covered in that morning’s lecture – the people assembled reacted differently. By now, personal conflicts seemed to be overshadowing ideological common ground.
The following week, Traute was not included in the explosion that was the discussion between Hans, Alex, Willi, Prof. Huber, and Falk Harnack. From February 9-12, the cracks in the friendship were on full display. Huber and Harnack fought openly about the politics of National Socialism and Communism-Socialism-Marx-Lenin. The two, possibly three, discussions held in Hans Scholl’s room were volatile. The only thing that four of the five men could agree upon? That Gisela Schertling had no business being there as they talked (Sophie was in Ulm, so no babysitter). Hans alone could not see the danger she posed to their work. If they had known that on the evening of February 12, Hans divulged every detail of their operation to Gisela, they would have walked away immediately.
Apparently unaware of the impending dissolution of the group of friends we call White Rose, Traute continued to fulfill her assigned tasks. On February 16, with Sophie back in town, Traute told Sophie that Schreibmeier Stationery had received a new shipment of stationery that could be useful for mailers – yellow letter cards, self-mailers. Sophie thought that could be a good tool and gave her money to buy ten or so.
That same evening, Hans and Sophie Scholl joined Wilhelm Geyer for dinner at the Bodega. Geyer would later say he grew worried about the siblings after that day. Something was off.
Sophie mentioned that the Prague Quartet was playing that night and that she would like to go. She had no money, she said. Geyer lent her the funds for a ticket.
While Hans stayed behind to talk to Geyer, Sophie met up with Traute at the concert hall. Still unaware of the Scholls’ plans for the 18th, Traute thought nothing of it when Sophie told her that she and Hans would be going to Ulm to visit their family on Saturday (the 20th).
Traute could not know that this would be her last conversation with Sophie Scholl.
Next post: Traute Lafrenz, part 2C — February 18, 1943 through February 25, 1943.
If you are curious about supporting documents for any of these Substack posts, check out our White Rose Histories (Volume I, 1/1933-4/30/1942, and Volume 2, 5/1/1942-10/12/1943, along with primary source materials.