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 This is just one of the five essays that I have to finish tonight and on top of that I have two tests tomorrow
The White Rose
Jonathan J. Arroyo
His 274
Sharon Parker
T/TH 5:30-6:45
In this paper I will be writing about the leaders of the White Rose. Their actions that set such a big example of bravery and compassion for us. We may never understand or come close to such great things that these young college students did and experienced through a fight for freedom. So that if they could not experience it maybe their children and others could have freedom.
Jürgen Wittenstein was a young medical student and soldier who had a very instrumental role in the White Rose movement: he introduced Hans Scholl and Alexander Schmorell. He is also the photographer who took the most famous pictures of the White Rose members, including the "famous" and often-used photo of Hans, Sophie and Christoph (including the one on the main page of this site). Dr. Wittenstein edited the 3rd and 4th leaflets, which were written by Hans and Alex. He also carried leaflets to Berlin to Hellmut Hartert, a close friend of Hans Scholl, to start a resistance group there. It was Dr. Wittenstein who met the Scholl parents at the train station after the arrest of Hans and Sophie and escorted them to the court. After the death sentence of Professor Huber was carried out, Jürgen Wittenstein collected money for Huber's pennyless widow and children. Wittenstein fell under suspicion himself, but escaped to the front lines of the war where he was injured, but survived. After the war, Dr. Wittenstein relocated to the United States where he practiced medicine in California. He is now retired and continues to speak about his friends
Hans Scholl was born on September 22, 1918, when his father had his first position as mayor of Ingersheim near Crailsheim. The community honored Hans' arrival with a twelve-gun salute. In 1919, the family moved to Forchtenberg. In 1925, Hans entered elementary school and in 1929 the secondary school of Kunzelsau. The Scholls moved to Ludwigsburg in 1930, and in 1932 to Ulm, where their father opened his own company, a consulting office for business and taxation. Hans enrolled in a secondary school. In late 1933, Hans joined the Hitler Youth. He was attracted by their apparently high ideals. However, disappointed by the reality of National Socialism, he sought contact with the 'Jugendbewegung' (Youth Movement). Unlike its parent organization with its tendency to romanticize nature, the Jugendbewegung had specific cultural and socio-critical ambitions. Their interest was focused particularly on those books Goebbels had ordered to be burned.
In 1937, Hans Scholl and some of his friends were briefly jailed for their continued 'Bundische Tatigkeit' (subversive activities of the Youth Movement). Memberships in organized groups were now replaced by friendships. These friendships stemmed from a growing resistance against the increasingly obvious dictatorship. In March of that year, Hans Scholl graduated from secondary school and was drafted by the Labor Service. A two-year military service with a cavalry unit in Bad Cannstatt followed. As a member of the 'Wehrmacht' (the German armed forces), he started studying medicine in Munich in the spring of 1939. He was billeted in the army barracks and was continuously on call with a students' company. There he found several like-minded friends who shared his concern about the collapse of a German culture and who wanted to find new spiritual horizons. Hans discovered an amazingly lively Christian faith, primarily in the works of modern French poets, philosophers and theologians.
In the summer of 1940, he participated in the French campaign as a corporal in the medical corps. He experienced the war on the side of those who were suffering. In the fall of 1940, Hans Scholl returned to Munich and continued his medical studies. He considered the possibility of studying history and political science at a later date. He established contacts with silenced intellectuals, scientists, philosophers, and artists. From the end of July to October 1942, he served as a medic at the Eastern front with his friends Alexander Schmorell, Willi Graf and Jurgen Wittenstein. Before, in June and July, Hans Scholl and Alexander Schmorell had already produced and distributed four leaflets of the White Rose.
On February 18, 1943, Hans Scholl and his sister Sophie were arrested by the Gestapo, as they distributed leaflets at the University of Munich. Together with Sophie and their friend Christoph Probst, Hans Scholl was condemned to death by the People's Court on February 22, 1943, and executed the same day by the guillotine. A note was found on his desk: "Cross, for a long time you will remain the light of this earth. Hellas, eternally our love," (Stefan George). His last words shouted from the guillotine: "Long live freedom!"
Born on May 9, 1921, when her father was mayor of Forchtenberg am Kocher, Sophie Scholl was the fourth of five children. At age seven she entered grade-school; she learned easily and had a carefree childhood. In 1930, the family moved to Ludwigsburg and two years later to Ulm, where her father had acquired a business consulting office. In 1932, Sophie started [attending] a secondary school for girls. At the age of twelve, she joined the Hitler Youth, like most of her classmates. Her initial enthusiasm gradually gave way to criticism. She was aware of the dissenting political views of her father, of friends, and also of some teachers. The political attitude now became an essential criterion in her choice of friends. The arrest of her brothers and friends in 1937 left a strong impression on her. She had a talent for drawing and painting and for the first time came into contact with a few so-called 'degenerate' artists. An avid reader, she developed a growing interest philosophy and theology. This was her alternative world to National Socialism.
In the spring of 1940, she graduated from secondary school. The subject of her essay was 'The Hand that Moved the Cradle, Moved the World.' Being fond of children, she became a kindergarten teacher at the Fröbel Institute in Ulm-Söflingen. She had also chosen this kindergarten job hoping that it would be recognized as an alternate service to 'Reichsarbeitsdienst' (National Labor Service), a prerequisite to be admitted to the University. This was an error: from spring of 1941 on, she had to serve six months of auxiliary war service as a nursery teacher in Blumberg. The military-like regimen of the Labor Service caused her to deliberate and practice passive resistance.
In May 1942, at long last, she could enroll at the University of Munich as a student of biology and philosophy. Her brother Hans, who was studying medicine there, introduced her to his friends. Although this group of friends were eventually known for their political affairs, they were initially drawn together by a shared love of art, music, literature, philosophy and theology. Hiking in the mountains, skiing and swimming were also of importance. They often attended concerts, plays and lectures together. In Munich Sophie met artists, writers and philosophers, particularly Carl Muth and Theodor Haecker, who were important contacts for her concern with the Christian faith. Of foremost importance was the question of how the individual must act under dictatorship. During the summer vacation in 1942, Sophie Scholl had to do war service in a metallurgical plant in Ulm. At the same time, her father was serving time in prison for a critical remark about Hitler to an employee.
In the early summer of 1942, Sophie had also participated in the production of the leaflets of the White Rose and their distribution. She was arrested on February 18, 1943, while distributing the sixth leaflet at the University of Munich. On February 22, 1943, Sophie, her brother Hans and their friend Christoph Probst were condemned to death and executed by guillotine only a few hours later. Prison officials emphasized the courage with which she walked to her execution
Born on September 16, 1917, in the Russian city of Orenburg, Alexander Schmorell was baptized in the Russian Orthodox faith. Family and friends called him 'Shurik' or 'Alex'.
Alexander's mother was Russian. She died when he was a small child. In 1921, his father, a German physician, moved to Munich with his four-year old son. With the family came Alexander's Russian nanny, who had taken over the place of a mother he had hardly known. Since she spoke almost no German at all, Alexander grew up bilingual. He spoke German and was a German citizen. Yet Russian was the language of his early years, of his childhood songs and his prayers, and therefore it was his mother tongue. Russian culture was his spiritual home.
After graduation from secondary school, he was drafted by the 'Reichsarbeitsdienst' (National Labor Service), then by the army. In 1938, he marched into Austria with his cavalry unit and also took part in the occupation of Czechoslovakia. When Alexander Schmorell had to swear the obligatory oath to Adolf Hitler, he asked in vain to be discharged from the army. The drill and uniformity of military life was against the grain of his personality striving for independence and freedom. With this conflict, he found himself in open opposition to the Nazi regime. As an expression of his protest and opposition, he buried himself in music, in translating Russian poetry, and in drawing and sculpting. Only for his parents' sake did he continue his medical studies.
Alexander Schmorell met Hans Scholl in the fall of 1940 at the Second Students' Company. Starting in early 1941, Schmorell invited him to his parents' home in Munich-Harlaching. Like-minded persons came together to read and discuss theological, philosophical and literary works, "for spiritual recreation", as Alexander expressed it once. Among them was also Christoph Probst, a close friend from his time in secondary school in Munich. With the friends from the White Rose circle, Alexander was sent to the Russian front to serve as a medic. He experienced this tour of duty in the 'enemy country' as a homecoming. He made contacts with the population and talked with Russian villagers. Willi Graf wrote: "Being with Alex opened my eyes for this country. We often sat with the peasants, sang with them and listened to them playing their beautiful old songs."
In Munich, from the very beginning, Alexander Schmorell had been decisively involved in all activities of the White Rose. After the arrest of Hans and Sophie Scholl, a warrant was out for his arrest. Despite the courageous help of friends, among them Lilo Ramdohr and Nikolai Nikolaeff Hamasaspian, all his efforts to escape failed. During an air raid on February 24, 1943, he was recognized and arrested in an air raid shelter. Sentenced to death by the People's Court on April 19, 1943, Alexander Schmorell died on July 13, 1943, at Munich Stadelheim on the guillotine.
Christoph Probst was arguably the most well-loved member in the White Rose circle. A compassionate, articulate and friendly person, Christoph first met Alex Schmorell as early as 1935 in secondary school and the two remained friends as soldiers and medical students at the University of Munich. Christoph and Alex became fast friends with Hans Scholl in a clique that eventually included Willi Graf, Jurgen Wittenstein, Hans' sister Sophie and his girlfriend, Traute Lafrenz.
At the age of 21, Christoph married Herta Dohrn and they quickly had a son, Micha. Alex Schmorell became godfather to their second son, Vincent, and a third child, Katharina, would follow. It was because of his family that Hans and the others sought to protect Christoph from the activities of the White Rose, allowing him to do nothing which might incriminate him should the Gestapo investigate the group. Christoph was an invaluable member of the White Rose. Many of the ideas were run past Christoph for his opinion of their worthiness and value. He kept the more excitable Hans and Alex grounded, assuring the activities of the group would have the greatest possible impact. In early 1943 Christoph wrote the first-draft of a leaflet which he then gave to Hans for editing.
Christoph was arrested on 19 February 1943 as he was picking up his leave permit from the Army to visit his wife who had just given birth to their third child. The draft of Christoph's leaflet was found in Hans Scholl's pocket and, though Hans insisted he was given the draft by a stranger, the handwriting was matched to a letter from Christoph in the Scholl's apartment. Christoph was brought directly to Gestapo headquarters and never saw his newborn daughter.
Christoph Probst was baptized Catholic by a priest in the Stadelheim prison. In an unprecedented action by the guards, he was allowed a few moments alone with Hans and Sophie before they were all sent to the guillotine on 22 February 1943.
Born on January 2, 1918, in Kuchenheim near Euskirchen, Willi Graf grew up in Saarbrücken, where his father was the director of a whole-sale wine business in 1922. Together with an older and a younger sister, he was brought up in the Catholic faith. He entered elementary school in 1924 and in 1928 he started with the Humanistische Ludwigsgymnasium, a secondary school with emphasis on Latin and Greek, from which he graduated in 1937. his special interests included German literature and philosophy, theology, history and geography, and later also Greek and music.
At the age of eleven, Willi joined 'Neudeutschland', an association for Catholic high school students, which continued in the tradition of the 'Wandervogel' Youth Movement. After the National Socialists had banned all youth organizations, Willi at age sixteen became a member of the 'Graue Orden' in 1934. Composed of former members of the 'Bündische Jugend' in the southwestern part of Germany, it was an association where young people in search of their own life philosophy could meet. Members of the 'Graue Orden' were exploring new approches to liturgical questions, and envisioned a reform of the Catholic Church.
In this environment, Willi received decisive literary and theological impressions. He learned that being a Christian and a human being was one and the same thing, and that it challenged a Christian to think and act politically. Moreover, it became increasingly clear, that National Socialism and Christian faith could never coexist in harmony. Thus Willi Graf gradually came to the conclusion that he must resolutely reject the regime. Despite all threats and prodding, he never joined the Hitler Youth. In January 1938, because of his participation in illegal field trips, camping expeditions and meetings, he spent three weeks in custody, and, with seventeen other members of the 'Graue Orden', he was indicted by the Special Court in Mannheim for 'Bündische Umtriebe' (subversive activities of the Youth Movement). The case was dismissed under the general amnesty declared in celebration of the Austrian 'Anschluss'.
After six months of compulsory service in the National Labor Service, Willi Graf started studying medicine at the University of Bonn, where he enrolled for the winter semester of 1937/38. In January 1940, he was drafted by the 'Wehrmacht', and served as a medical orderly on the coast of the English Channel and in Southern France. In March and April of 1941, he participated in the Yugoslavian campaign and, from May 1941 to April 1942, he served on the Eastern front. He saw the misery of the civilian population afflicted by the war atrocities and even the murder of Jews.
In April 1942, he was assigned to the Second Students' Company in Munich, in order to continue his medical studies. In mid-June of that year he met Hans and Sophie Scholl, Alexander Schmorell, Christoph Probst, Jurgen Wittenstein and, at a later date, Professor Kurt Huber. He met other fellow students, who shared his dissident views, at the Bach Choir and at fencing lessons. In July 1942, he was ordered to serve for three months as an extern at the Russian front together with Hans Scholl and Alexander Schmorell, who had already written and distributed the first leaflets of the White Rose, as well as Jurgen Wittenstein.
Willi Graf, Hans Scholl, Alexander Schmorell and Jurgen Wittenstein returned to Munich for the winter semester of 1942/43. It was at that time, probably on December 2, 1942, that Willi made his final decision to participate in the White Rose resistance activities. He helped to produce and distribute the fifth and sixth leaflet. At night, together with his friends, he painted slogans calling for freedom on public buildings. His primary task during the Christmas vacation of 1942/43 and again at the end of January, 1943, however, was to carry the resistance beyond Munich. With leaflets and a duplicating machine in his luggage, he tried to win the assistance and the support of some of his old friends from the 'Bündische Jugend' in Saarbrücken, Cologne, Bonn, Freiburg and Ulm. Only four friends were willing to get involved: Heinz and Willi Bollinger, Helmut Bauer and Rudi Alt.
In the evening of February 18, 1943, the day the Scholls were arrested, Willi Graf and his sister Anneliesse, who was also studying in Munich, were arrested in their apartment. On April 19, 1943, Roland Freisler, presiding over the 'Volksgerichtshof' (People's Court), condemned Willi Graf to death. After months of Gestapo interrogations in a futile attempt to obtain the names of the co-conspirators, Willi Graf was executed by guillotine on October 12, 1943. In the farewell letter to his sister he had the following message to his friends: "They shall continue what we have begun."
Kurt Huber was born on October 24, 1893, in Chur, Switzerland, of German parents. When he was four years old, the family moved to Stuttgart. His musical talents were furthered by his parents. In 1903, Huber was admitted to the Eberhard-Ludwig-Gymnasium, a secondary school. After his father's death, the widow and her children moved to Munich. Kurt Huber studied musicology psychology and philosophy. Having obtained his doctorate in 1917, he was installed as a lecturer in 1920 and became an Associate Professor that same year. In 1929, he married Clara Schlickenrieder.
On assignment from the german Academy, in 1925 he started to collect folk songs of Old Bavaria. Trips to the Balkan, to Southern France and to Spain yielded important musical material. Kurt Huber was deeply shocked when the first news of the rampant state-sanctioned and state-organized mass atrocities in German-occupied Poland and the Soviet Union leaked out. These reports were confirmed by a student. For the national liberal oriented Huber it was difficult to accept the fact that not the Bolsheviks, but his very own compatriots, his own government, murdered systematically.
In the fall of 1942, Kurt Huber was contacted by members of the White Rose circle. The students of that group attended his lectures. He was approached by Hans Scholl and Alexander Schmorell for advice. In the Schmorell home and in the studio of the architect Eickemeyer, he met these students and other Nazi opponents. He heard about the leaflets. Stalingrad, with some 230,000 dead on the German side, provoked the following remark in a lecture: "The time of phrases is over." Huber, too, now made demands which the students had already expressed in their third leaflet: "Not the military victory over Bolshevism must be the first concern of every German, but the defeat of National Socialism." He then himself wrote the sixth and last leaflet: 'Kommilitoninnen! Kommilitonen!' (Fellow students!)
On February 27, 1943, Kurt Huber was arrested. On April 19, 1943, he was one of the major defendants at the second trial of the People's Court against the White Rose. Roland Freisler, presiding, launched the most vicious attack against Huber during the show-trial. He denied that Huber had had any honorable motivation and repeatedly humiliated him. Survivors of this travesty of justice remember Huber's last moving words, an affirmation of right, decency and humaneness. This statement gave the young defendants pride and strength. After his arrest, the University stripped him of his doctorate and his professorship. Until his execution, Huber continued to work on his book on the philosopher and mathematician, Gottfried Leibniz (1646-1716). On July 13, 1943, Kurt Huber and Alexander Schmorell were executed by guillotine at the prison in Munich Stadelheim. Clara Huber and her two children were left destitute. Collections for the tormented family led to additional interrogations and to the trial of Hans Leipelt and his friends.
Well I’m really busy so see you guys later |
