The White Rose – History of Sorts

Hans Scholl—German Victim

Most people will have heard of Sophie Scholl, but perhaps not so much about her brother Hans. Both Hans and Sophie were members of the resistance group, The White Rose.

The reason I refer to Hans Scholl as a victim (in the title) rather than a resistance fighter is as follows:
Except for the Jews, Roma, LGBT, and disabled, it is sometimes hard to define what a Holocaust victim is. Either my grandfather was executed or driven to suicide by Nazis, yet, I have not considered him a Holocaust victim. Some prisoners of war are defined as Holocaust victims, and other prisoners of war are not. The same goes for resistance fighters—not all of them are considered Holocaust victims. For example, those involved in the 20th July plot are not considered Holocaust victims.

The point I am making is it is hard to define who is a victim—aside from the group mentioned earlier—and it appears to be very easy for some people to be definite about the perpetrators. This is a trend that worries me. Many factions say that all and only Germans were perpetrators. I have heard people say no one should visit Germany and everyone should boycott German products.

If you say all perpetrators were Germans, you ignore facts proving many were also victims. You also excuse all other perpetrators from Poland, Lithuania, Ukraine, Russia, the Netherlands, Belgium, France, Italy, Hungary, Romania, The Balkans, and even the United Kingdom, the United States, and other known nations.

You, in particular, ignore victims like Hans Scholl.

Hans Scholl was born on the 22nd of September 1918. He grew up in a liberal Protestant family with four brothers and sisters. He was strongly influenced by the Bündische Jugend, the youth movement. From 1933 on, Hans Scholl was active in the Hitler Youth, climbing to the rank of Fähnleinführer. However, he soon turned his back on National Socialism. He organized a group in Ulm in early 1936 based on the lifestyle and goals of the banned German Youth Group for Boys of November 1, 1929.

The Gestapo imprisoned him for two weeks at the end of 1937. After his labour and military service, Hans Scholl studied medicine in Munich during the 1939 summer semester. In May 1940, he was deployed as a medical orderly on the French front. Hans Scholl was able to continue his degree in April 1941 in the 2nd Student Company of the Army Medical Squadron in Munich, where he met Alexander Schmorell in June 1941. From the fall of 1941, Hans Scholl was in close contact with the Catholic journalist Carl Muth. In June and July 1942, Hans Scholl and Alexander Schmorell distributed the first four White Rose leaflets. With Schmorell and Willi Graf, Hans Scholl was sent to the Soviet Union from the end of July to the end of October 1942 on a front internship. After their return to the University of Munich, he continued his resistance activities. The group’s fifth leaflet was duplicated and distributed by Hans Scholl, his sister Sophie, Alexander Schmorell, and Willi Graf. In February 1943, Scholl and Alexander Schmorell painted slogans such as “Freedom” and “Down with Hitler” on Munich walls, with the support of Willi Graf. Hans and Sophie Scholl placed the sixth and final White Rose leaflet around the Munich University building on the 18th of February 1943, throwing some down into the atrium. They were arrested at the university and sentenced to death four days later. They were executed at the Munich-Stadelheim Prison that same day.

They were all beheaded by guillotine only a few hours after being found guilty. A prison guard later reported: “They bore themselves with marvellous bravery. The whole prison was impressed by them. That is why we risked bringing the three of them together once more—at the last moment before the execution. If our actions had become known, the consequences for us would have been serious. We wanted to let them have a cigarette together before the end. It was just a few minutes that they had, but I believe that it meant a great deal to them.” It was reported that Hans Scholl’s last words were, “Long live freedom!”

The activities of The White Rose resistance consisted of distributing anti-Nazi regime leaflets and cladding anti-Nazi slogans on public buildings.

Holocaust historian Jud Newborn wrote:
“You cannot really measure the effect of this kind of resistance in whether or not X number of bridges were blown up or a regime fell… The White Rose really has a more symbolic value, but that’s a very important value.”

Sources

https://spartacus-educational.com/GERschollH.htm

https://www.gdw-berlin.de/en/recess/biographies/index_of_persons/biographie/view-bio/hans-scholl/?no_cache=1

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Traute Lafrenz Page—Forgotten Hero

There is an Iron Maiden song that has the line, “Only the good die young, all the evil seem to live forever.” There was a time when I thought this to be true, but luckily this is not the case. Sometimes the good ones live a long time.

Traute Lafrenz Page died ten days ago at age 103. She was a German resistance fighter and a White Rose member of the White Rose during World War II. Many people will have heard the names of Sophie and Hans Scholl but may not be familiar with Traute Lafrenz (now Page). She was in her early 20s when she joined the White Rose and ultimately to survive the war, even though many White Rose members were executed.

The White Rose never numbered more than a few dozen persons representing one of the first organized protests calling attention to the Holocaust, which eventually claimed the lives of six million Jews, and additionally, Roma, disabled people and others. “We will not be silent,” said one of the leaflets, and “We are your bad conscience. The White Rose will not leave you in peace!”

White Rose members from left to right: Hans Scholl, Alexander Schmorell (hidden behind Hans), Sophie Scholl, and Christoph Probst

Lafrenz was born on 3 May 1919 in Hamburg to Carl and Hermine Lafrenz, a civil servant and a homemaker; she was the youngest of three sisters. Together with Heinz Kucharski, Lafrenz studied under Erna Stahl at the Lichtwarkschule, a liberal arts school in Hamburg. When coeducation was abolished in 1937, Lafrenz moved to a convent school, from which she and classmate Margaretha Rothe graduated in 1938. Together with Rothe, Lafrenz began to study medicine at the University of Hamburg in the summer semester of 1939. After the semester she worked in Pomerania, where she met Alexander Schmorell who had begun studying in the summer of 1939 at the Hamburg University Medical School but continued his studies from 1939 to 1940 in Munich.

In May 1941, she went to Munich, where she soon met Hans Scholl and Christoph Probst. She took part in many of the White Rose group’s conversations and discussions, including with Kurt Huber.

The White Rose never numbered more than a few dozen persons and represented one of the first organized protests calling attention to the Holocaust, which eventually claimed the lives of six million Jews in addition to Roma, disabled people and others. “We will not be silent,” said one of the leaflets. “We are your bad conscience. The White Rose will not leave you in peace!”

In November 1942, Traute Lafrenz brought the third White Rose leaflet to Hamburg. That Christmas, she tried to get hold of a duplicating machine in Vienna. Along with Sophie Scholl, Traute Lafrenz obtained paper and envelopes for dispatching more leaflets in January 1943. She was first interrogated by the Gestapo on 5 March 1943, and then arrested a few days later on 15 March.

After her release, the Gestapo arrested her again at the end of March 1944 and put her into Fuhlsbüttel Gestapo prison in Hamburg with other female prisoners from the Hamburg White Rose group. Traute Lafrenz was then transferred via prisons in Cottbus and Leipzig to Bayreuth. On 15 April 1945 she was liberated by American troops.

After Germany’s defeat, Page emigrated to the United States. There, she met her husband and had four children, and largely stayed quiet about her activities during World War II. According to The New York Times, her children didn’t learn about what she’d done during the conflict until 1970.

Even then, Page largely stayed out of the public eye. It wasn’t until 2019, on her 100th birthday, that she was awarded Germany’s Order of Merit for rebelling “against the dictatorship and the genocide of the Jews.”

“Traute Lafrenz was not at the centre of the White Rose,” Peter Normann Waage, a Norwegian author and journalist who interviewed Page, said according to The New York Times. “She did not physically write any of the leaflets—but she did just about everything else.”

Waage added, “She helped lay the foundation for the revitalization of cultural heritage as a weapon against brutality; she helped make the distribution of the leaflets as practical as possible and helped to spread them.”

She emigrated to San Francisco and worked as a medical resident at St. Joseph’s hospital. In 1948, she married fellow resident physician Vernon Page of Texas. Together they formed a medical practice in tiny Hayfork, California. Vernon Page received further training in ophthalmology, and the growing family settled in Evanston, Illinois. A strong conviction in the reality of the spiritual world inspired Traute’s adult life. She joined the Anthroposophical Society and was an early practitioner of the anthroposophical-inspired holistic medical approach. Like many women in the post-WWII years, Traute was at home with her young family. She liked to say “in those days you met PhDs at the park.” In the 1960s, Traute organized Waldorf summer school programs in Evanston. Waldorf schools work to awaken and enliven recognition of the human spirit through art, poetry, and appreciation of great human advances. Her son, Michael and granddaughter, Emily are Waldorf teachers. In later years, Traute became director of the Esperanza school in Chicago for developmentally delayed children, with a focus on these same principles. Traute always travelled extensively with her family including trips to Italy, Austria, France, Spain, Norway, Ireland, Scotland, Egypt, Mexico, and South America into her 80s and 90s. In 1993, Traute and Vernon moved to Charleston, SC.

On 6 March 2023, Lafrenz died on Yonges Island, South Carolina, at age 103, as the last living member of the White Rose group.

sources

https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/charleston/name/traute-page-obituary?id=49800057

https://www.gdw-berlin.de/en/recess/biographies/index_of_persons/biographie/view-bio/traute-lafrenz/?no_cache=1

https://www.washingtonpost.com/obituaries/2023/03/11/lafrenz-white-rose-resistance-dies/

https://allthatsinteresting.com/traute-lafrenz-page

The execution of Christoph Probst and Hans and Sophie Scholl.

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Christoph Probst, Hans and Sophie Scholl were members of the German resistance movement “White Rose”.The White Rose (German: die Weiße Rose) was a non-violent, intellectual resistance group in Nazi Germany led by a group of students and a professor at the University of Munich. The group conducted an anonymous leaflet and graffiti campaign which called for active opposition against the Nazi regime. Their activities started in Munich on June 27th, 1942, and ended with the arrest of the core group by the Gestapo on February 18th, 1943.They, as well as other members and supporters of the group who carried on distributing the pamphlets, faced unjust trials by the Nazi People’s Court (Volksgerichtshof), and many were sentenced to death or imprisonment.

The group wrote, printed and initially distributed their pamphlets in the greater Munich region.

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Later on, secret carriers brought copies to other cities, mostly in the southern parts of Germany. In total, the White Rose authored six leaflets, which were multiplied and spread, in a total of about 15,000 copies. They branded the Nazi regime’s crimes and oppression, and called for resistance. In their second leaflet, they openly denounced the persecution and mass murder of the Jews. By the time of their arrest, members of the White Rose were just about to establish contacts with other German resistance groups like the Kreisau Circle or the Schulze-Boysen/Harnack group of the Red Orchestra.

On 18 February 1943, the Scholls brought a suitcase full of leaflets to the university main building. They hurriedly dropped stacks of copies in the empty corridors for students to find when they left the lecture rooms. Leaving before the lectures had ended, the Scholls noticed that there were some left-over copies in the suitcase and decided to distribute them. Sophie flung the last remaining leaflets from the top floor down into the atrium. This spontaneous action was observed by the university maintenance man, Jakob Schmied.

Hans and Sophie Scholl were taken into Gestapo custody. A draft of a seventh pamphlet, written by Christoph Probst, was found in the possession of Hans Scholl at the time of his arrest by the Gestapo. While Sophie Scholl got rid of incriminating evidence before being taken into custody, Hans did try to destroy the draft of the last leaflet by tearing it apart and trying to swallow it down. However, the Gestapo recovered enough to match the handwriting with other writings from Probst, which they found when they searched Hans’s apartment. The main Gestapo interrogator was Robert Mohr, who initially thought Sophie was innocent.

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However, after Hans had confessed, Sophie assumed full responsibility in an attempt to protect other members of the White Rose.

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The Scholls and Probst were to stand trial before the Volksgerichtshof— the Nazi “People’s Court” infamous for its unfair political trials, which more often than not ended with a death sentence — on 22 February 1943. They were found guilty of treason. Roland Freisler, head judge of the court, sentenced them to death.

Roland Freisler

The three were executed the same day by guillotine at Stadelheim Prison.

All three were noted for the courage with which they faced their deaths, particularly Sophie, who remained firm despite intense interrogation, and intimidations by Freisler during the trial. She replied: “You know as well as we do that the war is lost. Why are you so cowardly that you won’t admit it?” Immediately before Hans was executed, he cried out “Es lebe die Freiheit! – Long live freedom!”, as the blade fell.