What is this thing you call White Rose?

The usual story

You’ve likely heard the usual story about Hans and Sophie Scholl, fearless leaders of a small but determined group of students who resisted Nazism by publishing leaflets. If you’ve seen any of the Sophie Scholl movies, you can envision these six or seven young people, fearlessly working late into the night, serious, solemn, aware of their responsibility to save their Vaterland.

When Hans and Sophie ‘accidentally’ launched leaflets over the balustrade on the main campus of Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität in Munich, their noble courage was discovered by a janitor who managed to corner them. Hans tried to swallow “Leaflet #7” penned by Christoph Probst, but the Gestapo scooped up the bits and later arrested Christoph.

Hans, Sophie, and Christl stood trial on February 22, 1943, executed by guillotine the same day, sharing a smoke before facing the executioner. You may also know that Willi Graf, Alexander Schmorell, and Professor Kurt Huber were also arrested and beheaded, but you’re not quite sure what role (if any) they played in White Rose resistance.

Spotlight stays squarely on Hans and Sophie Scholl, haloes intact, standing high on their pedestals, an example for us to follow in our own troubled days.

Am I right? Is this the White Rose story you have heard?

If so, you know the legend, the fairy tale, not the real story. A legend created by three people—Inge Scholl, Franz Josef Müller, and Jürgen Wittenstein, all three ardent Nazis from 1933-1945. All three convinced that Hitler was Germany’s Messiah.

The real story is messy, complicated, confusing, enthralling, funny, human, annoying, frustrating, loving, brutal, full of broken people who needed one another, who had been flailing as they attempted to navigate life in the Third Reich. As they found their way to one another, they also found healing, they found joy, they found power, but that did not undo their humanity.

They fought, they lied to one another, they went skiing in Lenggries, they sought solitude under the stars, they ate at cheap restaurants where dissidents were welcome, they danced, they sang, they went days on little sleep, they worried, they stressed, they argued. They attended comedy clubs, concerts, plays. They overreached, they underestimated their strength, they miscalculated others’ politics.

This “they” I speak of? Not six or seven students. The Gestapo said there were 180 suspects! One hundred and eighty!

We have identified ninety and write about them in our histories, looking for the other ninety who deserve acclaim and recognition as well.

Hans and Sophie Scholl? Not the leaders! That’s not my opinion. That is straight from Elisabeth Hartnagel nee Scholl, who spent a great deal of time with her siblings in Munich in 1943. She said they were equals among equals.

Elisabeth and Fritz Hartnagel tried to force Inge to change her legend. But Inge refused, despite Elisabeth’s insistence, “I was there and you were not.”

Sadly, Inge’s well-funded fairy tale has been difficult to overcome.

There were two trials in addition to the one on February 22, 1943. Fourteen stood before Roland Freisler on April 19, 1943. Four more faced judgment on July 13, 1943.

Another trial took place about a year later, for those in LMU’s chemistry department who carried on White Rose work after their deaths.

And the group in Hamburg—predecessors to White Rose, friends of Traute Lafrenz—was arrested in 1944, with trials ranging right up to war’s end. Traute barely escaped with her life.

Harald Dohrn of White Rose resistance (and Christl’s father-in-law) later participated in Freiheitsaktion Bayern and was shot in the back three days before the war ended.

Eugen Grimminger’s Jewish wife Jenny was murdered at Auschwitz after his arrest and conviction.

The full story includes (in strictly alphabetical order):

Hedwig Aicher, Otl Aicher, Rudi Alt, Mathilde Baez, Oscar Baez, Helmut Bauer, Lilo Berndl, Karl Bisa, Heinrich Bollinger, Willi Bollinger, Harald Dohrn, Manfred Eickemeyer, Gerhard Feuerle, Hubert Furtwängler, Clara Geyer, Wilhelm Geyer, Josef Gieles, Anna Graf, Anneliese Graf, Gerhard Graf, Willi Graf, Eugen Grimminger, Jenny Grimminger, Adalbert Grundel, Heinrich Guter, Wilhelm Habermann, Theodor Haecker, Otmar Hammerstein, Falk Harnack, Hellmut Hartert, Fritz Hartnagel, Ernst Hirzel, Hans Hirzel, Konrad Hirzel, Margarete Hirzel, Peter Hirzel, Roland Hirzel, Susanne Hirzel, Ursula Hirzel, Lilli Holl, Klara Huber, Kurt Huber, Hein Jacobs, Walter Kastner, Alois Kirn, Karin Kleeblatt, Hermann Krings, Traute Lafrenz, Hans Leipelt, Fritz Leist, Hans Leygraf, Adolf Lossen, Martin Luible, Mathilde Luible, Emil Martin, Alois Mauer, Franz Josef Müller, Rose Nägele, Karl Pötzl, Angelika Probst, Christoph Probst, Herta Probst, Ernst Reden, Willi Reiter, Regine Renner, Karl Rieber, Erika Rieck, Josef Rieck, August Sahm, Gisela Schertling, Günther Schmich, Alexander Schmorell, Elisabeth Scholl, Hans Scholl, Inge Scholl, Magdalena Scholl, Robert Scholl, Sophie Scholl, Thilde Scholl, Werner Scholl, Katharina Schüddekopf, Josef Söhngen, and Max Stefl.

Any name on this list that you do not know is a life that should be remembered, but that has been marginalized by White Rose mythology.

A longer version of the above White Rose story is available here.

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The above information is fully footnoted in our White Rose histories. Please purchase them for access to that material! To order digital version of White Rose History, Volume I: Coming Together (January 1933-April 30, 1942), click here. To order digital version of White Rose History, Volume II, click here. WRH1 is © 2002, 2003, 2007 by Denise Elaine Heap. WRH2 is © 2002, 2007 by Denise Elaine Heap.

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